Invest In Yourself This Summer

Hello MSJ lover, how have you been coping with the fuss of summer vibes?

Well for me, I woke up feeling like Warren Edward Buffett,

in Makurdi, colloquially known as Sin City; The capital of Benue State.

Warren Buffett is an American investment magnate, a role model for many business enthusiasts and philanthropists worth $84 billion as of June 3rd, 2018. He is popularly referred to as the Oracle Of Omaha.

Anyways, i got out of bed, had some breakfast then set out to find ways in which i could improve myself and invest into my content curating skills. There wasn’t so much for me to work with in Benue; my state of origin notoriously known as the food basket of the Nation ( Nigeria ). I guess this explains my love for food plus the Yoruba touch ( Yoruba is one out of three major languages spoken in Nigeria), I got while growing up in Lagos.

Despite being in such a fertile land with its hospitable people, limitations with creating content occured due to the insecurities in the rural areas which are rich in heritage but a no-go area for now especially for someone who isn’t familiar with the terrain to be exploring and taking pictures with limited resources. But i sought to make the most of what i could get in town.

Quickie: Besides the reputation of being known as the “Food Basket Of The Nation” with pounded yam and bush meat being the most commonly eaten meal here, they are also known for great fresh palm wine production and large consumption of Beer.

Summer time is usually the best time for most folks to have their dream vacation because the weather is friendly and the schools are closed, but many like myself, cannot afford such luxurious trips overseas at this level without prior or intense planning ahead. Stripes of living on a budget. So i make it a habit to visit my favourite states within the country during such times. The consolation is that, this will not be an issue for long especially when the investments starts yielding the anticipated dividend.

What Is An Investment?

Now, before you run off on me, thinking this is one of those blogs whereby your financial problems are highlighted with absolute long term erratic plans accompanied by no possible or immediate short term goal on how to improve your finances. Let me start by saying this is not one of those blogs. However, I will be spilling my beans on how you can improve your general lifestyle including your finances with the phrase “Self Love.”

But first I’d like for us to understand the word investment in economics/finances to better apply the usage to Investment In Self Love.

Investment.

Investment is a form of action you take by allocating Time, Money, or any other Valuable Resource into something in expectation of some sort of benefits in the future.

Quickie: Any other valuable resource in this context refers to energy, feelings and emotions in relation to personal growth.

In Economics, investment is the purchase of goods that are not of immediate use but can be used in the future to create wealth. While in Finance, it is a monetary asset purchased with the idea that the asset will provide income in the future, mostly by selling it at a higher price for profit.

In summary Investment is a mechanism for generating future returns. Such investment could be bonds,stocks or real estate.

For example, imagine if my people were to invest into the stock market of Nigerian Brewery (NB),

it means anytime they drank or bought any of the brands under the NB they would be making themselves rich in the future.

Now that we know what investment is and can anticipate the application in today’s post in relation to self love, let us now learn about self love and see how we can pack this all together in a little box wrapped with a nice bow.

The Gift Of Self Love.

Self Love is a noun that regards to one’s wellbeing and happiness. Self love is a nebulous topic that holds different but relating context in philosophy, Buddha, and Psychology; basically correlating One’s mental health.

Quickie: Mental Health is the maintenance of the hygiene of one’s mind.

According to wiki, self love used to be perceived in the earlier century as a negative trait until the likes of William James and Erich Fromm shed more light on the positive effect of self love that evaluates the self-esteem and self-worth of one’s mental awareness.

Unfortunately, there’s an increasing number of suicide cases due to depraved mental health hence why as a lifestyle blogger i strive to encourage and highlight ways my readers can sustain their Joie de vivre whilst maintaining a healthy mind.

I love wikipedia and reference it alot due to the amount of information it holds. I have always had a thing with ensyclopedia because I enjoy reading for information more than just reading for fun, hence my slow novel addiction. I believe myself to have an over active imagination which makes me extremely picky with the books i read; mostly mystery and crime novels are my favourite.

Ok let’s focus, Thanks to Erich Fromm and William Sweeter, Self Love was no longer perceived as being conceited or egocentric, rather it is one’s ability for merely caring about oneself and taking responsibility for oneself.

Now let’s ask ourselves…

How Can I Take Responsibility And Take Care Of Myself?

Note that as we ask ourselves this question, our subconscious mind begins to reflect deeply on the realistic and honest expression of our strength and weaknesses, this is triggered by our will to improve and this can be done by investing in personal, Spiritual, and professional growth.

Investing In Personal Growth

It is almost impossible to invest in anything else without first investing in oneself. The success of each of our spiritual and professional growths improves our personal growth on so many levels. In other words, personal investment is the foundation for everything else.

In Finance, before one chooses to invest in a business, one must first research and understand that business before allocating resources into that business.

Same way it applies to us getting to know ourselves, our personalities, passions, qualities, strengths, weaknesses, and what drives us before we can know how to feed them. Learning daily, ways we can improve in those areas where we are lagging or lacking.

After we’ve discovered what and where our interests lies in, it becomes easier knowing what to invest in and how we do it…

Spiritual Investment

What comes to your mind when you hear the word; Spiritual?

As humans we were created in the image of our creator with only two goals set for us;

• To Worship Our Maker,
• To Reproduce & Fill The Earth

Leaving us relative freedom to create the life we desire in a beautiful paradise until our first parents erred and broke the only “Don’t” they were warned against leading to the loss of paradise and causing mankind with all its generations falling into sin & hardship, consequently death.

Fortunately, we were blessed with a second chance by death of God’s only begotten son who paid the ultimate price, so that for those who believe in his shed blood and walk in his light will be saved with the prospect of everlasting life in God’s kingdom.

Now the spiritual goal here is Everlasting Life which we can only achieve by investing into our spirituality. The Holy Scriptures, The Bible is the best adviser in increasing spiritual values and also helping us in balancing the personal & professional goals we set, in compassion and regard for ourselves and others; borne out of love, respect, beauty, and inspiration.

Professional Investment

Discovering ourselves, passions and interests leads to setting our professional goals which furthermore harnesses our ability to personify our creativity, skills, knowledge into labor so as to produce economic/financial value.

Although personal and professional investment are highly linked, we improve professionally when we have continuous self growth and improve our social skills, taking classes alongside using tools that help us express the best version of ourselves.

What To Remember

Below are the key ways of investing in self Love that covers all the three dimensions discussed;

• Be more involved with self reflection
• Be kind to yourself
• Show compassion in judging yourself
• Forgive yourself
• Be committed in exploring, and loving yourself wholeheartedly
• Take Self care seriously
• Define your own style and dress appropriately
• Be patient
• Talk less and listen more
• Learn and apply the fruitage of the spirit
• Create healthy boundaries
• Leave no room for comparing yourself with others
• Invest in your mental and physical health by doing things you truly love, mainly; activities that improve you in the best way.
• Have fun, and be happy more than worrying about looking happy.
• Cultivate persistence and be consistent with chasing your goals.
• Be strong and vigorous
• Acquire skills that will be of greater value in the future of your success

Above all, do things that elevates other people around you.

When we love ourselves enough to invest in all these, just to improve our value and self worth, only then can we be of service to humanity and be able to give back to society; After all, one can only truly love another when they love themselves first.

At the end of the day i had a beautiful shoot at the fruit market, promoted a lager distributor vendor

and had dinner with my friend to crown my entire day. Then went back to my accommodation, took a bath and watched the movie Sparkle for the umpteenth time… It is the last movie Whitney Houston produced and starred in before her death.

Once again, thank you for reading through to the end. I hope i was able to share points that can help you adjust or reinforce certain areas of your life accordingly…until another time;

Slainte…🍻

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