Parents to Fill in the Blanks of Educations

When thinking of the educational system the general consensus is that it doesn't do enough to prepare children to be successful members of society. While I can certainly agree with this, we have to see the educational system as a stepping stone rather than an answer to education meaning that it's a start but not a complete package making the remainder, or what's missing of education, the responsibility of the parent.

Where the educational system fails most, however, is that it makes education a chore rather than something fun to do. Children aren't encouraged to learn on their own account but rather taught to listen and take in whatever is thrown at them making them passive learners rather than active ones.

Self-Improvement is, perhaps, the one skill that parents should instill upon the child. It's the responsibility of the parent to teach the child that the educational system offers basic knowledge, and college/university offers specialized knowledge, but in order to grow as a person one must take ownership of their own education beyond what is readily available via these pre-defined systems.

The difficulty here is, of course, that most parents don't consider self-improvement important themselves as they didn't learn about its importance when they went to school or from their own parents. 

There's a cycle here that must be broken which, hopefully, YOU will help break.

We're Overdue for a Recession

Historically, we've seen market correction every 10 years (2008, 2000, 1989...) We don't need to be looking at any graphs to know that we're overdue for a recession. Add to this the fact that we're in a pandemic mixed with a war in Ukraine and you have the recipe for an economical disaster.

Every time we're heading towards a recession, we're told that it's best to put money in such things as gold, specific stocks, land... things that wouldn't loose value as much as money might. It certainly sound like a good strategy the issue with that is by the time we learn about this it's already too late. Have you look at the price of gold recently? You need buy these things when the cost is low to sell when its high. If you were to buy gold now, hold on to it during the recession, only to sell it afterwards you would be buying it when the value is at its highest only to sell it when the value is going back down. 

The common folk can't win with these strategies because we're not paying attention to these things as much as experts are.

What can be done?

We will see another recession, and another one after that, as it's just how our imperfect economy works. The first thing that we need to do is insure that our personal finances are in order. Get rid of debt, have a few months worth of savings and be prepare to downsize if necessary.

There's some good that comes out of recession as it's often a perfect opportunity to buy stocks (as most people are trying to get rid of them out of fear) therefor be on the lookout for these opportunities. These market corrections offers buying opportunities that aren't accessible at any other time.

Humanity will get through this recession as its done so many times before. My hope is that every time we go through this that we learn about our mistakes and move on in a better direction afterwards.

A Hundred Years from Now...

"A hundred years from now..." is a philosophy I use to tell myself that the things I have no control over today doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. A hundred from now, all the things I consider important won't be anymore as I won't be here to make them so. Nobody will remember the mistakes that I made in a hundred years as people will either have forgotten about them or not be around to remember it.

While this provides me with some comfort in the immediate moment, I do feel some sense of anxiety when thinking about how the world will actually be a hundred years from now as climate change is sure to bring with it a great deal of change in how we do things. Are we still going to be able to live on this planet? Some scientist believe that many parts of the world will become unhabitable for humans which is sure to spark some wars as nations are forced to move to new areas.

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

-Albert Einstein

Einstein's quote above is a reference to the Nuclear Bomb, even if we never see a nuclear war we could argue that we're heading towards wars that will be fought with sticks and stones due to areas of the planet becoming inhabitable as a result of climate change rather than nuclear weapons.

Individual liberties, brought forth by the constitution and a democratic form of government, has propelled humanity in such ways that wouldn't of been possible under any other forms of government. However, it seems that giving people the ability to seek their own fortune/happiness came at the cost of our environment as many have made their fortune by either directly, or indirectly, destroying it and we're all going to have to pay for it.

A hundred years from now nothing I care about will matter as I won't be here. How different will the planet be in a hundred years?

How to Find Your Purpose

"Without a strong sense of values and of direction, the human spirit tends to weaken or deteriorate." 

-Harold H. Titus & Marilyn S. Smith

If you feel that you're alive for a reason but are frustrated that you don't know what that reason is then consider the following to help you find it. 

• Set/Accomplish small Goals: A purpose is a life goal that works the same way as smaller goals. Set yourself some small goals to practice for when you find what drives you - your life mission.
• Dedicate time to it: Similar to getting fit, finding your purpose requires time dedicated for it. You won't find your purpose by re-watching Friends.
• Stay Away from Distraction: Whether it be social media, streaming, gaming... all these things are distracting you from finding out what your purpose is.
• Try new things: If you haven't found your purpose doing what you're doing then try something new.
• Be Curious: Ask questions to those you feel have found their purpose.
• Learn new things: Learn about things that are outside of your area of expertise.
• Travel to new Places: A friend of mine found that her purpose was travelling by... well... travelling. Another friend of mine found that he wanted to be a teacher by going to another Country and teaching English.
• Make new friends: Social interactions can be a good way to find your purpose.
• Be Patient: Your purpose may come to you later in life.

Many people go through life without finding their purpose but that doesn't mean they haven't lived fulfilling lives. One thing is for sure, however, is that you won't find your purpose unless you put forth some effort to find it. These things don't tend to come up by staying in bed.

Forget About It!

I've had a recent interaction with someone who proceeded to tell me that I had offended her in similar ways 2-3 times in the past few weeks perhaps thinking that the increasing amount of offenses signaled a pattern that I had to fix with increased urgency. While you can be upset with someone, you can't carry around a list to throw at their faces every time an offense is committed. 

This is an issue we often see with longer term relationships which causes a lot of the same fights. It's perfectly normal to be upset with somebody but most of these offences don't need to be saved as ammunition for future fights

The longer you are with somebody the higher the chances that you'll find things to get upset with them. 

Don't make a list, forgive and forget.

On the opposite side of the coin, it's important for the person on the receiving end of these comments to sometime work on themselves in order to become a better person. If your spouse come to you to tell you that it's the third time you left the toilet seat up this month then you need to consider the frustration and make the necessary change. If you care about your spouse, you want to learn what makes them tick and grow to be a better version of yourself for that person.