WHEN I am writing, speaking or consulting on financial planning, the aspect of freedom I focus on most is financial freedom.
But I won’t be doing so today.
Instead, I wish to share with you a life-changing truth that famed psychologist Viktor Frankl (who survived the horrors of Nazi incarceration) recognised and which consultant-author Stephen R. Covey later taught to millions of adults.
In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Covey wrote:
“In the midst of the most degrading circumstances imaginable, Frankl used the human endowment of self-awareness to discover a fundamental principle about the nature of man.”
Frankl’s profound breakthrough was his realisation that we do NOT need to be chained to history by our ossified, petrified habits. We have human endowments that allow us to break from the patterns of our past and instead embrace the idea and promise of a brighter, better future.
Covey lists four of these endowments, which I believe are divine gifts to the human race from our Creator because they make us uniquely human: self-awareness, imagination, conscience and independent will.
To highlight the power of these endowments and the dangers of ignoring them, let’s indulge in a thought experiment that encompasses your concerns and feelings.
What worries you?
Most people I meet tell me they are unhappy about the condition of our country and the health of our national finances.
Yet when I probe further, I find most of them are more depressed about the state of their own finances.
However, unhappiness and depression don’t solve problems.
What does solve problems is our proactive choice to exercise our self-awareness, imagination, conscience and independent will to grab the reins of our future by learning new skills, lessons and principles.
For instance, in financial planning, it has been proven repeatedly that a willingness to learn from those more successful than we are is profitable.
And this is especially true if we select for our role models men and women of high character who have refused to skate down the slippery path of compromise and corruption but instead grew wealthy — much more slowly — through ethical, legal and righteous means.
In my library is a frayed copy of George S. Clason’s book The Richest Man in Babylon.
Within it are passages I have returned to countless times in my rereading of Clason’s fictional series of loosely linked Babylonian parables that teach abiding money lessons.
One such passage has the lead character, Arkad, respond to queries by friends from his impoverished youth who can’t understand why they stayed poor while Arkad grew wealthier with each passing decade.
This is Arkad’s blunt response:
“If you have not acquired more than a bare existence in the years since we were youths, it is because you either have failed to learn the laws that govern the building of wealth, or else you do not observe them.”
Now let us be honest; most of us know far more sound money principles than we put into practice.
The size of our knowledge-implementation gap in personal finance is proportional to the difference between our potential wealth and our actual wealth today.
So here is a slice of unpadded advice that Arkad received from a wealthy moneylender named Algamish when Arkad was himself a young man.
This advice launched him on his journey to become the richest man in Clason’s rendition of ancient Babylon.
In response to his friends’ requests for wealth-building knowledge, Arkad says:
“A part of all you earn is yours to keep.”
Or as we financial planners advise nowadays: “Pay yourself first!”
All that boils down to is for us to save our money.
Therefore, if you are not yet a disciplined saver, persevere to make that one golden discipline the cornerstone of your economic life.
If you do, you’ll soon view your growing savings as burgeoning seeds from which your ensuing investments may grow to be a thick forest of mighty oaks.
Rajen Devadason is a Securities Commission-licensed financial planner, professional speaker and author. Read his free articles at www.FreeCoolArticles.com. He may be connected with on LinkedIn at https: //www.linkedin.com/in/rajendevadason