Saturday, March 1, 2014

Experience Bank: Live Now, Secure Your Future

Live your life. Deposit the experiences to your Bank. Withdraw them any time you need to draw the lessons or feelings that can fuel your passion. Gain interest by making good use of your experiences.




Live!
Invest now.
Secure the future—not only yours, but even your descendants’.

Imagine yourself in a deathbed. Cruel idea? Not really. It might even save you from thousands of regrets. If you would look back on how you lived your life, would you smile or frown?

Now snap back to reality.

Establish your own bank! Your own bank of experiences, where you deposit your lessons learned, failures, your dreams, your successes, what have you.
 
In your own Experience Bank, be your own CEO. Be your own teller; your own ATM; and even your own security guard.

Start monitoring your activities, your life transactions. In this way you’ll be in auto-active mode. Because you don’t want to be zero or in the red, yourself will naturally make activities that will propel you to progress instead of getting stuck at where you are now.

Have you tried playing a game on your phone or on the internet and you just suddenly get hooked on it because you want to beat the best score? Same thing could work if you will consciously monitor your life transactions.

Closing your eyes and recall the week that was. Would you want to see a dark blank image or hear a story on repeat each week? Of course not!

Start by refreshing your heart and mind buttons. Just like in real banks, you also have to "know your customer" or the KYC policy. Ask yourself what you want to achieve in life (finish this course, invest in that business, travel to this continent, earn that much…name it!). Then plot your personalized map or timetable on how and when you will get them. Be realistic in setting your goals and timelines, and be deliberate with your actions—short-term, medium-term, and long-term action plans.

Go out of your nook! See the world. Learn from people from various walks of life. Visit places. Have a taste of different cultures and subcultures.

Your experiences and your observations will inspire you in ways you do not expect and many useful ideas will just pop out of nowhere. If you will constantly move and progress, all these fruitful activities—simple and complex alike—will snowball and incur interest that will make you a million-dollar worth person without spending even a tenth of it.

If you have no money to finance any activity, it’s okay! If you don't have a college degree, it’s alright! In your own Experience Bank, your own CEO doesn’t care. You can still become a client, an investor.

Even if you don’t have money or don’t have a diploma, the world is so big and limitless, it can offer you wide array of opportunities to fulfill your goal. You just have to be determined to achieve your goal and be purposeful with your actions. Look around you, do you know Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Henry Sy, Lucio Tan, or any drop out or rags-to-riches in your place? Learn from them.

You see, your imaginations, your experiences, and your generosity can grow your worth. By doing something, you only gain, you never lose any.

I cannot tell how you must live your life. You are your own boss, your own captain. You are your own CEO remember? But what I can tell you with certainty and confidence is, you can be victorious! You can be worth more than a million!

Just have a goal. Own it. Do something about it constantly.

Your experiences are priceless and cannot be stolen from you. They can even gain interest by putting them to good use and sharing them with your kids, who can learn from them, or even try or improve them, and pass them on to their kids to further improve them.

Live your life. Deposit your experiences to your Bank. Withdraw them any time you need to draw the lessons or the feelings you had that can fuel your passion. Gain interest by making good use of your experiences.

If you are the CEO, you have the say on how to grow your Experience Bank; remember, you are also the security guard who has the duty to control what may be deposited and at what given time; what may be withdrawn and when; and who may come with you in the bank.


To launch your bank, get your pen and paper.

       1. Make a Gratitude Notebook
Divide the page in halves lengthwise. On the left column, write the “Things I Am Thankful For” (at least 10 things that happened during that day). On the right column, write the “Things I Am Thankful For (yes, same time, but these are the things that you claim to happen and you feel that is happening already. Attract them, think of them, and your body will naturally respond to get them). Do this daily to reinforce them.


       2. Make a Timetable/Map to get to your goals
By writing down your goals or dreams, you have a clear picture of where you are now and you can devise ways on how to get to your goal on a specific date. There may be many ways in skinning a cat, but be specific about your goals and timings. This timetable/map will serve as your guide, as your compass, in knowing where you are as you progress towards your goals or dreams.

       3. Keep a mini notebook with you
This will serve as your bankbook. Whenever  you learn something, observe something, realize something, write it down. In time you will need them. This bankbook will keep a record of your experiences, so don’t hesitate to write down both the “ouch!” and the “wow!”, and the “no!” and the “yes!”.


After mapping out your investment schedule, just keep on moving whatever your mood is. Do not worry about your future… just live where you are, your future starts now. Invest there, grow from here.


“…your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.” ~ Matthew 6:32-34

“Fortune favors the bold.” ~ Virgil