Investment is the dedication of an asset to attain an increase in value over time. Edition 6 of the Manifest Newsletter began a 4-week series on investment, where we will take into consideration the areas of our lives that we are best served to invest our time, energy, and emotions into, in order to achieve compounding benefits over time.
The quality of our investments are a direct representation of the quality of our professional, personal, and interpersonal abilities. When we invest properly, growth and development is compounded over time; an effective representation of consistent intentionality.
Edition 6 asks that you consider the quality of your relationships, understanding that community can be one of the most rewarding, impactful investments in our lives, when properly cared for. However, not all relationships provide us with benefits, and some even detract from our quality of lives. When boiled down to one simple point, a person worth investing in is someone who helps you to see light, even in the presence of darkness. Once you’ve surrounded yourself with the right people, it is then our responsibility to nurture the relationship, and to provide value to those who mean the most to us.
Consider the following questions, in an effort to understand and invest in your quality of community in which you surround yourself.
1. List the five people that you spend the most time with. When considering this group, answer the following questions:
Is this community of people promoting positive perspectives and emotions through your interactions with them?
Are you encouraged to grow and develop through your interactions with this community?
Are there valuable insights and new understandings to be gained from your relationships?
2. Now that you have considered the benefits that you have to gain from your immediate community of people, consider these questions from an alternative perspective:
Are you promoting positive perspectives and emotions through your interactions?
Are you encouraging those that you surround yourself with to grow and develop?
Are you providing valuable insights and new understandings to your community?
3. Do you aim to see the light, even in the presence of darkness? How so? Or, if you don’t, how can you be better equipped to face challenges with a more positive approach in the future?