Practical Education

Much education today is monumentally ineffective. All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants.

John W. Gardner

Are you missing practical education? Education you can use in the real world. You probably are.

Since graduating from university in 2000, I have come to conclude that I was not taught correctly. I was taught to respond, rather than think, taught liberal education as opposed to practical education.

I was not thought how to make money, move up the career ladder, deal with office politics and so on. I had to learn all that the hard way, through experience. Boy! how much I’ve learnt in six years in the school of life.

All our educational system seems to do is churn out corporate slaves. Think about it, you are taught how best to manage the finances of, say, businesses and corporations, but they neglect to teach you how best to manage your own finances. In effect, they are saying if you want to know how to run a bank, “come to us,” but if you want personal advice about financial matters, “go to a bank.”

Napoleon Hill once said “education comes from within; you get it by struggle, effort and thought. How true! He also said, “All the breaks you need in life wait within your imagination. Imagination is the workshop of your mind, capable of turning mind energy into accomplishment and wealth.

What then must you do to solve this problem? Start thinking and start investing your time in practical education. Think do I want cut flowers or do I want to know how to grow my own plant.

Life is a lot easier when you have the right thought and information.

Paper Money

“If you think making money by thinking is difficult then read this article”

I love it here. You are not frowned upon when you hand over a fifty-euro note to a cashier. Using paper money (cash) to pay for goods and services is normal in Greece, unlike the UK.

What is the big deal in paying with cash you ask? There is a deal my friend, there is a deal.

You see cash money has an aura – an effect on our emotions. I discovered during one of my many personal studies of this thing we call money that I get tight fisted when I am using cash to pay for a service or transaction. Because cash is real, I find myself attempting to hold onto it for as long as possible. If I left the house with 150 euros, I always want to come back with some change and more.

Payment cards or plastic as we like to call them on the other hand is not as real as cash. All you have is an "I owe you", a promise on paying a certain amount later. Not exactly the same as paying there and then is it? With plastic, you get to spend money even before you earn it, or better still you can also spend other people's money. Spending 500 euros using a card, occurs in a flash, you don’t even feel the money leave your hands.

Logically, it is hard to grasp why we have a system that allows you to spend money you do not have let alone other people's money. The companies who peddle these cards would have you believe it is handy. Of course it’s convenient for them to have you pay a penalty for such a service – getting rich off your back.

To make things worse society looks at you suspiciously when you wield a £50 note or larger sums of cash. Carrying cash is now seen as a crime, you must be a drug dealer or something to be carrying cash around. Here is what I think, damn society, do what is advantageous to you. Look after number one.

My point is there is a mental process in the ways we use money. Use cash as much as you can and you will spend a lot less. Spend less and you will have more.

Thinking does make life easier

It is always a difficult period – when you lose your job. You are distraught, angry and anxious about the times ahead.

I had just been speaking to my mother about my sister losing her job. Her services were longer required as they say.

A couple of weeks before, a friend had emailed me asking if I knew of any jobs going as the company he was working for were losing their contract and he might find himself out of a job.

A major issue isn’t it – losing your job, especially when you do not have any other source of income. Which brings me to ask why very few of us ever stop to think about how we make money and what would happen if that source of income dried up.

You would have thought a backup plan would be in place for the times when your boss calls you into his/her office to say “Sorry, we have to let you go”. The problem is not such plan exists because it would have involved ‘thinking’.

And thinking unfortunately is not something we do well. Spending a few minutes to think about the day, week, month or year ahead seems to be very difficult. It is probably the last thing that comes to mind.

How different would your life be if you stopped to think? A lot easier is the answer you are looking for. You see there is something special about thinking that does wonders to you.

Thinking clears the mind of clutter, helping you see things as they really are. It also makes solving everyday problems easier because with thinking comes creativity.

Creativity opens your eyes to what is possible. When you think of what is possible, you are saying and why not. Want to know if a ‘why not’ attitude gets you places, ask Sir Richard Branson

With creativity, you start to see the possibilities of making money available to you. You realise money does not come from just your job but from many other sources. With this in mind, you begin to relax, gradually reducing your dependence on a job.

Work - what do you expect?

Do you know why you work? Am not sure many of us do. I certainly didn’t know why I worked until a few years back when I saw the ‘light’, as they say.

Do you also know there are different types of work? You probably knew all the work you did were different, like work you did around the house, work you did for family and friends- like running an errand or babysitting, work you did for fun and, work you did for money.

Its one thing knowing the difference in the types of work you did, it is another to treat them accordingly.

Herein lay the problem – treating the different work you did the same. Am sure you expect / experience different feelings from different people and like being treated as an individual. So does the work you do, it would like to be treated different, like an individual if you will. Treat your work as an individual and your reward will be calmness and happiness. Let me explain….

The work you do for family is just that, for family – helping out. Don’t expect this work to be something you enjoy or that rewards you with money. The same is true for work you do for money, don’t expect it to do anything other than get you money. If you enjoy doing it great, but, don’t expect it to fulfil all your needs.

Expectations, if not understood, will always lead to disappointment. Too many a times do we go to work with an attitude of expectation that our work will fulfil all our needs, it won’t. Do you have this attitude? You can change it by separating all the different types of work you do and identifying what you expect from each one. Know what you expect and expect nothing else, see everything else that comes with this work as a bonus.

Having this type of attitude to work has made me more relaxed and fun to be around. I know why I work and what I expect from my various works and so should you.

What is this all about

Money, education, living....words that reflect what matters to me.

On these pages you will read about my experiences on the above, and my hope is you would learn something new that would help you along your own journey through life.

I have created this blog for students and young professionals because am a life long student and I love;

• people
  
• writing
  
• communicating with people
  
• reading everything and anything
  
• money and what it can do for me
• and living

I hope I can help you find what you are looking for, maybe even solve a problem or two provided it has to with the "Money, Education, Living".

Seyi