Choosing to be a learner
Choosing to be a learner changed my life, a personal story about change, buddhism and debt.
How I became a learner
There was a period in my life when I was about 20yrs old when I got myself into a lot of trouble with the law and even spent some time in prison. I was involved with drugs & violence and I believed this to be a lifestyle for the rest of my life.
Breaking point
I hit a breaking before I went to prison, stuck in a rut with a 5 month deep depression, suspended car license, lost my business, recent breakup with the girlfriend and a court order to pay a $34,000 bill plus a load of other debts. The depression was the hardest thing to deal with, just feeling so empty all the time, never wanting to get out of bed, drinking was the only thing that made me feel better. I am uncomfortable sharing any more details on public media.
To die or not to die
I did seriously think about killing myself for a while but out my last ounce of energy I managed to get myself some help. The changing point was realising that I been living my whole life just serving myself and my own selfish wants, it was all about me.
Having a heart
In my mind I wished and prayed for happiness to others and gave away all the goodness I had left in me to those who were also suffering. I was happy to trade their suffering for my happiness , this kind of thinking made it possible to live with myself again.
Buddhism
This was a big part of the change and it didn’t happen overnight, I started practising Buddhist meditation techniques and eventually found myself living at Mahayana Buddhist Monastery located in the middle of nowhere on a small mountain top for approximately 8 months. It's where I studied, meditated and volunteered my time. It was a way of getting all my mental energy back and getting rid of the baggage, anger and blame out of my life. I starting to become responsible for my actions by understanding spiritual laws of karma.
I lived in a tiny storage hut 1.8m x 2.7m it was a completely broken and overgrown with weeds and termites. Over a two week period I began repairing and restoring it back to life. One of the Buddhist nuns suggested that I could stay here as a volunteer. I eventually ended up as the centre’s maintenance manager as I was pretty good fixing things. It remains with me to be one of the most fascinating experiences of my life.
Choosing to be a learner
I never read any books after school up to this point but I decided I was going to be a “learner” and conquer and overcome all problems in life I had by educating myself. I learnt to stop telling debt collector’s to “fuck off!” over the phone and instead started educating myself on my financial rights.
- I learnt what collectors could do and couldn’t do.
- I learnt about how they use intimidation tactics to get their clients to pay up.
- I learnt how to negotiate with them so I could make smaller more manageable payments.
Putting knowledge into practice
I knew it would cost them $3,000 to put a court order in, so I knew they wouldn’t if the debt was any less I could practically pay any amount I was comfortable with as long as I promised to pay the debt in full and make consistent payments, they couldn’t even put a strike against my name. (laws may be different in your country/region)
Some conversations were to the effect of “I understand you would like the debt paid in full today but in my current financial situation I am unable to pay that amount along with my several other debts. I have full intention of paying the debt in full but at the moment I can only afford to pay $XZY per month. If you keep calling me up and harassing while I’m trying secure work I will put your debt on the bottom of my debt list and pay you last.”
Investing in your education
Wealth is not created is it merely transferred to those who are educated about it. I believe the best investment you can make in your life time is your own education. Education on the history of money, education on finance, education on how the global economy works, education on the, the central bankers, the stock market on how they can scam you, how they can cheat you.
If we learn what is going on, and how the financial world works we can start to transfer wealth back into our own pockets.
The Steemit Mission
I wish to create a series of blogs which builds upon our current Investment education on Steemit, I wish everyone to participate and help develop a more popular topic under the title of “Investment” tag.
By doing this new we create our own education community on the subject, we can reference books, youtube videos, courses and at the same time we increase the value of this topic area. Steemit will have its own ‘investopedia’ for people who want to learn about investment education.
Imagine we log onto steemit and check the top 3 post under the topic “investment” each day, we build and accumulate our knowledge day by day and over a 12 month period we would have read over thousand highly valued bogs on investment education!
Hope everyone has enjoyed today’s blog, look forward to posting more soon. Thanks for reading as always.
About Me
Goggle+ Verification: ServantOfNone
Gmail: [email protected]
Location: Townsville, Queensland, Australia
Credit Source: Game of Thrones & Cameron Gray – Parable Visions (art work)
Love your honesty. I can relate very closely indeed to your story. Love Steemit for the fact, so far anyways, people are being REAL in their sharing and posts. Such a change from FB and similar.
2 things I'll share. About the bill paying. I used to say I write everyone's names on pieces of paper and they go into a hat at the end of the month. Whosoever's name(s) I draw out that month get paid. Keep hassling me and your name doesn't go in the hat.
I was saying to a friend the other day, you know my life is a country song. Twice divorced, trouble with law and authority, the whole drink and drugs thing, adopted, left handed, .... haha... the list goes on... anyhow you get the gist!
I found your post to be a breath of fresh air. Great ot be able to relate to another human being. Peace and Namasté bro.
I love the idea of investing back into the community here on Steemit. The amount of knowledge and interesting people is pretty amazing. Learning has always been a habit of mine. I try to learn at least one new thing every day. With digital currency though, I feel so far behind that it's a little overwhelming. But what I can do is focus on developing relationships, commenting and doing my part. The rest will come.
One of the things that attracts me to both Buddhism and Heathenry is that they both encourage learning. Wisdom is everywhere. There is knowledge in everything.
Another fantastic post man!