Can you reflect back on your life in last 10-20 years and figure out the investments that you have made in assets, specifically fixed assets, e.g., property, automobile, latest electronic gadgets, etc? If your answer is yes, then take a piece of paper and write down the names of these assets along with their monetary value. I’m sure some of these assets must have appreciated their value over a period of last few years like real estate, if you opted to invest in. What is the current value of your investments and what is the ROI (return on investment) on this? You don’t need to mention this in comments, but just do your honest math.
Now, keep aside this mathematics and let me know the greatest milestone you would like to achieve in your life. It could be anything ranging from a prestigious degree or certification to a very well established job or a business or getting your family settled with all facilities of life and beyond. Just figure out the greatest achievement and write that on a piece of paper.
Let’s now come to the third thing I want you to ponder and answer. Suppose if you’re told now that the next 24 hours are the last 24 hours of your life. Exactly after 24 hours, your final flight will depart – your visa was given the day you arrived into this world and your boarding pass has been issued, so you are good to go. How will you spend the last 24 hours of your life? Can you make your hourly schedule for it? Please, write on a piece of paper your detailed schedule.
What happened? Worried?
I asked these three things from my audience in one of my session recently in Saudi Arabia – here is the summary of the feedback:
As for the first question, people answered immediately, as everybody knew their investments and majority of the people are wise enough to invest in the real estate in different countries. This did not take much time for people to answer. Masha’Allah, quick replies.
As for the second question, some people answered it easily, while others were thinking deeply, as they were a bit indecisive on what exactly this greatest thing in their life would be.
When I shared the third point, the faces were completely changed, and the majority of people got completely confused on what to do and what not. Lot of items were popping up in their heads, but how to manage all of them in just 24 hours? What a tough task!
In all the hustle and bustle of life, acquiring assets, making investments, thinking about that new car or apartment in a prestigious locality, most people generally forget the most precious asset that they should’ve invested, which would surely bring a very high ROI. Unfortunately, most of us take this asset for granted and miss out on the big opportunity of earning lofty future profits.
Do you want to know what that most precious asset you must invest in is?
It is children for parents and parents for their children.
If you’re a father or a mother, your children are the most valuable asset that you possess. If your parents are alive, you’re double blessed, as you still have a great opportunity to invest in them and get a very high return.
Just for the sake of understanding, let us look at ‘parents towards their children’ investment. However, you can apply the concept vice versa.
Can you visualize all your children with their names and respective ages? I would prefer that you write it on a piece of paper. Write the ages of your children right in front of 2019 and progress them in the intervals of 10 years till 2059. Try to visualize them every 10 years. Just try it!
Now, choose one of your children, write his name and his age in 2039 (after 20 years) and write down the vision you have for him for the next 20 years. Do not worry about the words; just put whatever thoughts you have for your child on the paper, with respect to where you want to see him.
As a personal and family development trainer and coach, I did this exercise with thousands of people in last 12 years. I have found that over 90% of the people generally focus on one aspect of their children’s life. What is that one aspect, which usually is focal point of most parents’ effort about their children? It is their formal schooling linked with their professional establishment, so that they would earn good! Isn’t it? We have certain milestones for them to achieve, in order to move ahead in the race of life. But, by focusing on one area, we generally overlook that the life is not just about professional establishment and earning money – it has many other aspects to take care of. When parents do not have a clear picture of these aspects, they will later on become the pain points of life not only for parents, but also for the children. These are the weak areas where the chain of life can break because the rule is…
“The strength of a chain is the strength of its weakest link.” Similarly, one of my teachers says: “The strength of a person is the strength of their weakest aspect of life”.
As a parent, this is your most important responsibility to envision for your children and by envisioning, I don’t mean to just have a beautifully articulated statement for your child. The visioning of your child is a process and it has a few steps in it. It is just like building a house. You cannot build a house with just an idea on the paper – you need to work on its smallest details.
Designing the life of your child is a much more significant investment than buying a house. In fact, imagine, if you’re going for a vacation, how much time would you spend in planning that vacation? The sad reality is that most people spend more time in planning one single vacation than in envisioning their own lives and the lives of their children!
Now, my question to you is: if Allah (swt) has blessed you, as a parent, with this precious asset, are you willing to invest in this asset with sincere intentions, so that you and they together pursue a truly meaningful life in this world and Insha’Allah would also have unimaginable benefits in the Akhirah?
If your answer is ‘yes’, and I am sure it is, then you need to learn and apply the following six steps:
- Articulate the ultimate vision for each of your children in clear and unambiguous words.
- Articulate the ultimate vision for yourself in the role of a parent. Define what you want to see in yourself as a father and as a leader, so that your child can look up to you to get inspired. While writing the visions for your children, you have to make it comprehensive by focusing on four primary areas:
- What is the vision for their physical development?
- What is the vision for their spiritual development?
- What is the vision for their intellectual development?
- What is vision for their development in the role of Ummati or member of a community?
- Once you’re done with this, the vision must be broken down into time bound intermediate visions for at least next 25 years, 10 years, 5 years and the first year.
- Once your vision document for each of your children is completed, then move ahead and connect the vision with your daily, weekly and monthly to-dos.
- Please don’t forget to make Dua to Allah (swt) to give you wisdom for helping your children become your most precious investment in this world and the Akhirah.
You must remember that this requires, time, effort, and continuous guidance on understanding and applying strategic visioning framework. This is not a one day job, this is a lifelong process, but if you seriously want your children to be truly successful and become your true legacy in this world and your biggest Sadaqa-e-Jariyah in Akhirah, you have no other choice than to learn and go through the visioning framework in detail.
Don’t forget: “You must and should shape your own future, because if you don’t, someone else surely will.” (Joel Barker)
I pray to Allah (swt) that this advice will become a source of inspiration and the first step towards investing wisely in the most precious asset that you’re blessed with. Ameen.
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