Owning your own home has long been considered an Australian dream, though much debate is raging whether we’re losing this cherished ideal as housing affordability rises. If you’re a land owner with a plot of ground you call home, well done. If you’re not prepared to give up on that dream just yet, good luck realising it.
Whether you hold a title with the land office, I want to make a claim today: you’re already a land owner. Not necessarily of clods of earth, but certainly something very valuable. In fact, I’d claim its a much more important asset than your own home. Do you know what it is?
The space between your ears.
As land owners of this real estate, the way we use this asset determines how successful we are in life. All our thoughts, dreams and plans stem from our brain. Our attitudes and skills are processed there. Do you see what I’m saying? Your head is a major investment opportunity.
Like a home, this real estate is an asset. It can appreciate over time, or it can drop in value. It’s capable of drastic renovations – though, as with your home they’re hard work and you don’t want to go through them too often!. But ongoing repairs and maintenance and little improvement jobs are the stuff of land ownership. It ought to go with the territory!
Of course, most of us don’t even think of our brains as assets. Especially the substantial number of us who hated school. We’re more likely to see our personality or appearance as having higher value. More fools us. A bit more investment of time, energy and learning would bring improved returns in everything from our relationships to our careers to our financial investments. What an amazing amount of potential!
I’ve been thinking about this recently whilst walking round my neighbourhood noting the sale boards and simultaneously working on my new training. I’ll let you know a bit about it over the next few weeks, but it’s called ‘Head Set Go’ and the first course is about building the skills necessary for living a good life. Many of us lay claim to that dream, but I notice we tend to get stuck in the ordinariness of life and take our eyes off the big picture. I’m saddened by that.
If this concept has caught your imagination and you’re wondering how to be a better land owner of your own head, here are a few simple ideas to get you going. First of all, make a point over the next three days to stop and remind yourself that you are indeed a land owner of a valuable asset. If you need, schedule times in your phone to prompt you. (I often make ‘appointments’ for something I’m trying to get my head around this way!) Secondly, with each reminder, become aware of what you’ve just been thinking. Ask yourself whether it’s adding value to your life. That way you’ll start to audit your thoughts. Finally, over the next few weeks consider what might be a good place to extend or renovate some thought area in your head – and decide to do something about it. The value of thinking really only gains it’s true weight when you turn ideas into actions.
I wish you well, dear land owner. The more of us caring for this valuable asset we all have, the better we’ll all be.