Analyzing Your Investment Portfolio

     Today will mark the end to year 2017. This evening people will celebrate and welcome in the new year of 2018 with excitement, encouragement, and more than likely even a certain level of anxiety. People around the world will reflect on their investments, both financial and life choices that they made in 2017, and then evaluate whether those investments paid off or whether they need to seek alternative options that will provide a larger return on their investment. 2018 signals a clean slate, a fresh start, a new chapter of life and today I want to challenge you to take a personal assessment of the investments you made in 2017. What kind of investment did you make in 2017? Did you invest time in others, or did you invest your time into things that have no real return potential? Did you invest your time into making more money, or did you invest in making more people better because they spent time with and around you? Finally when you self-assess your 2017 will you find that you wasted a great deal of time in things that have no direct correlation to making you a better person and ultimately making those around you better? Whatever your personal self-assessment looks like there is one thing for certain, you can make 2018 a better year. Each person has a portfolio of investments and you have the opportunity to choose where you will focus your attention in this new year and only you can make the decision to invest in the things that will provide the best return on your time invested.
      As we leave 2017 behind make a personal assessment about where you are in life. Are you stuck in the mud? Were you sitting on the sidelines? Or maybe you have been going around in circles making nothing but a rut in the ground where you live. If you feel like you have been driving in the slow lane of life this past year, my hope and prayers for you are that you fuel up your tank and set your course for success in 2018. To make this happen your 2018 investment portfolio is going to have to look a great deal more like one that invests in others more than self, and a portfolio that can best be measured by the time given in service instead of the time being served.
     If you are a teacher (obvious first choice for me) for heaven's sake don't stop teaching your standards, but introspectively reflect on how much time you actually invested into your students. Did you model a hard work ethic in your classroom? Did you teach the benefits of struggling to overcome challenges in their learning? Did you teach them the benefits of setting goals in their learning and then working diligently to achieve those goals? Most teachers invest their heart, minds, and time into the lives of their students education, make sure your investment includes a healthy contribution to the development of the whole student not just their ACT score or the rank of proficient or advanced on some standardized test. You have the opportunity to impact lives everyday, make your investment pay off in a positive manner.
     If you are a coach (obvious second choice for me) are you coaching with a "win, win, win at all costs" mentality, or are you investing in the lives of young men and women that will ultimately be our next generation of mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, and eventually the next leaders of our businesses and governments? Over 30 years of coaching has taught me many things, but I believe one of the most important lessons I have learned through coaching is that there are more lessons to be learned in the losses than there are are from any win on the scoreboard. Overcoming a loss, analyzing what went wrong in the game plan, and practicing to get better so that you are better prepared for the next challenge are all skills that coaches should be focusing their time and efforts. As coaches we all want to win, but think about it, what do you learn from a win, "yeah we worked hard, followed our plans, and it paid off", great that's what we practice and plan for anyway. But what do you coach when your team loses? "They were just better than us", "I coached them, but they just didn't play", or maybe " the referees stole that one from us" any of those sound familiar?  If you are coaching your teams to make excuses in the face of a loss, i.e. adversity, then you are failing your athletes regardless of how many championships you attain or what the final wins and losses record looks like. Coach/Teach them to overcome adversity by taking ownership for their losses and not looking at a loss as a failure, but more as an opportunity to learn, improve, and advance. Coach'em up!
     If you are the leader in your business, organization, or family are you investing in your people or are you just bossing people around? You should manage money, you should invest in people. What are you doing to move people up, make them better, providing them with opportunities to lead, and then sending them out to be positive, influential leaders themselves? Leaders don't just tell people what to do, they are actually the ones modeling what their people should be doing and how they should be doing it. Keep this in mind, you are leading every day, every minute. The question is this, are you leading people up? or are you leading people down? If you are in a position of leadership be sure you are investing in making the people you work with better because of the time they spend with you.
      If you are a member of the team don't think you get off the hook just because you don't wear the title of "boss". If you spent 2017 waiting on someone else to tell you every step to take, or how many moves to make then you need to reassess your purpose in life. Your contribution is essential to the success of the team you are a member. Commit to arrive at work earlier, volunteer to stay later to assist with a project or to help meet a deadline. Be the one that lends a hand to a coworker that needs a little extra support. Model the habits and skills you would want to see others on your team exhibit. Be the exception not the average, do more than is expected, and do it for the benefit of others not for self.
     If you are a person of faith did you live your faith or did you just judge others by your religion? It isn't our place to be a judge of others, but instead we should be the example that others want to judge their own faith. If you are living your faith out you won't have to tell anyone that you are a person of faith they will see it in your daily walk, your actions, and your efforts to help others. Don't just attend worship services, worship and praise! If you read scripture in 2017 did you apply it to your life? Did you love thy neighbor as thyself? (see Matthew 22:36-40) Did you honestly invest in others during 2017? Did you give more than you received? Did you honestly live a life in 2017 that others should desire to live?
        If you didn't like your answer to the questions above, or your self-assessment didn't reveal what you would like for it to reveal there is hope! Tomorrow starts a new year, a new chapter, a new page in your book of life. You get to make the choices about what 2018 will look like. You are the one that will decide what you do, who you impact, and how far your reach extends in 2018. Don't make New Year's resolutions, make commitments to make the lives of others better because you are a part of it. Dig in, read more, study more, share more, and give more. Look for guidance and then lead others to the light that has illuminated your pathway. Be a force of good and a voice for those that need someone to stand up for them. Live your faith and if you don't have a faith my friend, get one! There is a God, He is alive, and He is worthy to be served! Living by faith in 2018 may not provide all the answers you are looking for, but I am certain of this, living by faith in 2018 will provide all the answers you need! Trust and Believe!
Happy New Year 2018!!
Coach Carter