[Vol. 34] Self-investment can be more free—every day spent cultivating is for the future 🌾
This is a story about investment. However, the perspective is a bit broader 💰
This is not about financial assets.
But I consider it a part of "investment" for myself.
When people hear "self-investment," acquiring certifications, learning English, or skill-building are often mentioned.
I think those are options as well.
However, for me, self-investment has been strength training, gardening, and posting on note.
I think anything goes. But that was the right answer for me.
It wasn't that I chose something by comparing myself to others;
it's just that I've been working on what I felt was necessary.
Strength training is a means to align myself and a means to support my family 🏋️
Originally, it was for my own physical strength and health.
Now, it also connects to the health of my family.
Supporting my father's diet
Maintaining my mother's muscle strength and improving her posture
It also became a catalyst for thinking about maintaining my grandmother's health
Strength training is both my habit and a way of interacting with my family.
Aligning my body also leads to the power to protect those around me.
The garden is a part of organizing my life and a place to cultivate my senses 🌱
The sensations gained from touching the soil are hard to experience in daily life.
Engaging with nature, realizing the cycle, and putting effort into growing food.
It is also about taking care of the environment close to me, and it leads to an interest in food.
Sometimes I share the vegetables I grow with people close to me.
What I gain from the garden leads to interactions with others.
I consider that one of my "investments" as well.
Gardening was also one of the acts of organizing my life.
Posting on note is a habit for organizing my thoughts ✍️
Writing helps organize my thinking.
It also serves as a daily record, and I can look back later to see what I was thinking.
By continuing to write, my ability to communicate also changes
By writing things down, the priorities within myself become clear
Note is something you share with others, but it is also something that accumulates within yourself.
Self-investment is something you decide on and pursue yourself.
Self-investment is something you decide on and pursue yourself 🧭
When asked, "Is that really self-investment?"
the question is whether you can say, "For me, it is."
There is no need to choose by comparing yourself to others.
It is more important to be able to continue with conviction, even if no one else evaluates it.
There is meaning in the accumulation.
That leads to the moment when you realize later that it was an investment.
Investment × Muscle Training × Farming—each supports the other 🔁
It is not just about money.
Body, nature, and records overlap to give shape to daily life.
On the outside, there is family, the local community, and the society of Japan.
If you expand further, it connects to the activities of ancestors, the organizations you belong to, and the foundation that is the Earth.
As long as life is sustained in this way,
I think feelings of gratitude arise naturally.
There is also this form of investment 🌾
I don't know the technical definition, but
I feel that "capital" is like the "energy" that you decide to use.
It includes not just money, but also time, physical strength, and mental energy.
Acts like working for someone else or taking care of yourself,
in a broad sense, feel close to "investing capital."
It might be different from the precise meaning, but
that is how I have organized it for myself.
🔍 Supplement: About Capital
I looked up the word "capital" again this time.
Originally, "capital" refers to money or assets that serve as the funds or foundation for a business or individual to operate.
In the world of accounting, it is treated as "net assets" on a balance sheet and positioned as self-funding.
In this note, I am not using that technical meaning,
but rather putting into my own words the image of "capital" as self-investment that I feel in my daily life.
⚠️ Note
This article is based on the author's personal experiences and thoughts.
Regarding terms and concepts related to investment, accounting, and capital, I have written with an emphasis on lived experience rather than precision.
Some parts of the content may contain expressions that differ from professional definitions.
We appreciate your understanding and hope you will read this at your own discretion and responsibility.
Fields, bodies, and investments—a way of life that keeps on cultivating.
Renji Enko