Investing in Yourself Is All About Growing…
… and not just your Net Worth or your Cash Flow. Typically investing in yourself takes on a different meaning than paying yourself first (which we just talked about that here). Investing in yourself takes on more of a personal development and growth direction. This allows us room to call a hobby, investing, focusing on your health, and other things you can do to grow your own mind, body, and spirit investing in yourself. In some cases it actually costs money to do some of the activities that would force you to develop as a person (there are plenty of free things too like going on a run as a really simple example).
The Case For (and Against) Investing In Yourself
Like any investment, investing in yourself can be a risk. Why? Well you’re betting on yourself, your abilities, mindset, etc. – All things that could break, fail, and/or not reach the peak of what it could be.
Obviously I’m pro investing in yourself.
The case for investing in yourself is pretty strong. There is science between stimulating your brain (most investing in yourself activities force mental activity) and what personal development can do to your confidence (you become better at ‘x’ activity and become more confident) that provide some objective data on why building your own resume is a good idea. I’m personally sold on the idea of keeping my brain functioning well into my old age. There are also plenty of other articles out there on why investing in yourself is a smart investment of time and money. My main argument for it is simple…
It’s one of the few investments that will most likely affect all other aspects of your life.
Examples:
1) You invest in your health through working out and your relationships improve through networking and social interactions, you have more energy at work, and your health improves resulting in less money at the doctor more money in the stock market.
2)You take up a new hobby and you are stimulating your brain, meeting new people, learning about yourself, sharing experiences with others, and potentially turning it into income.
These might be a bit of vague simple examples, but that’s about as complicated as it gets. You don’t have to go learn how to fly to invest in yourself. You don’t have to create the next facebook to invest in yourself. You can go start working out and work towards your own personal growth (health in this example) without spending too much of a resource you don’t have (time or money). Now most personal growth items do require something – you exchange time for growth, money for time and growth, or both.
Example is the gym and working out again – you’re now spending a little money (the gym fee) and time every week to exercise. That’s an investment in you.
How I Invest in Myself
I try to keep it really simple. I want to ensure I’m adding to my health (body), keeping the brain fresh (mind), and keeping the passion/why alive (spirit). If I can tick one of those off pending time and money then it’s probably worth it for me. I also have no problem changing the direction if that’s the case. Here are the steps I have taken…
Step 1) Identify my foundation. I mentioned body, mind, and spirit. For other people it could be different. This just provides me with a place to start when evaluting opportunities for growth – does it align.
Step 2) What do I have more of right now? Time or Money? Those are the two real exchanges for personal growth. Working out? Time and Money. Learning to fly? Time and Money. Reading more books? Time (maybe money). Whatever I have more of or if it starts stretching the other one (like not sure if I have the time but I want to do it) I’ll look at step 3.
Step 3) If I’m at a crossroads (I have limited time and money as do most people) I take a second to research and think on it. I’ll typically spend time looking at how much time it’s actually going to take, will it cost too much money (this is subjective), and will I regret it in the future (want to reduce my regrets). The regret one is normally one that I can filter through pretty quickly and make the decision on the personal growth item.
Step 4) Do it. I do the thing. If i’ve made the decision to do it perfect. If I’ve tossed it to the side I’ve put some thought into. One thing I keep in mind at this stage is I can always change my mind. I do like to put in at least 45 to 60 days into something since it takes a bit to make something habitual.
Invest in More Than Just Wealth
We talk a lot about finances and wealth (well maybe I do), but it’s not the full picture. One of the most precious assets we have as humans is our time and our health. Things at this point we can’t really get back. That’s partly why I argue for financial freedom and alternative income because the less you trade your time, the more time you can spend doing things you want. At the end of the day and the end of our lifetime our health, experiences, knowledge, and lack of regrets is all we’ll have left – make sure to invest in yourself.
