When most people list how to build a successful business, investing in websites, staff, premises, and equipment will feature on almost all of them.
Anyone chasing their dream will look outwardly, fixing goals to help them achieve the next step. As American businessman Warren Buffet famously said: “The best investment you can make is in yourself, but investing in yourself is one of the major things in life that gets neglected the most.”
Investing in yourself will bring you the greatest dividends and return on investment (ROI) than any other. What’s more, the skills stay with your forever, expanding your creativity and giving you more control over your future success.
The Value of Investing in Yourself
By investing yourself, you are opening doors to new opportunities, including:
- Fulfilling dreams
- Career progression
- Gaining confidence
- Meeting people
- Sparking ideas
- Learning hobbies
- Experiences
What’s more, having an excellent life balance and extra skills can pave the way to success, better pay and more profits.
Choose Where to Invest in Yourself
The best part of investing in yourself is choosing where to concentrate your time. What’s more, you’ll feel the benefits across your whole life. Perhaps you want to be a bit fitter? Self-improvement areas include:
- Physical health
- Education
- Emotional health
- Relationships
- Career and qualifications
- Creative pursuits
- Goals and dreams
They needn’t be earth-shattering ideas, either. Many of us working from home during the pandemic have slipped into wearing comfy clothes or pyjamas instead of formal clothing. Re-establishing personal grooming routines during work hours can have a massive psychological impact on compartmentalising our day.
Let’s look at some inspirational ways to invest in yourself and the associated benefits.
Invest in Exercise
Getting the endorphins flowing helps us be more productive, improves brain power and memory, and even increases creativity. You’ll be less stressed and experience better moods with a greater focus on tasks.
Exercise needn’t be a furious spinning class or running a marathon. Try anything from a walk to yoga, join a team sport, anything you enjoy. Find a training buddy, and you’re much more likely to stick to your exercise plan.
Set Positive Goals
Aren’t all goals positive? The simple answer is no.
Let’s say someone wants to lose weight. One goal could be to avoid chocolate after lunch, which is a negative goal because it involves avoiding something. Imagine the goal was eating an apple after lunch to help weight control. That’s a positive action, reinforced with health benefits.
Although aiming high is fabulous, goals don’t need to be as lofty as designing a spaceship. They can be a series of small, attainable goals that fit within the SMART acronym.
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Time-Bound
Strengthen Current Skills
Experts in their field still need to remain humble, recalibrate, and refresh skill sets at courses and workshops.
Perhaps refine a new skill? Improving your public speaking can open many doors. Time management is critical to successful businesses.
It doesn’t all have to be career focused, either. Learning a new skill, like cooking, taking piano lessons, or finally signing up for Spanish language classes are all great ways to invest in yourself. Creativity is one of the most sought-after skills.
Get Out There
Seminars and workshops hire illuminating speakers to open people’s minds. Attend a few and network; it’s surprising what opportunities abound.
Write It All Down
Keeping a daily journal of your thoughts and emotions is one of the best self-investment techniques. Anxiety, stress, and triggers will become apparent through regular journal entries, helping to identify negative thought patterns and actions.
Have a Good Clear Out
Tidy home — or office — tidy mind, or so the saying goes.
Save time by knowing where everything is, streamlining creative thinking rather than worrying about where that invoice went. Go one step further and sell anything not used or needed, money for old rope.
Get Your Head Into a Good Book
Studies suggest regular book readers live longer, have better concentration levels, and have more empathy than non-readers.
Swap that TV show for a book and travel off to imagined lands for 30 minutes a day for maximum effect.
Break Bad Habits
One of the most challenging but most satisfying once achieved. If you know one that you’d like to banish, Judson Brewer’s TED Talk A Simple Way to Break a Bad may inspire you.
Write a Bucket List
Call it a bucker list or career goals, whatever the moniker, make a list of what you want to achieve. Keep it, and look at it now and again to remind yourself how you are on the way to where you want to be.
After All That Investment, Learn How To Relax
Self-investment means a little bit of me-time, too, to let your mind relax.
Perhaps it’s sitting on a porch in a rocking chair, watching the sun go down. Maybe it’s watching birds in a park, listening to music, or simply staring out of a rainy window and contemplating life. And if it’s binging a series online, that’s great — streaming sites are home to some of the TV and film industry’s most creative people.
Whatever you choose, investing in yourself is never time lost nor wasted. And remember, you have to invest in yourself because no one else will.