"The most important investment you can make is to invest in yourself.” – Warren Buffet
Have you ever visualized your dream life? If not, then let’s do this together.
Now, answer the below questions to yourself keeping in mind your dream life. And don’t rush while answering them. Take your time, think thoroughly, and then go for it.
What do you do for a living?
Who are the important people in your life?
Where do you live?
How financially stable are you?
In what kind of home are you living?
With whom are you sharing the space?
How do you spend your leisure time?
Now, the benchmark is set. Compare your current life with your dream life. How different are they? Are they slightly different? Or do they differ extremely?
Well, you have your answers.
This dream life will forever be a dream if you do not decide to work for it.
Are you motivated enough to start doing something about it or do I need to say more?
Well, this is the whole reason you should start investing in yourself before it’s too late. Well, it is never too late to start anything. But still, the sooner, the better.
How should you invest in yourself?
Now here comes the interesting part – how to invest in yourself. Although there are a lot of ways to start doing this and I am sure most of you must already be knowing some of them. But still, bear with me and I am sure you will get some value out of this.
So, let’s get straight to the point. But always remember…
There’s no one thing that is the “right” personal investment for you.
#1: Educate yourself
Change is the only constant. It doesn’t matter in what field you are in, things are always getting updated. You need to update as well. If you don’t know what all is new on the horizon, it’s all too easy to get left behind.
The only solution is to learn. Basically, consume good, relevant content. There is an immense amount of content present offline as well as online. You just need to know what is and isn’t for you.
Read: If you like reading, I am sure there will be a huge number of good books available on the topics that interest you. There are eBooks available as well. With the advent of the Kindle, iPad, and Nook, it is even easier to find great reading material.
Listen: These days we have the option of audiobooks. So, if you are someone who doesn’t like reading, you can listen to the audiobook of the same book while doing some other chores like commuting or cooking.
Podcast is also an option. Now, what is a podcast?
A podcast is a series of audio episodes, all focused on a particular theme like photography or fitness. You can subscribe to the show and listen to it whenever you want, using your mobile device.
Podcasts are amazing. They are informative and easily accessible.
You might be asking, how are they different from the audiobooks. Well, audiobooks are the audio files of a particular book. Podcast, on the other hand, comes in the format of series, episode by episode. You can tune in to any episode you like and just listen to it.
Watch: If reading/listening is not for you, then consume visual content. There is a huge library of amazing content by people who excel in that field available online. This way you can learn sitting at your home. Some of the platforms are Youtube, Udemy, Skillshare, Coursera where you can find courses on any topic you can think of and that too at a very cheap price. And some are even free. How cool is that, right?
#2: Be aware of who you spend time with
We are all a reflection of who we spend time with.
Spend time with negative people, and you’ll turn negative.
Spend time with positive people, and you’ll turn positive.
It’s just how the Law of Attraction works.
Similarly, if you spend time around people who share the same goals or interests as you, or have a Leading Goal that inspires you to work harder toward your own Leading Goal, you will move and grow 10x faster. Trust me, it happens.
This is why things like clubs and teams are such a huge part of our society. We know the value of community, and we try to create communities that help each of us improve at a faster rate.
#3: Be deliberate with the way you invest your time
‘Oh, I didn’t get time to do that’.
I am sure most of us must have heard it or even said it ourselves at some point in our life.
As I mentioned in my previous post, the problem is not ‘doing’ the work, it is ‘starting’ the work. We need to analyze where we are investing our 24 hours, every day. Just sitting down and starting your task is not enough, we need to go deeper by pushing ourselves into work. And when you are done, just analyze what you have done in that time, how much you have made it work for you.
#4: Attend networking events
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others.”
By meeting like-minded people, you will see the benefits of connecting with like-minded people.
Whatever your interests are and wherever you’re trying to go in life, look for networking opportunities in your city. Don’t limit yourself to suit and tie events, check places like Meetup.com to find fun and interesting events and workshops happening every now and then.
There are other ways too. As I found these to be easy to implement if you are starting your journey, hence sharing them.
So yeah, this is what I think about investing in yourself. Let me know how you invest in yourself. What are your thoughts about this? And if your ideas align with me, do connect and we can have a great conversation around it someday.