We all find ourselves so busy, with our work, family, and whatever else seems to be eating up our time. When was the last time you did something to really invest in yourself?
Want to do all those great courses, summits, webinars, or even some personal R&R? But getting stuck on your to-do list? There are always going to be more things on your to-do list! Investing in yourself is one of the most profitable decisions you can make. It is beneficial not only to your future gains, but can also create amazing results right now! It allows you to establish a better quality of life, increases your success, and helps you to be more productive in the long-run.
In my life and in my business I definitely make investing in myself a priority for both personal and professional growth. Even the most successful entrepreneurs experience challenges as they grow their business. The key is to invest in yourself, build networks, and surround yourself with people who truly support you and have your best interests at heart.
Investing in your personal and professional growth often reflects the opinion you have of yourself. This can have such an impact on your overall self-confidence and can determine your growth outcomes. Since being a wife, travelling all over, running full-time blog, and managing a team at We Edit Podcasts, I have to actively seek out the time to invest in myself and make it an absolute priority.
So What Does Investing in Yourself Look Like?
Investing in yourself means investing in the things that make you grow as a person, and gives you the ability to launch yourself to the next level. The areas I consider to be most importance are:
- Developing your skills
- Exploring your creative side
- Nurturing your mind, body, and spirit
There are so many different forms of “skill investments” to explore, such as taking a new course, attending a conference, and of course a lot of reading! Developing your knowledge helps you to keep up-to-date on your skills and allows you to be challenged in your field. Knowledge growth also makes for great conversations with others in your industry and can help you uncover new ways to grow your business.
Of course, developing your creative side is not only important, but it is also such fun! Stimulating your creativity can help keep your mind fresh and allows you to explore areas of your brain that doesn’t always get the attention they need. Creative thinking creates such freedom and allows you to grow not only personally, but in your business as well.
Now don’t forget the most important part – nurturing your mind, body, and spirit! Investing in your overall well-being allows you to have so much more to give. More energy, ideas, strength, knowledge, physical and mental endurance. To create a well-rounded life you need to ensure that you are staying active, going out with friends, experiencing culture, and finding ways to re-charge. Again, a higher level of personal care and nurturing will allow you to live a much more fulfilled life.
3 Steps to Better Invest In Yourself
So how do you insure that you make the time to invest in yourself? Here are the three steps I follow in my daily life. For this post, I am going to focus on an example of the first main area of self-investment: investing in developing your knowledge and skills. However, these steps can be applied to all areas of self-investment, and should be carried throughout each of the other areas.
STEP 1: Plan for 2 events per month, and keep time slots open to do a spontaneous event (or 2!)
Deliberately planning events every month helps you to include your self-investment into your monthly goals, and creates an overview of what your calendar will look like for both work and growth. When investing in your knowledge and skills, make sure to select events or programs that are specifically focused on what you are working on personally in order to ensure that you get the most value out of your time.
For example, last month I joined Alex Beadon in the Sparklounge for her Master Class on Creating a Newsletter. This was really beneficial for me at the time, because I wanted to learn more about designing an effective newsletter to create better value for everyone on my email list. Next, I also signed up for the Empowered Women’s Summit. This was specifically targeted to introverted, shy, or quiet women, and since I am very much an introvert this was a great opportunity to learn new strategies of overcoming self-limiting beliefs and removing those stumbling blocks for my personal growth in business.
And Finally, I did a spontaneous signup for Amy Porterfield’s Webinar on Facebook Marketing. There are always new things happening with Facebook, and learning the strategies to effectively market through social media while also building relationships is so key when growing your business online. Therefore this was a perfect fit for a spontaneous event signup.
Now don’t let yourself be stopped by these 3 events. If you have more time open in your schedule, don’t be afraid to continue the learning process! For example, I was feeling particularly motivated and inspired after all the amazing learning opportunities, so I decided to treat myself to a bonus impromptu webinar by Melanie Duncan and David Siteman Garland – what a treat. It was all about creating an online course and how to correctly market it for success.
Now although I am not quite there yet, online course creation is definitely something on my goal list for the year, so this was an opportunity I could not pass up. It was an amazing learning experience that has equipped me and enabled me to launch into the next level! Therefore I always recommend that you seize those learning opportunities – you won’t be disappointed!
STEP 2: Treat each even as you would an important meeting with a client.
One of the biggest problems with committing to events is that if it is not directly related to growing your business, we tend to give it a status of “less importance”. This is such damaging thinking, because we forget that investing in ourselves actually DOES grow our businesses! Therefore, by treating your learning opportunities with the same importance as you would a client meeting you give it a high status on your calendar. This way you won’t flake out or set it aside for yet another to-do! You wouldn’t stand up a client, so why stand up yourself?!
Another important thing to remember is to also dedicate the same attention to each program, listening with intent, and making notes that you can take away to implement in your life and business. Your time is valuable, so you have to make sure that you really put it to good use. So switch off all your distractions and really put in the time to get the most out of it! You will not draw out the value you need if you do not allow yourself to get involved with the learning process. And again, time is precious, so use it wisely!
So don’t forget to book it off in your calendar, and don’t compromise on yourself. What you invest in yourself now will truly pay off in the future, so give yourself the attention you need to build your resources and grow your business.
Step 3: Remind yourself that you deserve it!
So often we neglect to realize that it is okay to put yourself first every no and again. After all, if you don’t put any effort into your personal growth, how will you really learn anything new? Investing in yourself is the greatest gift you can give. You work hard every day to get to where you are! It’s only necessary that you continue to nurture your knowledge and ideas to be the best version of yourself you can possible be.
It is important to learn how to place value on yourself in order to really see the changes and the growth you desire. So continue to remind yourself that you deserve it! Take advantage of connecting with others, learning from their experiences, and applying their knowledge to the important decisions you will need to make in the future. And finally, don’t forget to enjoy it! Learning and growing is always an amazing accomplishment because it means that you are open to change and that you have learned how to embrace new opportunities to adapt. This is something to be celebrated and enjoyed for what it truly is – positive growth!
I encourage you to continue to feed your mind and your heart. Do more of what you love, and always enjoy it. Investing in yourself allows you to thrive and perform to the best of your ability. Your investment in you shapes the way you interact with those around you and how you develop your business as well. Your future is dependent on your ability and willingness to invest in yourself daily.
So take a moment to write down a few key events or activities that will help you invest in yourself and your business to move forward and on to a higher level. Make the commitment, and don’t be flakey!
Now I’d love to hear from YOU!
- Did you find these 3 steps helpful? What other ways do you use to commit to investing in yourself?
- Love this post? Share it now on social media!
- Don’t forget to sign up for my FREE weekly newsletter to receive more amazing tips, straight to your inbox!
As always, desire to inspire!
Xx
Carli
Featured image: Shutterstock
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