Embarking on the journey of self-investment can be transformative, yet fraught with obstacles. This guide illuminates the path, highlighting the potential pitfalls and providing strategies to navigate them, empowering you to unlock your full potential.
Invest in Yourself to Make More Money
Learn to invest
Where Resistance Comes From and How to Overcome It
Most resistance is a form of fear that comes from one of three places: Money scarcity mindset, Not knowing FOR SURE that it’ll be worth the time/money cost, or Not knowing which option is best right now
- To weed out these infinite choices it’s important to understand your circle of competence and find your highest point of leverage.
- Your ring of competence tells you what you’re already knowledgeable about and have some skill in (to build from).
- Within your scope of leverage, you have one or two unique talents you have, that when applied, supercharge your effectiveness, creative energy, production, etc.
Ask for Help
The biggest problem areas for young people tend to be identifying a circle of competence, and deciding which skills to acquire.
- Ask for help
- Find a mentor that you trust, or even just sit down with a friend and talk-out the problem.
Invest in Yourself to Buy Time
Make investments in yourself to create better efficiency, get more done, and have more freedom
How to Invest in Yourself – for People Who Need Steps
The best way to invest in yourself is just to start
Every decision we make in life is an investment with a cost and a payoff
Choosing to invest in yourself carries the highest return on investment – especially when you’re young
- You can learn anything today – all it takes is an internet connection and a “beginner’s mind”
- If you want more money, more time, or more freedom, it’s your responsibility to develop the skills you need to get what you want
How I Learned the Lesson of Investing in Myself
Many times we have to take a step backward (loss) to make a giant leap forward
- When you consciously make this decision, you have an opportunity cost that becomes your investment
- The more you invest in yourself, the better.
The Ultimate List of Ways to Invest in Yourself
Where do we start?
Draw Your Circle of Competence
It describes the understanding of the edges of your own knowledge and capabilities.
- Defining your circle isn’t formulaic. It’s just a matter of inventorying your skills, knowledge, and abilities, and being brutally honest about what you know and what you don’t know.
Figure Out Your Highest Point of Leverage
The goal of this step is to figure out what area of your circle of competence gives you the best growth.
- Action step: Define the circle as narrowly as you possibly can. By narrowing your circle, you become aware of what you’re truly good at now, AND the number of areas within your circle you could get better at.
Learn the Difference Between Spending and Investing
When we spend money it’s usually on perishable goods that we might need for survival, OR on anti-necessities that have a very fleeting payoff. When we invest money, we are expecting a durable, long-term payoff in one of the three areas.
- Money is only valuable if used productively.
Invest in yourself to create peace
Being at peace can help you make better decisions
- Get healthy
- Use your PTO
- Change your career
- Travel
- Learn to meditate
- Buy experiences, not things
- Organize and declutter your space
- Insure yourself
- Keep a journal
- Optimize your sleep
- Start saying “no” more
Identify the Skills You Need That’ll Make You More Valuable
There are various individual skills to learn that’ll help you level-up and grow. Choose which skills to develop.
- Action step: Lay out all of the skills you could learn within this area, that are tangential to your highest point of leverage
Create a Roadmap to Acquire These Skills
Based on your time and money budget, lay out a plan to acquire these skills in sequence.
Framework for Investing in Yourself
When we’re just starting out, we usually have time and no money.
- We trade our time for money and gain skills that, guided by experience, make us more valuable
- As we gain more money, we start to use that money to buy more time or convenience, which gives us more peace of mind, or time to invest in our health and happiness
