Time and money invested into yourself is never wasted. Just yesterday I booked my summer trip through Europe and also locked away a bigger sum of money for me to spend on my three-months trip through Asia this winter! It felt weird spending so much money on holidays at first but soon I really welcomed that thought! I spend all this money on myself and I really don’t feel any “guilt” or anything like that. I spend it on new experiences and new influences, meeting new interesting people. And funny enough, I know from similar investment decisions of my past, that these kind of decisions never happened to disappoint me. So why change a winning team?:)
In this article I give you my 7 reasons why it is super effective to invest money into yourself. Not only by taking trips around the world and experience new culture and influences, but also why education, training or other intellectual investments into yourself are always a bonus which you should never miss out on!
1. Your interest will always be multiple times higher than on any bank account
Spending money on yourself will always give you the best returns. Even if you are lucky to get 6-8% return on some great (imaginary) saving accounts, you are always better off investing it directly into yourself instead (I really don’t want to hype to #yolo around and just spend all your money, but also keep it in mind that ONLY saving money might not get you anywhere near reaching your fullest potential (emotional and financial-wise)).
When you educate yourself in a proper way and spend money on your own skills (like taking courses or training programs) you will always find new and better ways to use these very skills in a way they allow you to get your money back multiple times (200% returns anyone?). Buying and reading a lot of books is also never a bad decision!
2. Growing as a person allows you see new and better opportunities earn back the money
I would have never seen the same kind of opportunities around me just 2 years ago. It is not that they have not been there, it is just that I simply didn’t realise them. Now, I see them everywhere and I try to use them in my favour as much as possible. But you have to get yourself there first.
That is the main reason I emphasise to educate yourself on all kinds of levels. Expose your mind to great influences. Read. Meditate. Hang out with inspiring people. Do some crazy shit and take risks. Be bold.
You will be surprised on how far you can push your comfort zone and how magical things happen to appear behind it.
3. You become a risk taker
When you start to invest money into yourself and take some calculated risks you will soon cultivate a good feel for it. You will improve your skill to see which opportunities are worth investing in and which are not.
Start with yourself and take a lot of courses. Buy E-Books. Read blogs covering topics you are interested in. Get yourself as much information as humanly possible around the area of life you want to tackle. If you have to spend money on it, do it.
You will soon cultivate your very own “spider-sense” and these big risks you were afraid of in the beginning are no longer frightening you any more! Because you have pushed your comfort zone so often before and you are literally “still alive”, you know that pushing it a little bit further won’t kill you either. You will become a risk taker in no time.
4. Time invested into yourself is never wasted
How do you feel about taking a long break from work? Usually when I was working really hard and already got into my momentum (into the flow) I exclude everything else out of my life. I am very focused and concentrated and I willingly block out everything else which might even slightly distract me from getting the stuff I set out to do done.
Holidays, recovery or time off were also just a “big distraction” for me for quite some time. Before my trip to Barcelona this year I really saw no sense in going there and having a fun time off from work. I just didn’t see any good reason in doing it. Staying at home (in my flow state) and getting stuff done seemed so much more appealing. But also I realised that I might burn myself out and I decided to go.
I might have been unsure about spending some money I couldn’t really afford (or better spend elsewhere) into this travelling experience, but funny enough, it is never a bad decision AFTERWARDS. This is true for every major investment into yourself.
5. You will experience an unforgettable and fulfilling lifestyle
As soon as you begin to invest money and time into educating yourself and working on yourself you will realise that you begin to enter an “upward spiral”.
When you put better information into your brain you tend to attract better life situations. The books you read might give you new insights and ideas, you will see new business opportunities arising just in front of your eyes. The better you execute on these ideas the more financial freedom you experience. The newly gained freedom might give you the opportunity to replace some bad habits with better ones because you know have the time and energy to focus on them. You start to become more healthy and mentally strong.
And then you might feel tempted to put even better information into your brain and execute on even bigger and more challenging projects. Because of your past successes you feel more confident to tackle the bigger and more rewarding things. And you get even more freedom and independence.
You are now in an upward spiral and everything you do just fuels into that positivity and happiness. It is no wonder that people tend to say “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”. That is the difference between being in an upward or downward spiral. And all the time it is just the tiny little steps you take everyday that make the difference in the long run.
6. You will surprise yourself on what you are capable of
You are capable of a lot of great stuff. At least that’s what everybody is always telling you. “You can reach whatever you want!” and some of this bla stuff. Well, I do believe it is true, but on the other hand it is not. Most of the people, yet they are capable of doing some really nice stuff and explore their best self, they rarely tap into these powers. It’s just too much effort. Why would you work your ass learning something new (like running your own business) over the course of several years when you could also just not do it? The future outcome might be nice and rewarding, but yet it is not necessary to go for it (for most of the people). They just kinda want it, but do not make it a necessity, a need, a must.
On the other hand, if you invest money, time and efforts into yourself for some couple of years, overcoming all doubt, fear and pain (which you most certainly will face at any point of that journey) you will surprise yourself on what you are capable of.
That’s why I love using Zig Ziglar’s Pick Four so much! These little notebooks teach you how to focus on only four areas of your life you wish to improve at once. And then you work on them for 3 months straight. Because you also document all your learnings and findings over the course of these weeks, you also create a nice little journal of your progress, which tends to highlight certain aspects on where you can still improve your processes. You learn to face what is working and what is not. And you keep track of all the little things (which you might easily forget otherwise) which are so mandatory for you to reach whatever you set out to achieve. It just keeps you on track and your mind focused. I love it!
7. You become abundant and no longer see money as this limited resource in your life
It’s not that you are suddenly become rich or something at the very moment you buy your first self-help training program or e-book. It’s just that the more money you invest into yourself, the better decisions you tend to make, the more resourceful you will become and the better opportunities you tend to follow through on. You will become a feel for good and bad investments. And because you learn how to difference the two from each other you tend to have more returns in the long run. You learn to see the knowledge and experience you “buy” from your personal investments as an improvement of your own value and therefore can evaluate them on their future returns. Fun stuff!