Are You Investing in You?

Are you going to make real progress in your life over the next year? The answer to that question will likely come down to your answer to this one: Are you planning to make a significant investment in yourself? Resolutions are great, but when it comes to making real change and achieving real benefits, what we need are investments, not empty promises.

The problem that I encounter quite often at the Life Design Center is that many people have a misunderstanding of the term, Investment. As a result of this, they fail to make solid investments in themselves. Let’s start by examining the elements of a true Investment. I think there are 4…

• Investments require intentional planning. Life is always happening and we grow from every experience. That is not the same as intentionally setting a goal and establishing a plan to achieve it. When we’re intentional about something it changes our experience of the thing, usually for the better. It’s the difference between mindlessly going through the same routine at the gym each day versus laying out a challenging, varied exercise plan that includes elements of cardio, strength, agility, and mobility training.
• Investments have a cost. For something to be an investment, there must be some spend, or sacrifice on your part. You must give up some resources towards the investment. This can come in the form of your time, your energy, your money, your attention, etc. At a minimum, there is always an opportunity cost whenever we spend a limited resource. Again, with an investment, we are intentional about the cost.
• Investments offer a reasonable hope for a return. Although investments have cost, we make investments with the hope of gaining something on the other side. Our return comes in the form of some additional resources or capacities. In some cases, an investment may be tangible and easier to see, but in other cases it may be more difficult to measure. When it comes to investing in one’s personal development, the timeline for seeing the return on that investment may be quite long. The important thing to recognize here is that for something to be an investment, there must be a reasonable hope for a return on the investment. Without this, we’re simply spending. We should always be intentional about our expected return on our investment, even if the return will be difficult to measure.
• Investments require intentional action. At some point, every investment requires that you DO something. Plans are great, but the change happens from the DOING, not from the planning. In the case of personal growth and development, the DOING will likely occur over time, because the best transformative experiences occur slowly, over time.

The Challenge

Identify a change that you would like to see in your life over the next year and then identify the investment that will be required to realize that change. 

To help you, we've created a downloadable worksheet.  Enjoy!

Prosperous Journey,

-mike