Paul McGregorQuick question…
What’s the one thing that people struggle to invest in?
It’s not house maintenance, business ventures, or even spending money on others… it’s themselves.
What was the last thing you did for yourself?
After speaking with a few readers this week it became pretty clear that we find it easy to invest in things around us, but struggle to invest in ourselves.
You pay a gardener to manage your garden, a cleaner to clean your house, you buy TV’s, Phones, Furniture but you resist when it’s time to invest something into you.
We’re always on the hunt for external solutions to make us happy.
We mask the real issues we should be dealing with and replace them with ‘quick fix’ fulfilment investing in sports cars, technology, other people and the things we ‘should’ be investing in.
Value Yourself
Value yourself and the things around you will change.
You could have health issues, be unhappy in your relationship, hate your career and dread getting up in the mornings, you could be fed up with how you look, annoyed at how much weight you’ve put on but still you invest in everything but you.
Think about it, how much money did you spend on things other than you last month?
The bills, other people, video games, petrol, junk food, house maintenance… now tally up how much you truly invested in yourself.
It isn’t just the money either, think about the time you spend each day on yourself compared to the time you spend doing things for others.
Invest in you.
Deal with the resistance, deal with the real issues going on and be the man and do something about it…
The 3 Steps To Investing In Yourself
So what are the 3 steps to investing in yourself?
1. You just need to start.
The action you take doesn’t have to be perfect, you just need to start.
It could be as simple as choosing to go to the gym tonight investing in yourself and your health. If it doesn’t go to plan and you end up feeling exhausted after 10 minutes it really doesn’t matter. You took action, and that action doesn’t have to be perfect.
You also want to highlight areas you need to improve upon. In what areas do you feel unfulfilled and what’s the true reasons holding you back from living a life you want. If you want to get in shape, what’s the reason you can’t? In fact, what’s the EXCUSE?
2. Stop making excuses
It’s important to remove all excuses and all restrictions from investing in yourself.
“I don’t have time”, “I care about others too much”, or “I don’t have the money” are all excuses. They’re all limiting restrictions you have on yourself which will hold back your growth.
Everyone has time to invest in themselves, you’re damaging others around you if you don’t invest in yourself and if you truly want to make change you’ll find the money and resources to do so.
Start now and don’t make excuses.
3. Break comfort zones
The third one is probably the hardest but it’s the best thing you can ever do. You always want to challenge yourself and you always want to face and break your comfort zones.
If going to the gym is a fear of yours, the only way you’re going to get over that fear is to face it and go. If you fear public speaking, asking someone on a date, leaving your job to start a business… the only way you’ll ever erase those fears is to face them.
To get to where you want to be and to reach your full potential you’re going to have to face comfort zones. Successful people who make an impact break comfort zones daily. It increases confidence and it also helps unlocks your full potential.
So there we have it, shift your focus on yourself and start making change.
Think about the amount of people and things you invest in and then consider the time and things you do for yourself. If it’s less in favour of the latter, do something about it…
