An investment in yourself is one that will make massive positive returns for you, your family and your business.
Whether it’s investing time in learning a new skill, or putting money to hiring a coach, it’s important to re-think the practice of investing in yourself in terms of returns and how it will help you to best serve others.
Here are some of the simplest, yet high-yielding investments you can make in yourself – with as little as ten minutes a day making positive gains.
1. Set Goals.
If you’re not setting personal or professional goals, life can be like driving in the dark with no headlights.
It’s well-documented how goals alone motivate progress; clarity is power. Goals help motivate us to develop strategies that will enable us to perform at the required goal level. Once you know where you’re going – even before you get there – seeing progress toward your goal will be rewarding and motivating, helping to take you further, faster!
When goal-setting, research shows that it’s important to be specific, realistic and time-focused. In the 1968 article “Toward a Theory of Task Motivation”, Locke compiled over a decade of research to find that over 90% of the time, goals that were specific and challenging – but not overly challenging – led to higher performance when compared to easy goals or goals that were too generic such as a goal to do your best.
It’s also important to review your goals over time (the goals of you at 20 versus you at 50 will certainly be different) and be sure to set some time frames in which to meet your target.
2. Education.
An investment in lifelong learning produces many returns in career progression and pay, it can satisfy personal interests and present the opportunity to meet and interact with like-minded individuals. An investment in learning can also help you to boost resilience to change and keep you relevant, it’ll boost your confidence and change your perspective and lead to new ideas.
3. Health.
Take care of your health. No matter how successful you are, or how big your property portfolio, none of this matters if you don’t have your health.
Investing in healthy food, fitness and your mental health or reducing stress are investments that will make returns in improved sleep, increased energy, strength and better moods.
Not only do you improve your chances of saving on medical costs associated with poor health, but the healthier you are, the stronger your position to pursue your goals, to keep learning and developing and to do what brings you happiness….What greater return could you ask for?