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Learning to invest in yourself will be the most profitable investment you will ever make. It’s the best way to achieve a better quality of life, be successful and productive is to place a priority on investing in yourself both personally and professionally.
What does it mean to invest in yourself?
Investing in yourself means you are putting time, resources and money into bettering your current life and your future. Rather than focusing on material things, instead you will seek opportunities and assets that will increase your knowledge that can make positive impacts for you. Life is about continuously improving and building a better life for yourself. These are 9 ways to invest yourself:
1. Set Specific Goals
Setting goals will help you accomplish more. When you have identified a goal and written it down, you are far more likely to change your behaviour and make actionable steps to succeed at that goal.
Goals give you clarity on what you want from life instead of having a vague dream of what you want. Once you have set a goal, you can focus your attention and you can channel your energy to achieve it.
When you want to make goals it is important that they are SMART goals:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Time-bound
I make monthly goals, but it is important to remember that goals can change because life can change. When you make goals you are focused on growing and developing for a successful future.
2. Learn A New Skill
A great way to invest in yourself is to continue learning throughout your life. Learning a new skill not only gives you another skill to add to your career or resumé, but it gives you the chance to keep your mind sharp. Learning new skills is not all about the skills that are going to look good on a resumé or in a job, skills like cooking may not affect your career, but they can help you create a better and happier life.
There are plenty of online courses that can enable you to learn and develop to give yourself the best and happiest life. I want to learn about mental health for children and young people as well as learn how to cook better and bake.
3. Take Care Of Your Physical Health
You cannot learn new skills and grow if there is no you. So, you need to make sure that you look after your physical health.
Ensuring you get enough sleep, eating healthy meals, drink plenty of water and exercise. It is important that you learn how to reduce stress and how to manage it. Investing in your health is vital.
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4. Learn How Money Works
Learning about money is not something I did in school, but I feel that it should be taught because it is important.
Understanding the basics of how you can save as well as make money. No matter what your job is, knowing how money works will help you to increase your income, reach your goals and live a happier life. You can do this by reading financial freedom books, blogs and listen to financial based podcasts.
5. Keep A Journal
Writing in a journal may not sound like a way to invest in yourself as all you are doing is writing about your day, your thoughts or your feelings. However, when you journal daily it make you more self-reflective and this is a powerful form of self-care. You can release any negative thoughts and feelings in a non-judgmental apace. Daily journaling can help you:
- Manage anxiety
- Reduce stress
- Identify negative thoughts and behaviours
- Prioritise your thoughts
- Work through your problems and fears
- Increase your esteem
- Practise mindfulness
If you are using a journal, you will receive huge benefits with self-discovery making you a happier and healthier person who can work towards their future.
6. Take Care Of Your Mental Health
Just like physical health, your mental health is vital in order for you to be productive and successful in your future. In order to invest in yourself, you need to look after your mental wellbeing because you cannot be successful if you are struggling with you mental health. Having a good healthy mental health habits and strategies in place will help you to keep your mind clear, so that you can stay focused on opportunities that life gives you.
7. Keep Organised
Getting organised is a hugely beneficial way to invest in yourself. When you are organised and have a decluttered space you will know where everything is, but you can also use the time you would usually use for looking for lost documents or picking up clutter, to invest in yourself in other areas. For example, you could schedule a work out, take an online course or even listen to an inspiring podcast.
Studies have shown that having an organised and declutters work space enables you to focus and be more productive. This is because clutter makes it harder for your brain to process information.
Photo by Kris Gerhard on Unsplash
8. Let Go Of Guilt
Guilt can be a destructive feeling that can impact your physical and mental health. We can all be guilty of setting high expectations of ourselves and when we do make a mistake (which we all do – we are human after all), it is easy to start overthinking those experiences and the guilty feelings take over. You should instead use them as lessons and learn from each experience. Stop the ‘I should have’ and start thinking that next time I could try this instead. Focus on moving forward.
9. Break Bad Habits
We all have bad habits, but do you know what your bad habits are? Your bad habits are negative behaviour patterns that hurt your physical, emotional or social wellbeing. I am sure you have bad habits you would like to break, we all do.
When you make an effort to tackle your bad habits, it can be empowering especially if you replace your bad habits with good habits. Breaking your bad habits can take a lot of effort and consistency. But it will change your life. To start your new habits and break bad habits, I use habit trackers. Habit trackers focus me and motivate me to keep on track.
Self-investment is the best investment you can make. It doesn’t mean a huge life change, but making small changes that will invest in you. These are 9 positive ways that you can start investing in yourself.
So many great points. The MH in young people course sounds brilliant! I’m with you on the money thing too. It should definitely be taught in schools. There’s still so much about money I feel clueless about.
Claire.x
http://www.clairemac.co.uk
Same! Thank you for reading and commenting x
I feel I’m guilty of taking care of my physical health but nowadays, I’m trying my best to stay healthy. Great tips!
That’s good! I have had a huge wake up call and now starting to take care of my body. Thank you for reading and commenting.
This is awesome. I invest in myself by prayer, reading the word of God, taking life coaching courses. Everyday is a new day and a new step.
Thank you for reading and commenting.
Learning a new skill is so important to invest in yourself and your future
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These are all great tips! I take tip 2, 3 and 8 very serious! I try to get enough sleep at night to take care of my physical health, I have learned new skills during hard lockdown conditions which I’m glad I did and I’m busy breaking bad habits. Great post!
That’s great! It sounds like you are doing so well and making huge steps for your future. Thank you for reading and commenting.
We definitely agree with learning new skills as a way to invest in yourself. Reading is perhaps the best method through which acquiring new skills. Reading new things also pushing one out of their comfort zone, which helps with true growth. How many of us want to be the same person we were yesterday when the better/best version of ourselves is right there for us tomorrow? Thank you for sharing this!
Thank you for reading and commenting.
Lauren,
The best investment is into yourself and your health. If you don’t take care of you, you won’t be much good to anybody else. Thanks for these important reminders about self-care on many levels.
Many Blessings
Lisa
Thank you for reading and commenting.
For me, it’s just spending time to recharge for myself. I don’t feel I need to do lots of the other stuff, but it could be really helpful for others to take stock when needed
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I do agree that investing on yourself is the best thing a person can do. Reading and writing even in the form of journaling as you said are both ways to invest on yourself. Also learning new things and gaining new skills. Thank you for sharing this post!
Thank you for reading and commenting.
These are some really helpful suggestions! I started the SMART goal method a few months ago and I find that it really helps with breaking things down to eventually reach those goals. I love journaling when I can but I know something I really need to work on is educating myself more on the workings of money and the best ways to save it – I definitely agree it should be taught more! Thank you so much for sharing x
Great suggestion! Thank you for reading and commenting. X
Great post! Investing in yourself is really important. I love to learn new things. Achieving financial freedom is also one of my goals. I’ve been reading books about budgeting, saving, and investing lately.
That’s great! Good luck with achieving your goals. Thank you for reading and commenting. X
Love this! I’ve been learning that I need to focus more on me and my wants/desires rather than everyone else. It’s hard to put yourself first sometimes (even though it shouldn’t be!), but the end result is definitely well worth it.
Thank you for reading and commenting. Definitely try and put yourself even if it is just sometimes x
Great ideas! Loved reading this, do you have any inspirational blogs you can recommend as I’m only just getting into them!
I have my May advertisers? They are all great bloggers with great content. Definitely them out. Thank you for reading and commenting.
So many great tips here. I personally love to meditate, keep active and journal. Thanks for sharing.
I think they should teach about money matter at school. Great post!
They definitely should. Thank you for reading and commenting.
You’ve shared some really amazing tips here lovely which I’ll for sure be making good use of. I’m really trying to invest in myself more so I appreciate this post massively. I totally agree with you, money should be spoken about in schools as I left school with no idea about money etc. I’m defiantly working on trying to look after myself more and just focus on bettering my life in the best way I can. Great post! Xo
Elle – ellegracedeveson.com
Thank you for reading and commenting. That sounds like a great goal! Xx
Great post Lauren! Investing in ourselves is one of the most important things we could do. Things like self-love, exercise, and breaking bad habits are great tips. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for reading and commenting.
Great post and a huge YES to all of these! I really want to spend more time learning new skills, learning about finance and taking care of myself more!
They sound like great ways to start investing in yourself. Thank you for reading and commenting.
This is really important. For me, exercising is the biggest investment in myself. I could do a much better job at looking after my mental health too.
Personal growth is continual, that’s the great things about it. Thank you for reading and commenting.
These are good ways to invest in yourself, Lauren. I need to invest more on my physical health and let go of past guilt. Thank you for sharing.
Great points! From personal experience #7 was one of those things that look simple but works like magic. Months ago, I did some major decluttering and strived to do small things like making my bed regularly and the mental+productivity benefits were stunning.
They are great things to do as habits. Thank you for reading and commenting.
All of the above! Great points and advice,
A huge yes to all of these points Lauren! Taking care of my mental health is one big way I invest in myself every day, the same as my physical health also x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
Thank you for reading and commenting Lucy x
I really love this list. I really love investing in myself by learning and practicing my current skills, and I’ve been learning a new one, I’ve been making soy candles. I really wish schools taught students about managing money, a lot of us come from a place where we never had any before going out into the workforce on how to save it, and that would have been so helpful back then. I think my biggest investment is to do things because you want or need to, and they improve your life in some way, even if it’s just something that makes you happy. Leave things that don’t in the dust, and don’t do things because others are or you feel like you have to.
Making soy candles, that’s awesome! What a fun thing to learn to do. I love candles. Schools definitely should teach about money management. Definitely do things that are going to serve a higher purpose! Thank you for reading and commenting.
I agree with investing in yourself. I love learning new things and also prioritising my mental health.
A great way to meet personal objectives while providing self care. Thanks for sharing Lauren.
Thank you for reading and commenting.
Yes yes 🙌 self care is key. I am too looking for ways to implement self care practices into everyday life and manage the work-life balance. Breaking bad habits is important because it’s surprising how many unhealthy ones we pick up over the years. If you don’t mind I would love to share this post on my blog. Is that okay?
Yeah that is fine lovely. Thank you for wanting to share it. X
So many great points here! I would definitley advocate for learning new things, especially finiding smething that makes you happy!
Thanks for sharing!
Aimsy xoxo
Aimsy’s Antics
Thank you for reading and commenting. X
Wonderful post, Lauren! I love that you highlighted SMART goals. Every point is spot on. Investing in your health will improve your life in so many ways. Setting yourself up properly with your finances is also very important. Make sure to start saving and investing for retirement, from a young age. Your future self will thank you!
I am working on getting better organized and that has been a huge help with starting my blogging journey. Letting go of guilt is next.
Definitely planning your content ahead of time is really helpful. Thank you for reading and commenting.
Thanks for sharing, it’s not easy to invest in yourself when you don’t want to change yourself as it’s so stressful to make the investment in the first place, when you don’t have the support in the first place to make that change 🙂
Thank you for reading and commenting. It is not easy but taking small steps can help.
Great tips! Taking care of your physical and mental health can help you thrive in others areas of your life. If these are neglected then it will be difficult to thrive in life.
Thank you for reading and commenting.
I think that knowing about money is so important in the current climate.
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Our biggest suggestion in investing in ourselves is voraciously reading. We have learned that reading not only makes you more open you experiences, but it also makes you think about the world differently. This is a great post, which we enjoyed reading. Thank you for sharing.
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I love these ideas! I set monthly goals but they are mainly to read a certain number of books. I definitely want to improve a few skills too so I’ll add these goals to my bullet journal too 🙂 x
That’s great. Thank you for reading and commenting.
Hi Lauren, I love the idea of setting very specific goals to invest in yourself and your future. Sometimes, you really do have to get specific in order to accomplish the goal on time.
Thank you for reading and commenting Deb
Investing in yourself is so important. Thanks for all the great tips and we hope to focus on this more during the summer.
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