“It is a wise man who invests in himself.”
When was the last time you invested in yourself? In our fast paced world, we are forever saying: “I don’t have the time”. The reality is that we do not “VALUE” the time we are given and the time we are given is basically handed over to others on what is essentially their agendas not our own. No, I am just as guilty as anyone else when it comes to this but, not as bad as most. I was once told to allow myself a 24 hour limit to my personal “PITY” party and then get over myself and move on. Otherwise I am allowing the thing, incident, experience, person, or whatever it was to hijack me, my emotion and my precious most valuable commodity…..MY TIME!
Today for instance you are reading this blog post, why are you here? Take a look over at your calendar in whatever format you keep your daily log, appointments, calorie intake, work in and look at it. What have you accomplished thus far? Is this perhaps a dalliance of escape for you, or perhaps you are trying to avoid doing something that you really do not want to start or to finish? Perhaps you are just board and you need to get yourself revved up and you have decided to go surfing minus the water and board.
What I just did was hijack you from reading. We humans are really weak at times and are easily thrown off course, distracted and we love to chase after the next bright shinny object in order not to experience pain. But it is that pain, that pursuit, that sweat, that stumbling and falling and picking ourselves back up again, over and over which gives up the hope and the will and the determination to cross the finish line. We want to figure things out. We do not want to have things figured out for us. We want to feel a sense of accomplishment, and to say…..”I did it! I actually did if afraid! I was so unsure, but I just kept putting one foot in front of the other and one small victory after another and today, I am taking a VICTORY LAP!” Have you ever felt that way?
I have never liked the saying: “No Pain – No Gain” because of the way it was used in the past. For our conversation here, the pain isn’t one of physical hurting, it is more of regret: “….I wish I would have done…….I know if I had only ……..I have more information now and I know what questions to ask the next time I go down this path….” You see it isn’t about the destination; it is about continual learning, adjusting, recalibrating, and taking a few steps forward and some steps backwards. This is a learning process.
How are you investing in yourself? When did you last invest in yourself? What one new thing have you learned this year? If you do not have an answer for any of the three questions; you are way overdue.
I recently invited a distinguished group of local key leaders to a learning and leadership growth event where they were simply asked to show up and spend a couple of hours with several of the top leaders who write, speak, train, consult and run companies of their own on this very topic of “Investing In Yourself” for the purposes of lifting your own personal lid as a leader so that you can in turn raise the lid of those whom you lead. Their answers did not surprise me one bit! Their answers were much like those of the average person on the street that I encounter everyday and many of those whom I have coached and mentored over the years.
“I’m so busy leading, running my business,….I just don’t have time in my packed schedule to attend one more thing!” Translated this is what I heard: “……I do not care enough nor value myself nor those I am currently leading to invest in raising my lid so that I may become a better leader and in turn raise the lid of those I lead and bring them along with me to a higher level of being.”
How much do you value yourself?
How much do you value those you lead?
I am a firm believer in have a “Lifetime Plan of Growth”. You probably never heard of such a thing, most people think I am 
crazy when I talk about it – psst – guess what, those are the people who are not growing and are dissatisfied in their lives. 
Oh yes, I am talking their personal lives, love life, their relationships, in their professional lives, they don’t like their J-O-B, they are looking to blame somebody, you know the type of personal I am talking about.
You see a person who is learning and growing is happy, forward focused and can’t wait for tomorrow and they want to teach others. They want to life others up and take them with them.
If you would like to explore how beginning a Plan of Growth can improve your life; I strongly encourage you to fill out the box right here and get started. There’s no hard sell here, you are growing or you are dying. It is pretty simply. What have you got to lose?
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