Invest in Yourself to the Point That It Makes Someone Else Want to Invest in You
“When you’re good to others, you’re best to yourself.” — Benjamin Franklin
When you hear the word investment, the first thing that probably comes to mind is finance. But you can invest in much more than companies, certificates, or real estate.
I had just received several successive promotions over 3 years and was really involved in my work.
My boss was very charismatic and I did everything I could to succeed.
But one day I learned that he was leaving the company! And that a new boss from outside will be appointed.
The relationship was going well at first, and he encouraged me.
3 months later, it’s a cold shower.
The new boss announced a reorganization that took away ⅔ of my scope and demoted me from the organization.
Like a punch landed, I’m knocked out.
And a knot in my stomach the next day when I was asked to accept.
Fortunately, I managed to turn down the position that was planned and jump to another position abroad in another subsidiary.
But that shock made me realize how fragile it was to depend solely on salary to live.
It was this event that made me decide to invest in myself.
For me, investing in yourself means investing time, energy, and money to grow and develop.
Note that I said time, energy, and money.
Also, note that I started by saying time.
Money’s best friend is time. Money’s best enemy… is time!
As I like to remind people who tell me they have no money: invest (or invest) time!
The reverse also works very well: you don’t have time to invest money!
Also note that I said to grow and develop, which means it’s not just about (as most people who talk about self-investment spontaneously think) training or education.
Inevitably, as I’ve just mentioned and as you know or imagine, self-investment is often linked to education, training… or learning.
Everyone Invests In Something
I often notice in practice that many people find it difficult to invest in themselves: they find it difficult to spend money on themselves, for their well-being, their happiness, and their long-term fulfillment.
It’s as if we think we’re not worth it. This is absolutely false!
There is a real correlation between self-investment and self-esteem.
When someone hesitates to invest in themselves, it’s because they have low self-esteem.
We don’t think we’re important enough to take time for ourselves. And even less to dedicate a budget to it.
When we don’t trust our luck, we don’t buy a ticket to play the lottery. When you don’t believe in the future of a relationship, you don’t invest time in developing it.
The same mechanisms apply to personal development.
It’s important to invest in yourself simply because you’re worth it. You have value. And that value only deserves to grow, to flourish.
Nobody Will Do It For You
When you lack self-confidence, it’s hard to see the benefits you could get from investing in yourself.
Until we are convinced that we can be happy, we will be reluctant to invest in the means to do so. This goes for training to acquire skills, an activity you dream of doing, etc.
We tend to put ourselves in the background in our lives while we are the actors of our present and our future.
Prioritizing and investing in yourself also means loving yourself and allowing yourself to say so.
It means giving yourself the right to go as far as you can. It also means giving yourself the means to heal, to turn the page, to put an end to your painful past, and to move on.
As you may have realized, I strongly encourage you to put yourself at the forefront of your life: no one will do it for you!
Investing in yourself is investing in the long term, it’s allowing yourself to fly high and grow in order to feel fulfilled, aligned, and free!
When you acquire a better knowledge of yourself or new skills, you keep this treasure for the rest of your life.
Investing in Yourself Is an Act of Self-Love
You can offer yourself training that you’ve had the urge to do for a long time, do coaching to achieve your goals and eliminate blockages, start psychotherapy to understand yourself better, and pay for retraining that makes sense to you…
We can invest in different ways, keeping your vision in mind and aligned with our values.
Investments in your own network, in your health, in knowledge and experience, or in personal development can ultimately yield even more than any stock market share.
This is where I like to remind you that we are largely responsible for our level of achievement.
Others can’t make the decision to leave our work for us, it’s not up to them to invest in us, even if they can help us realize our value and encourage us to initiate change.
Investing in yourself is equipping yourself with the tools to create change, get out of the feeling of powerlessness, and take action in your development. Tools to heal your traumas, get to know yourself better, take care of your mental health, etc.
Our system has largely valued the value of skills in relation to our level of achievement. The result: we find ourselves overqualified, with an extensive CV and the skills you want, but unsatisfied.
We equip ourselves to chart our course and “build a career”, taking out loans of several tens of thousands of dollars in the blink of an eye to obtain recognized degrees, but we have no way of knowing what we want out of life.
Imagine for a second the level of knowledge you would have of yourself if you had invested in yourself everything you invested in your studies and career.
Investing in Yourself Makes People Want to Invest in You
The cost of a session with a psychiatrist or a coaching session may seem high. This is all the more true as you don’t feel like you’re consuming a product that you can take home and contemplate for hours.
But these sessions represent a completely different kind of gain: they generate confidence, allow you to break down self-destructive mechanisms, and create change. And that’s profitable.
In fact, what we gain in personal development belongs to us. No one can steal it from us and it’s rare to go back.
Without the few thousand dollars I’ve invested in coaching, therapy, reading, and support, I probably wouldn’t be where I am today. Any change has a cost and I’m glad I paid it!
Investing in yourself also means taking action in all areas of your life by ricochet effect.
Because when we change, the systems around us change: our relationships, our level of tolerance for discomfort, our demands, and our goals.
The best investment you can make is the one that can’t be taken away from you, that you can’t be taxed on and that won’t fall victim to inflation: it’s investing in yourself. It’s the best investment because it replaces and surpasses all others.