Invest in Yourself

There are so many types of financial investments, but we rarely consider one of the most important investments you can make – and that is learning how to invest in yourself. 

We try our best to invest our time, money, and energy in our finances, homes, family, jobs, and other priorities wisely. What we neglect to remember is all of these things have a tendency to drain us mentally, physically, emotionally, socially, and even spiritually.  We give so much to other things we don’t think about how important it is to invest in ourselves. Maybe it’s time to change that. Listen in and learn more about the benefits of investing in yourself, as well as a few ways you can start doing that right now. After all, you are worth it. 

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Transcript

 There are so many types of financial investments, and with each one, you need to do your homework to know which one has the lowest risk for the best possible return. What you don’t want to do is lose money, so if you don’t have a financial advisor that monitors your investments, you need to watch them on an almost daily basis, to ensure they are working the way you want them to.  

When it comes to financial investments, we think in terms of 401Ks, stocks, bonds, and anything else that has a decent interest and return rate. Some of us can afford to invest heavily, and others are just thrilled they can keep a passbook savings account open. 

But there is another type of investment we all need to have, and it is more than affordable. And the only advisor you need is you. What is this type of investment? It’s simple. It’s called the IIY Plan – which translates to the Invest in Yourself Plan.

We try our best to invest our time, money, and energy in our finances, homes, family, jobs, and other priorities wisely. What we neglect to remember is all of these things have a tendency to drain us mentally, physically, emotionally, socially, and even spiritually.  We give so much to other people and activities we don’t think about how important it is to invest in ourselves. Maybe it’s time to change that. 

First, let’s talk about what it means to invest in something. When you make an investment, whether it is your time, money, energy, or anything else, we place what is valuable to us into something with the intention of seeing some type of return. 

We invest in a 401k to help us make ends meet when we retire. We invest time in our children with the intention of helping them to become successful. And we invest our energy into a project that hopefully will turn out to save us time, add beauty and meaning to our lives, or for any other reason we see where that project has potential. 

The same principle applies when you invest in yourself. You are investing in one of the best things you have to offer. You. And that investment produces a good return.

First, investing in yourself helps to build a knowledge and skills base. Using these can help you move forward with any goals you set, or job you have to do, whether that is through your employment or at home. As you build on these basics, you can start to grow and advance. 

Investing in yourself can also boost your confidence level. Having self-confidence can help you tackle new skills, obstacles, and issues by knowing you have what it will take to learn, overcome, or rebound. Self-confidence also helps to reduce fear, stress, and anxiety. And it may also help you to deflect the naysayers who think you should be doing more, rather than actually enjoying the simple life you’ve created for yourself. 

The next benefit of investing in yourself is that it can broaden your perspective. As you work towards building your ‘investment’, you begin to see outside the box more easily. This can open up new and different opportunities, or ways to adapt new skills or knowledge to how you accomplish your goals.

Your health is also a benefit. As with any financial investments, you want to protect your assets. With self-investment, you are the asset. You will be encouraged to eat healthier, exercise more to protect your physical body, and work towards mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing to protect the rest of you.

Investing in yourself may also help you to better adapt to change. By learning more skills, you are preparing for whatever the future may hold. Living a Simple Life is filled with changes and challenges. But by building your knowledge and skills base, you can quickly adapt to the changes, and even embrace them as an opportunity to learn even more new skills. 

It's also possible that investing in yourself can give you more motivation and energy to spend time taking care of your investment. This may mean setting aside personal time to just enjoy your simple life, pause for reflection, or spend time just doing something you love to do. 

Knowing why you should invest in yourself is only half the story. The other half is finding a way to do it. 

There are many ways you can invest in yourself. These are just a few of the ways you can get started.

Learn as much as you can. Learning is the way you build your knowledge and skills base. You learn by reading, studying, being hands-on, making mistakes, trying again, and working your way towards success. 

To give you an example: I stumbled upon a book called The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History, by Kassia St. Claire. As I read it, I became fascinated by the history of spinning, weaving, and how fabric has been used throughout time. This led to reading more books about the history of crafting. 

One of my goals is to learn how to spin. I have the wheel, roving, watched videos, and tried, but something from my brain to my hands to the wheel just was not connecting properly. In my search for other books on the history of spinning and weaving, I found Clara Parkes’ book Vanishing Fleece, and Jane Cooper’s The Lost Flock. As I read these books, I began to develop a deeper passion and appreciation for spinning.

And I tried again. I won’t tell you that I am now an expert spinner. But when I realized that learning to spin was one way I could invest in myself through one of my passions, it made me want to try harder. After reading these books, I focused more on how the roving felt in my hands, which led to improving my drafting skills, which ultimately led to finally spinning a bit of yarn. No, it’s not suitable for using yet, but I am more comfortable with the process. And even if I haven’t mastered the skill yet, I know that it is already paying dividends, so to speak. Learning to spin helps me to relax, acts as a stress reliever, and is working towards improving my focus. Eventually, some of my handmade gifts will include handspun yarn. And that’s something that can make my heart sing!

Okay. Let me regroup from that little detour and get back on track to how you can invest in yourself. 

We’ve already talked about becoming healthier as a self-investment. The next step is up to you. Create an exercise program. Choose to eat at least one healthier meal a day to start, and then build up to an overall healthier diet. Drink more water. And on the mental and emotional side of health, practice self-encouragement, random acts of kindness, and putting together a list of self-affirmations. 

You can also mix both types of investments together – financial and self. Create a budget and do your best to stick with it. Start a spending and savings plan. Sleep on it before making a large purchase. Being financially sound can ease stress and anxiety and help you to feel better prepared to handle any costly emergencies in the future.

Here are a few more tips that may come in handy. 

Start small. The quickest way to give up on anything you start to do is to go at it hard and heavy and end up overwhelmed. When you do that, the likelihood of you quitting increases exponentially.  Take it one step at a time, get comfortable with that step until it becomes more of a routine, then take the next one. 

Think Smart and Practical. I may love spinning and am enthralled with what it takes to get fleece from the sheep to the spinning wheel, but I’m smart enough to know that raising a rare breed sheep on our farm is as far from practical as you can get. Know your limitations, and even embrace them. Think of more practical ways you can accomplish your goals. 

And speaking of goals – when you invest in yourself you need to set them. Know what you want to achieve (the overall goal), how you want to achieve it (the action steps) and offer yourself small rewards for each action step you complete. And then up the ante on that reward when the overall goal is reached.

Practice Patience. We may live in a world that believes instant gratification is our just due – but in reality, it takes time to accomplish most things. Don’t try to force instant success. Instead, enjoy each step of the process. Embrace your mistakes. Celebrate the small wins. And learn to happily anticipate a day in the future when you will succeed. 

And on that note, let me give you a final word of encouragement – You are already a huge success! You have set a broad goal to live a Simple Life. You can offer your personal definition of what that means to anyone who asks. You have set mini goals to achieve the broader goal and have a list of action steps for each of those. And you keep learning, trying, picking yourself up and dusting yourself off when you make a mistake, then start again. To me, that means you are making some serious investments in what is one of the most important and valuable assets you have – YOU.

Keep up the good work, and let me know if you have questions, need more encouragement, or want to learn another aspect of living a Simple Life. And if you happen to raise sheep, hug one for me and tell them I said thank you for all their beautiful fleece.  If you want to read more about fleece and rare breed sheep, be sure to click the link to my Amazon shop in the show notes, where you will find these and other fun books to read.

If you want to learn more about living a Simple Life, just visit my website at www.thefarmwife.com/ . If you’re enjoying listening to these podcasts, you can support the show by clicking the SUPPORT button in the show notes. When you do, you’ll be helping me continue bringing you fun and helpful ideas for living the Simple Life you love!

If you have questions or just want to stop in for a visit, you can do that through email at thevirtualporch@gmail.com. And be sure to subscribe – you don’t want to miss a single conversation. I'll be sitting on the porch every Monday morning waiting for your visit!

Thanks again for stopping in. I will see you next week on Living a Simple Life with a Back Porch View. And while you are waiting for the next episode, grab that glass of refreshment, pull up a rocker, and sit back for a while. It’s time to relax and enjoy.