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Investing in yourself is one of the best things you can do to change your own life and create a better future. When you invest in yourself, the skills and knowledge that you gain will stay with you forever.
Why It Is Important To Invest In Yourself
The world around you is changing so fast.
If you don’t keep your skills current and don’t improve yourself, you will end up in a situation where you either get laid off at your job or you are forever stuck where you are right now.
Just a while ago, I met up with a friend who is working at one of the top private equity firms in the country.
She is a very smart girl who graduated from Cambridge University.
When we met up, I noticed that she was carrying a bag full of study materials which actually reminded me of the old days where we were studying together in high school.
So, I asked her, “Are you studying for an exam?”
She smiled and said, ” No, I am just taking a machine learning course.”
Machine learning is a method of data analysis that automates analytical model building. It is a branch of artificial intelligence based on the idea that systems can learn from data, identify patterns and make decisions with minimal human intervention.
In fact, Google said that machine learning is the future.
So, when she told me that she is studying machine learning, I was really impressed by her attitude towards self-improvement.
At the same time, I made me reflect on myself.
You see, success doesn’t just happen to anyone.
It happens naturally when you have a great attitude towards always making progress and improving yourself.
How To Invest In Yourself
When it comes to investing in yourself, there are two parts to it.
The first part is to gain new knowledge.
The second (also more important ) part is to apply the knowledge in your own life and actually internalize it and make it your own.
Gain New Knowledge & Skill
The very first step is to spend time to improve your knowledge and skills in important areas of your life such as health, relationship, and money.
So, here’s how you can do that:
- Read books
- Listen to podcasts
- Follow a few thought leaders
- Attend courses/workshops/training
Read Books
Reading books are one of the best ways to invest in yourself.
I love to read books because it feels like the authors are transferring their years of knowledge and experience to me.
It’s really priceless if you can actually internalize their teachings and implement them in your life.
If you want to improve your sales skills, you can go to the library and borrow some of the BEST books on sales.
If you want to grow your wealth through investing, you can get your hands on some of the best investment books.
If you want to improve your relationship with your friends and family, you can read some of the best books on communication and persuasion.
For myself, I am a blogger and I am always looking to improve my copywriting skills.
One of the books I am reading right now is “Never Split The Difference” which is actually a negotiation book, but it really helped me become more persuasive in writing.
I found this great book by doing a simple Google search for best copywriting books.
So, what are some ways to find the best books to read?
Here are a few ways to help you save time going through thousands of book titles:
- Amazon Best Sellers
- Google for “Best Books +Topic”
- Google for “Books like + book title”
- Amazon reviews ( 4 stars and above)
Listen to Podcasts & Audio Tapes
Another free way to invest in yourself is to listen to podcasts.
For example, if you are into entrepreneurship, one of the best podcasts you can listen to is called “EOFire”.
This is a podcast where the host, John Lee Dumas, interviews inspiring entrepreneurs to help you on your entrepreneurial journey.
So far, over 2,000 incredible Entrepreneurs, including Tony Robbins, Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk, Barbara Corcoran and Tim Ferriss, have been interviewed on the podcast. .
One of the best ways to improve yourself is to learn from the people who have done it and achieved the success you want.
Follow Thought Leaders
Apart from books and podcasts, you can also find a lot of valuable (and free) information on the internet if you know where to look.
In fact, there are many industry experts who maintain a blog where they share their knowledge with their audience regularly.
For example, I follow a few content marketing thought leaders and experts online because I primarily use content marketing to grow my blog and my business.
By following them, I can learn from the brightest minds in the industry and stay up to update with the latest trend in content marketing.
Brian Dean of Backlinko.com is one of the experts I follow.
I am on his email list, so I will be notified if he publishes any new articles on his blog.
Of course, it doesn’t have to be related to your line of work.
You can also follow experts that can help you improve other areas of your life such as wealth, mindset and relationship.
For example, I also followed some of the best investment experts such as Warren Buffet and Ray Dalio.
Every year, Warren Buffet releases an annual letter to his Berkshire Hathaway investors.
I will always read his letter in full because I want to know how he makes his investment decisions.
Free & Paid Courses/Workshops/Training
Lastly, you can take courses or attend workshops to learn a new skill.
Increasingly, there are more and more online learning platforms that make learning very easy and convenient.
Here are some popular online learning platforms:
Online courses that are sold on these platforms are generally much cheaper with either free trial or money-back guarantee.
Apart from online learning platforms, there are also online courses created and sold independently by course creators themselves from their websites.
These are marketed and positioned as premium courses (a.k.a more expensive) with some even providing community and support.
For example, below are some examples of these online courses:
Apart from courses, there are also value-packed virtual workshops where you can learn from the leading experts for FREE.
For example, here’s one virtual workshop called “30 Day Summit” hosted by Russell Brunson who is one of the top online marketing experts and business coaches.
During this FREE online workshop “30 Day Summit”, he will share what he would do from day 1 to day 30, if he lost everything except his marketing knowledge.
Implement What You’ve Learned & Internalize
Gaining the knowledge is only the first step.
Without implementation, you won’t make any real progress or changes in your life.
For example, you can take one course after another course.
Maybe you will even invest in a coach to help you achieve the goals you want to achieve.
But if you don’t take action and implement what you have learned in the course or from the coach, you won’t get the results you want.
So, how do you actually make sure that you take action and apply what you have learned?
One of the biggest reasons that people never take action is that they let their fears of failure hold them back.
Before I started my personal finance blog, I had exactly the same fear and self-doubt in my mind.
I was always reading blogs after blogs and books after books.
And I even signed up for some of the free courses out there.
Guess what?
I didn’t do anything about it with the new knowledge that I’ve gained.
Here’s why.
I was scared of investing a lot of time and effort only to have it fail in the end.
And I remember saying to myself back then, ” There are already many personal finance bloggers. They all started much earlier than me and have already built a very large audience. How am I going to compete with that?”
You see, self-doubt and fear of failure are very normal, especially when you want to make a change and try something new.
Yes, realizing what is holding you back is important.
But, what is more important is to realize fear and doubt is a reaction but NOT a decision.
What that means is that you can DECIDE whether you want your fear and doubt to take control of your life or you want to choose courage and take action to change your life.
So, how did I decide to go ahead and start my personal finance blog?
First of all, I came to realize that competition is good because this means personal finance blogging niche is profitable.
Secondly, just because there are already many bloggers in the same niche DOESN’T mean that I cannot make money as a new blogger in the same niche.
Every blogger has their own unique story and attracts an audience that can relate to them.
This is like there are still many best-selling books being released every year by new authors, despite there are already many great books on the same topic.
If these new authors had let their fear and self-doubt hold them back, they would never know they could also become a best-selling author.
The same goes for one of my favorite fast-food restaurants – Shake Shack.
It was opened at a time when there were already so many popular fast food restaurant chains such as Mcdonalds, Chick-A-Fil, Wendy’s, Burger King and KFC.
If its founders had only seen competition instead of opportunity in the fast-food space, there would not be any Shake Shack.
Thirdly, I want to create an income-producing asset for myself for LIFE.
When it comes to income-producing assets, you might think of real estate, bonds or dividend stocks.
Yes, these are ALL income-producing assets.
But, your blog can also be an income-producing asset that generates monthly passive income for you.
The best part is that it is almost zero-risk. (You can start a blog with $2.95/month with Bluehost)
Free Training: How to start your blog and grow it from ZERO to a full-time income in less than 12 months
Summary
To invest in yourself, you have to know what new knowledge and skills you want to learn. Most importantly, you must design an action plan to implement what you have learned if you want to make a REAL change in your life.
If you choose a corporate career one factor in deciding where to work is by finding out what their training policy is. The company I worked for spent over $100k sending me to dozens of courses, seminars and conferences. They improved my public speaking skills, leadership and kept my technical skills razor sharp. It also helped me build a large network of world thought leaders in my field. And those trips were usually to destination cities where I not only learned and networked but enjoyed a nice all expense paid vacation. I think for people choosing to work for a corporation knowing how much training you’ll get during your career is a key factor in making a decision on who to work for. I ended up going from summer intern to running a billion dollar plus company and a lot of that had to do with the free training they provided me.
Thank you for your comment!
Yes, big companies have the budget to spend on their employee’s professional development.