16 Powerful Ways To Invest In Yourself

The fastest way to improve your life is to invest in you.

Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, “We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.”

If we want to change who we are and our situation, we need to do so with a “new level of thinking.”

If you are not 100% satisfied with your life, it is incumbent on you to change. Here are ways to improve your life.

Invest In Your Mind: Education

Watch Educational Shows:
Instead of mindlessly watching another Netflix series, find documentaries or Youtube channels that cover a topic you want to learn more about. Learning more about this subject might light this passion of yours into something more.

Learn New Topics Online:
Similar to the previous one, this is more tactical. If you want to learn how to create something specific, ie. a patio deck, this would be a topic you learn about for a particular activity. My daughter spent close to two hours watching how to create a patio deck using pallets. Labor Day week, she and her grandfather built it. It is unlikely she will be building another patio any time soon.

Read Books and eBooks:
There is a new book or eBook coming out every day on almost any topic you would like to know about. Why not explore through the written word? Please don’t be a part of the “80% of US families [who] did not buy or read a book last year.“

Invest In Your Relationships

Love Yourself:
Jesus told us in Matthew 22:39 and Mark 12:31 that we are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. In order to do that, we first need to love ourselves. This topic is worthy of a book but suffice it to say, we need to learn to love ourselves; so consider these aspects of love from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8b (ESV)

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

Stay In Touch With Family:
If you have healthy family relationships, do your best to email, text, or best of all, call a family member regularly. This does not mean just parents or siblings. Connect with aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and see how they are doing and keep up to date on family news.

Choose Your Friends Wisely:
Motivational speaker Jim Rohn famously said that we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with. Be wise in who you let into your life and what they say.

Don’t Worry About Opinions:
Katherine Mansfield, a New Zealand author, famously said, “Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth.”

Stop Trying To Win Approval:
As much as we might want others to approve of us, we will never be able to do it. We need to be true to who we are and what God has called us to do. If we are true to God’s calling in our lives, He is the only one who needs to approve of us. I could myself among those that lived this way for years. I tried to gain the approval of various people in my life. I stopped trying to win approval when I realized that it was like chasing the wind.

Invest In Your Mind: Skills

Learn More Skills:
Mahatma Gandhi said, “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” we are always in need of learning a new skill. The world is always changing. Tech skills need to be continuously updated. Skills from the past also need to be learned. Take time to learn to sew, garden, keep bees, learn basic carpentry skills, and more. A skill is the ability to do something well. Gain expertise in a new area of life.

Start A Hobby
One way to practice a skill is to begin a new hobby. What do you want to learn for pleasure? Not to become an expert or start a business around? I have no ill-conceived idea of becoming a golf pro. One of my hobbies is golf. I yearn for that feeling after hitting a solid shot. The problem for me is that I ofter hit 20-30 bad, or less than good, shots before I hit that perfect solid shot. But golf does get me outdoors and walking.

Learn A New Language:
For those that love to travel, learning a new language and then traveling to that area can be a reward in its own right. For others, they might want to learn the coding language of computers. Still, others might want to learn American Sign language in order to interact with the deaf community. Find a language and start today.

Practice Gratitude:
In recent weeks, I have seen the following quote in my various social media feeds and it is worth repeating. “Your terrible job is the dream of every unemployed. Your house is the dream of every homeless. Your smile is the dream of the depressed. Your health is the dream of the ill. Your lifestyle is the dream of somebody else. Don’t let difficult times make you forget your blessings.”

Practice Meditation:
Meditation does not mean Eastern Mysticism. It means spending focused time concentrating on something. You can practice deliberate breathing exercises. You can contemplate larger issues. Or you can meditate on the meaning of a passage of Scripture.

Challenge Yourself Daily:
If you can challenge yourself to improve 1% a day for a year, at the end of the year, you would have increased 37.8% during that time. Even at 0.5%, you would have finished the year 6.2% better off than when your year started. Grow only happens when we are challenged. Muscle grows when put under strain. Muscle atrophies when not challenged.

Visualize Success:
Brian Tracy tell us, “All successful people, men and women, are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be, ideal in every respect, and then they work every day toward their distant vision, that goal or purpose.”

Forgive Others:
The Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:32(ESV) “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” Author Jonathan Lockwood Huie is known as “The Philosopher of Happiness.” He tells us, “Forgive others, not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace.”