78. Investing in Yourself

Hey, Hey. Hey, my curious friends, welcome to episode 78. Now, before I get started, I wanna remind you that you can share comments about each episode by visiting jasonramden.com/episode, and then the number of the episode you're commenting on. So for this episode, it would be jasonramden.com/episode 78. It's super easy. And I will personally respond to all comments made on the site because, you know, I believe that's how we all come together as a community. Also, if you're a regular listen. Or a fan of this episode. Do me a favor, please. And go ahead and click that five star rating on iTunes and write a review. Intentionally curious, only grows when awesome listeners like you take the time to rate and review this show. All right. Let's dive into today's topic, investing in yourself. Have you ever considered what it means to invest in yourself? All right. Maybe you've taken a class, write a book, listened to a podcast or learned a new language. Right? All of those are examples of what you can do to invest in yourself. And are those just one-offs or do you take the time to invest in yourself regularly? Okay. Here's the thing investing in yourself regularly is the key to sending the world the message that you are forced to be reckoned with. It really is. It says, listen, I'm here to do good things for myself. It says I'm important. It says, I believe in myself, it says I'm going to give myself the attention and I need, uh, you know, I scratch that. It says I'm going to give my attention, going to give myself the attention that I deserve. You deserve to invest in yourself. So in this episode, we're gonna jump into 10 ways. You can invest in yourself, starting right today. Heck you probably wanna do this episode and just stop right after each of the 10 ways. Just do a thought download of anything that comes to mind for that particular suggestion. This episode is one where you're gonna just take your time. You're gonna dive in. You're gonna go. All right. I'll be here every step of the way. So don't feel bad about pressing pause, coming back to it, doing a download and repeating that. Okay. It's, it's a really good process for you to get in the habit of, of course, don't do it if you're driving. Right. But if you're at home or you're doing chores, you know, just take a moment, like let's get into it. Right. Okay. Here's the list. Number one, set goals. I know people talk about setting goals all the time and truth be told is I used to struggle with it myself until I started to make it part of my daily routine. So if you're not setting goals for yourself personally and professionally, then it's like trying to walk into the woods without a light to guide you. Right. You're gonna get lost without the light. You're gonna get lost. It's just gonna, you're gonna get off track and there's a good chance that you know what, there's a really good chance you're gonna run into a. Okay, that won't happen if you don't set goals, but thinking about how much time you'd be wasting, if you didn't take the time to set goals for yourself is a bear, right? It's a bear to try to figure out what to do and where to go and how to make things happen. So you don't wanna be walking around without a true north to guide you because that just leaves you directionless. And that's what goals are all about. So for me, this happens each day. So I envision what I want to accomplish that day. I also have set yearly goals, as well as the strategy from Tony Robbins that I encourage you to consider. Okay. So it really goes like, what do you want to achieve in the area of personal develop? So think about things like that you wanna learn or limitations you want to overcome or ways you wanna improve your mind and your body or your relationships, or how to communicate better. Like what think about those things you wanna improve yourself? Anything that you want to do for you? Those, those are personal development goals. Next consider what do you want to achieve in your business or with your personal finances? So how much money do you wanna make in a year or what career goals do you have or what investment goals do you have? Or what about even just, you know, playing money management goals? Okay. How much do you wanna spend on travel and adventure on fun? Right. Go big, like think really big. The, these are, this is the time to like really dream about what you wanna achieve with yourself. All right. Next there's specific adventure goals, which I really love. I love the specific adventure goals, for instance, like where do you want to go? What do you wanna see? What do you want? Do you know what things that, that may be exciting to. And then finally, what are your contribution goals? What do you want to do to give back to others? All right. So here are mine for the next 12 months. Just you have an idea. It's an example., so for me personally, I want to become fluent in Spanish. That's my goal. I'm okay. In Spanish. I can read it. All right. You know, I can read it pretty well and I can understand it a little, but I really wanna become fluent in Spanish financially. Shoot. I think this is a good goal for anybody, but personally, I want my family to live debt free. I wanna get outta debt. I wanna live debt free. My adventure goal is to visit Italy. And then finally my contribution goal is to volunteer locally, to give back. What you do, like once you go through this process, you spend time thinking about all these big goals. The final step is just to take time twice a day, to rehearse and experience those goals. Like what would it actually feel like if they were done and you were in the middle of them? Right. What would it feel like to achieve those one year goals? It's pretty, pretty freeing, and it's a great way to invest in yourself. All right. Number two. I think we all know this, but we forget it is listen to your gut, trust it. Right? Know that the messages that your gut sends you are, are actually valuable and they're worth listening to your gut can help you make better decisions. Right? I know it sounds funny, but people say trust your gut for a reason. And what I have found is that when you start to examine your thoughts, start to examine your feelings and you understand that your thoughts and your feelings drive all of your actions in. You become free, right? It also helps to know that your thoughts and your feelings are directly responsible for your results in life. So when you're paying close attention to your thoughts and feelings, you can like help yourself find a better way to have better results in your life because you know, you're, you're trusting your gut, right? You will a hundred percent make better decisions when you're understand that trusting your gut is about your thoughts and feelings. Okay. Number. Be creative. I know, I know. Right. Be creative. Right. We all are. I think everybody truly is creative. You just haven't really tapped into that part of yourself recently. So when you tap into your creative self, you become energized, right? It, it gives you a little bit of inspiration. And I think when you tap into your creativity, you kind of appreciate the world around you. And I know being creative might not come naturally to you, but take a look at what you enjoy doing. Right. Do you like cooking? Maybe crafting. What about writing or reading when you hear be creative? I, I know you may think instantly that I'm not an artist and that's really not the point. Right. Being creative. Isn't about becoming an artist rather. It's about tapping into your inner child, right? The one that like to explore, to learn new things and ask the question. Why? So being creative can be as simple as asking yourself questions. Like how can I become more creative or how can I learn something? Or what does the world have to offer me being creative? Isn't about being artistic. It's all about being creative in your thinking when it comes to improving yourself. All right. So be creative, number four. Put the time into growing your confidence. I believe a hundred percent in my heart that people are not born confident or not confident. I believe that confidence is learned and confidence comes from investing in yourself. That's why this episode is so important. Confidence grows when you take the time to take risks. So going back to being creative, right? That's a risk. So yeah, failure is a part of, of growing confidence. And you have to accept that, right? In order to succeed in order to build confidence, you have to try and fail. And I'm not really talking about epic fails here or taking gigantic huge risks. Okay. Think about this. Maybe you've never baked a cake before. What if you gave it a dry? It's a, it's literally a small risk to take. And if it flops, it's not really a big deal, right? You try again, or you don't try again, but you should try again until you get that cake to be the way that you want it. Heck listen, you might even find you're good at it and that you enjoy it. When you continually invest in yourself, your confidence will naturally grow as. You might even find that you're good at a lot of things that you never thought you could or would be good at because you never know until you try. So number four, take a risk today and work on building that confidence. Number five. Learn, always learn. Always, always learn, never stop learning, buy a book, get one from the library, listen to a podcast, read the newspaper. When you take the time to invest in learning something and building your knowledge, you have something that no one can ever, ever take away from you. Right? Knowledge is power. Once you learn it, it can't be taken away from you. And while I always try and make a point to practice my Spanish or read or listen to a book or read an article every day, the one point I think is important here is that, and I'm gonna divert for a second because I don't think watching the news is what I mean by learning. The news to me is not educational. I think the entire point of stop learning, right, or the entire point of never stop learning is to build your knowledge and expertise on things of interest to you. And the news won't get that done for you. Right. And I'm sorry to be a little preachy there, but there are so many people who believe that the news is learning and I just happen to disagree. So take some time to learn something new for yourself, not about the world around you, per se, unless you're going to take, you know, go on a ni nature hike, or pick up a book about local things to do whatever it may be, but, you know, take time to learn. Number six, learn some more. Yeah, I know this one is about taking seminars and workshops. When I say learn more. So there's a ton of free resources out there on so many subjects. And there are so many seminars and workshops that can connect you to people who have similar interests as you. So I have a goal to attend at least one workshop or seminar a month, right? This can include a webinar or it can include in person, whatever it may be. And in fact, like later today, I'm taking the time to, to attend a free webinar called less stress sessions, how to manage your time. All right. It's just some edifications I learning for me like, so when you find something that can help you improve your life, take the time to learn it, learn something new and take advantage of the free resources that are all around. Number seven. If you do anything on this list, do this one. Okay. Take care of your health, please. Please take care of your health. I, in hindsight probably should have listed this as number one, because it is so important. And one that I have started to take seriously myself and I can't stress it enough. What you eat and how you fuel your body is an investment you're making in yourself. And the steam holds true for exercise and journaling and writing and meditating and walking and, and, and right, the list goes on and on and on. You'll never regret taking care of yourself, never and making this. The first thing you invest in can literally change your life and heck it might even save your life. So number seven, take care of your. Number eight. Well, that's about happiness, right? So before I dive into it, just remember this, right? Your life is filled with choices and you make hundreds of choices a day, whether you know it or not. So why not choose to be happy? And I know people say, well, I can't choose to be happy. I get it. You might be saying that. And that's okay. Right. People say, I can't choose to be happy because of the circumstances in my life. Because someone else said something or did something or made you feel something. But listen, when I tell you that being happy is a choice. It's because you can choose how you think. And I've said this before, like when you choose how you think that generates feelings and those feelings create actions and those actions generate the results in your life. So if you choose to think differently, you can a hundred percent choose to be happy. I know it's true because I believe in you, he, I believe in your ability to change. All right. Number nine. What do you want outta life? Like what are your bucket list items? Where do you want to go? What do you wanna have? What do you wanna achieve? How much money do you want? And I know when you hear bucket list, your brain tells you, oh no, I can't afford to have a buck bucket list. And I would say, yes, you. Yes, and you need one, you need to have a bucket list, right? You need to have dreams that fuel you. Right? I can live the life of my dreams and it really starts with cranking out your bucket list. That's what you need to say to yourself and go ahead and do it. Now, press pause right down as many things as you can think of that you want to do have become whatever it may be, but create that list and start scratching stuff off of it. Go big, go small, go in between, but create the list. Number 10, finally, number 10, invest in a coach. I get it. I'm a coach, but I also have a coach. And I can tell you that when you have a coach, you begin to see life differently. You become more self-aware you learn tools that you can use every day to become a better human being. When you have a coach, you get some someone in your life whose job it is to help you create and implement a life plan to help you create those goals, to help you cross goals off the list, right? The goals you develop, right? The dreams that you can achieve, that all comes from working on yourself and becoming a better person. Coaching has literally changed my life, and I know it can change yours as. All right. I know I have thrown a ton at you. So to recap, I'm gonna give you the list. Again, one set goals. Two, go with your gut three, be creative four. Build your confidence. Five read and learn. Six, go to workshops seven, but should be one. Get healthy. Eight. Choose happiness. Nine. Make a bucket list and 10 invest in a coach. Finally do this right now. Go to jasonramsden.com/episode78 and share one item from your bucket list in the comments. I want to hear what you're going after so I can support you in your journey. So go ahead and get over there right now. jasonramsden.com/episode78 and gimme one of your bucket list items in the comment. And I looked forward to seeing you there and hearing more about. All right. My friends, that's a wrap on this week's episode and always remember, be willing, be curious and be intentional. And until next week, keep doing the work. You've got this.