“We are all self-made, but only the successful will admit it”—Earl Nightingale
Before you move on, let Mr. Nightingale’s words sink into the crevices of your psyche. Fight whatever mental or emotional resistance you might be experiencing because this is a drop the mic kind of moment! In less than fifteen words, Earl Nightingale has essentially summed up the power of lifestyle choices. Right now, I am sitting on my sofa, trying to squeeze the best out of the 5a-6a hour by working on my blog before I continue with my day. In the recent past, that hour was spent fueling my anxieties. Even further back, I’d be sleeping because I didn’t have anything that ignited me enough to make me want to start my day earlier. During all of this though, life never stopped, and every decision and action, essentially every investment in the brand of Me, was continuously yielding…something.
Truth is, in my mind, I was only counting the positive decisions as investments. So, when I did anything to the contrary, I would literally think, “O, why did you do that <negative thing>? You need to invest in yourself!” Well newsflash my dear! That was an investment deposit and, um, you’re probably not going to like the returns. It is only now that Ms. 20/20 Hindsight has noticed that my Me investments were both constant and falling into three, let’s say, investment styles: passive, reactive or proactive.
Passive Investment Style
I’ve had periods of just coasting through life. I didn’t know what the next steps were going to be. My Me investments were definitely not targeted. My life was like those pre-packaged investment portfolios your job offers that are based on your age group. The younger you are, the riskier the portfolio. I’m still in one of those by the way but I know that if I did the research, I could probably create a more customized portfolio that might have better returns. It’s on my list.
When I was knee deep in my passive lifestyle, my losses were minimal and my gains were mediocre. Whatever achievements I made lacked passion and therefore sustainability. While it was easy to live this way, I would never feel fulfilled. I simply lacked purpose.
Reactive Investment Style
To give you a sense of my reactive investment style, let’s set the mood with some backstory. So, I jump straight into a PhD program after graduating with my Bachelors. Again, here comes Ms. Hindsight to suggest to me in year ‘too-bloody-late’, when I’m behind on key milestones that, meh, maybe I should have done my Master’s instead. She finally lets me in on a very precious nugget of PhD wisdom: “If you lack the passion for your area of interest, it’s going to be a L.O.N.G. next 7-10 years”. So, like I said, I’m in year ‘too-bloody-late’ and I’m more than a little concerned. Coincidentally, I move out to live on my own for the first time ever shortly after starting my program and life gets real fast! My nice structured world goes helter-skelter. My plans scurry out of my reach like mice when you turn the lights on! I’m racking up student loan debt! I’m freaking out about my personal relationships! I’m emotionally shopping folks!
Every decision I made in those days was to try to prevent me from slipping further into the madness. I suffered major losses during that time. Heck it seemed as if I were better off in my coasting lifestyle! But you know what, taking risks is risky! And even though it was rough, I’ve grown to appreciate going through it.
Proactive Investment Style
This blog is dedicated to the proactive lifestyle. I’ve spoken about it here, here and here. If I were to operationally define how making proactive decisions up the value of my Me portfolio, then I’d say the following goals must to be met:
- I am maintaining my peace-of-mind
- I am fulfilling my purpose
- I am balancing my life (and by balancing I mean that in the end my whole self will sum up to 100% but there will be certain areas in my life that will hold greater substance than others)
- I am constantly in a state of progressing and learning in all domains of my life, not necessarily at the same pace, but definitely in the same direction
- I am actively seeking out and efficiently utilizing the resources in my life to ensure the most positive and beneficial outcomes for myself and my loved ones
- I am sacrificing what is necessary to achieve my goals
- I am taking the time, patience and energy to learn who I am
- I am learning from my mistakes
- I am capitalizing on my successes
- I am committed to and focused on bettering myself
That’s it in a nutshell. Your Me investments might be set up differently. I like mine because they are broad enough to fit any of my domains of living. Also, notice that the actions are continuous. Maintaining my Me portfolio can no longer be a ‘set it and forget it’ task. I am progressing and I need to keep up with that forward motion.
What’s your take on investing in yourself? What’s your investment style? What about those around you? Are you associated with others who share your own style? Talk back!
Always interested to hear your thoughts,
Olanta
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