Good, Better Best. Never let it rest. Till the Good is Better! And the Better is Best! – St. Jerome
Invest in yourself! Always strive to give your best. The best way to do this is through personal development.
I exercise every day and enjoy it! I read a book a week and love reading! Every month I celebrate reaching and exceeding my goals!
It hasn’t always been like this. Before exercise, before investing time in reading and before I 10X my goals, I over-rationalized, made excuses, and even justified my lack of action for myself as being too busy, too stressed, too tired, and even believed it really was not that important.
Does this sound like someone you know, too?
Over the past twenty-six years, I have been a high performance teacher and educational leader for others, but not always great at investing in me.
I’ve been grateful to experience significant transformations of individuals and teams. I have seen numerous gains and impact when individuals and groups invest time and energy on personal development.
So, I was determined that I was going to invest myself, too.
As you can tell this was truly amazing, because I even set aside money in my budget for myself. My first expenditure was a week long professional development for teachers in Oregon that I had always wanted to attend but made every excuse of why I couldn’t afford it in previous years.
As you can imagine, it was one of the best professional development that I have ever experienced.
This was the starting point for feeling good about investing in myself. It also led all aspects of my life. I repeated my actions in areas in my life that I wanted to improve.
Best Gift Ever – Gift of Time
During the last spring break: I had the time to write down my goals, had the time to dream and imagine what I truly wanted in life, and immersed myself in books. Then I got serious. I wrote targets to my goals that would stretch my skill sets, my comfort level, require support from others, and help me feel like a million bucks.
It worked! What gets written down, get’s done!
My Gift of 10 Minutes of Time
The biggest target required time every morning and every night to address my goals. I placed journal and pen on the table next to the most comfortable couch in the world. So after my morning walk, I grab a cup of coffee, sit on the couch, and begin writing. This lasts about 5 – 10 minutes, the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee. I keep goals and targets short and clear. In the evenings, I grab a big glass of water and write down the celebrations of the goals accomplished and any personal connections. At first I found this challenging to find things to celebrate but now I’m more detailed and able to quickly fill the page.
Here’s what is exciting!
It’s not the act of accomplishing the goals that makes me happy or motivated. It is autonomy, the feeling of getting to do what I want to do that challenges me, focusing on my energy for the day, providing me a sense of gratitude and celebration, and helping me feel positive about myself.
The fact is, learning about you and what makes you happy and prosperous are only going to spread to others and thus create more happiness and prosperity.
And you know what? Autonomy makes you feel stronger.
Therefore, investing in yourself and personal development are going to make you healthy, more focused, more challenged, and more prosperous.
Now it is your turn to determine what your personal development will look like and feel like.
What do you want this next year? What actions do you want to take this year? And most importantly, how are you going to make the time to invest in yourself?