Sometimes your investment might be physical, as you work your butt off and put blood, sweat, and tears into a project. Arguably, you can say that a physical investment is a bit easier to measure than an emotional investment that may pay off years down the line.
Anyway, physical definitely hits close to home for me, because I recently lost 60 lbs!
The physical investment has yielded new energy, a stronger sense of self and even my business has almost doubled as a by-product. A pretty successful investment so far!
So, what other types of investments are there?
Emotional Investment
People always talk about the value of changing your mindset or getting into a different headspace if you want to take something to the next level. And there’s food for thought in…being thoughtful.
An emotional investment requires you to try to shift your mindset about something, in order to change your outlook. This can be about finding ways to help your brain focus, so you can mix things up a gear and see things from a different perspective.
How can you do this? It’s really about finding what works for you and your brain. An emotional investment might include meditation, being mindful, or more solitude driven emotional investments like daily journaling to reflect on your feelings or trips to the beach, hiking, etc so you have the time and space to think things through.
Physical Investment
Physical investment is pretty self-explanatory. It’s about using physical movement and output to prompt change. You can create the conditions that are needed to take care of your body through healthy exercise.
There are a whole host of weird and wonderful ways you can stay fit and exercise, from skipping to soccer, it’s up to you. Your physical investment might include working out and strengthening, losing weight, team sports or playtime and activities.
The investment is the effort you’re putting into physical activity and it’s quite simple to work out whether you’ve put in the investment or not with how you can immediately feel afterward …and how long you need to sit down for!
Relationship Investment
One of the most fulfilling investments you can make is in others and your relationships. Getting closer and making new bonds helps you to connect with those around you and draw the help you need from a community or even create a community in the process. This can be done through networking and reaching out to people in your industry.
Sometimes it feels overwhelming doing this – I can remember a few events when I was starting out in my career, where I was a little apprehensive about meeting new people, but once you realize everyone’s in the same boat at an event, it feels less scary.
Family, romantic relationships and close friendships also balance out this category. Having close relationships with these people and investing in them will make you feel better and more connected generally, which means you have the resilience to deal with other areas of your life in better ways.
Creative Investment
The things that really stimulate your brain and get it flowing can come in many different flavors and of course, they won’t always revolve around work or be anything to do with it! In fact, it’s integral that you have interests that are nothing to do with work.
We’re all creative in our own ways – there’s this weird myth that some people are creative and others aren’t, just look at some people’s LinkedIn page and the way they go on about being ‘creative’.
But this simply isn’t true and we all have the capacity to think in creative ways! Perhaps you get your creative vibes from taking a pottery class or just doing some freestyle writing.
Whatever it is, keep doing it – it’s good for your wellbeing, lets you relax and helps you to think of better ideas too.
Experience Investment
One of the best ways to learn anything new or be more confident at something is to do it and experience it.
You can read all the books in the world about a place or a concept, but going to explore and see new things can leave you with stories and memories you get to share for a lifetime. And really, what better outcome is there than that, right?
Educational Investment
If you hadn’t noticed, the world is changing fast. It’s moving and being re-made at a speed that hasn’t been seen throughout human history before. And it’s being fueled by the communication revolution – internet, social media, etc.
With this in mind, it’s really important that you can adapt and make yourself futureproof, so educational investments are super important. If you aren’t learning, you’re standing still in a world where everything is rapidly changing around you.
It’s scary, but the opportunities make it exciting too.
Leadership and Planning Investments
Believe me, improving your leadership skills and goals, staying on top of them and constantly keeping up isn’t easy!
Sometimes it feels like you’re spinning a lot of plates at once. This is why investing in an executive coach or exploring leadership programs can help you to get to the next level and improve your overall output.
Having someone else to help you tweak elements of your lifestyle, keep on track with your objectives and give experience-driven advice can give the extra motivation you need to succeed.
An investment in yourself is never wasteful and you can always learn something from the effort you put in.
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