Hello, and welcome to my next article in my self-help series. Hope to inspire you some more today!
And what is the topic on today's menu?
Invest.
one word.
what does it mean? How? what?
Everything, all the time, anywhere you can.
What do I mean by that? Well, I will gladly explain it to you some more.
Ok, so let's take a look at things in life.
Each day you have 24h to spend, you have some mental and physical energy and that's it. How you use it determines your life.
Let's narrow down one simple principle of getting richer or getting poorer. You basically have only these two options, you can sort of balance between the two and sort of have status quo. But let's take a look at the poorer and richer part.
If you spend less than you get, you will get richer. If you spend more than you have you will get poorer. Simple and true. Go and try it if you don't believe me, but I guess it's obvious. Eh, doesn't seem to profound? Keep reading. "But I can't just keep cutting my expenses all the time?!" you're saying. I'm not telling you to that. Not exactly.
Look at it this way. There are different ways in which you can spend energy and attention. And that is what matters. Either it is cumulative or it is depleting. You can either spend your time/energy/attention in ways that you waste it away or you can spend it in ways that make it return (and build up). Or at least you can spend it in ways that prevents wasting if not directly creating return - which is basically still return, but only as fast as the wasting so it nullifies it - more on that below
So, that's an interesting point. How does that work in real life?
Ok, so imagine you woke up and you feel shitty, you chose to get all angry about it, complain, don't do much useful, go to work, are mean to somebody, spend time at work, just waiting the time to pass so you can go home.
What you've just done is you've wasted away your time/energy/focus. That means that you've thrown away energy in such fashion, that is not going to come back to you, even worse it will probably create situations that will further waste away more of your assets (e.g. somebody you were mean to will be mean to you in future, or you get kicked out of your job, cuz you weren't doing anything).
Or.
Instead if you've chosen to do things differently. You may have woken up feeling shitty, but try to look at it like this "what could I do to not feel shitty?" You, maybe take a quick shower, do some stretches, look at some nice pictures or a funny video, go to work, help somebody on the way, spend your time at work reading something useful to you. Go home.
What you have now done is you've invested your assets. The morning stretches gave you a bit more energy and made your mood a little better, the pictures/video you were looking at reminded you of something positive helped you set your mood for the day. What you've read at work gave you some inspiration and a way to change something. You were nice to somebody, perhaps that person will give it back to you, when you need it in future and will help you keep you on the track, when you might be "limping".
Point is, this is saving , investing and accumulating. Everything is an opportunity to waste or to save. If you keep saving, it will accumulate over time and you will have abundance. If you focus on removing what takes away the energy (often people can be a big factor here or bad habits - especially mental) if you focus on patching holes in your life/routine/thinking where your energy is leaking (maybe unnecessarily expensive bank account, some taxes you might get around, some gym membership you are not using but are paying for a bill you forgot to pay for, some debt type of things that have to pay interest on, shitty relationship(s)that keep you down...) it will give you more energy the next day so you have a better starting point or even find a way to invest energy so it returns to you multiplied.
Look at everything - and I mean everything - as assets. People, thoughts, emotions, money, time, health...
Is going to the dentist and spending a bit more money on it so you have your teeth fixed and regularly visiting dental hygiene an expense? Well, no. If your teeth are well taken care of now, chances are they are not so bad now and if you keep them that way you've just patched a hole in your energy bubble. If you say "fuck it, it's expensive" just wait for how much more you are going to have to pay for it in future when they get all bad and ruined. And trust me - you can't really live without teeth and if you don't know, it's pretty fucking expensive to get new teeth, you could easily buy a nice car for that money. I'm sure whatever your problem is now it's not that expensive, even though it might look like its over your budget.
Getting a new sexy car or that Gucci bag you totally don't fucking need - that's an expense. Or some new iPhone you want only cuz it's "a new iPhone", or that new big TV or tons of other crap that will not help you get anywhere, those are only things that keep you trapped where you are.
Same with people. You can either waste your time and energy on people who either don't give you anything in return or even waste your time and energy even more or you can be with people who energize and inspire you and give you back when you need it. (I believe this one can be the trickiest, but I guess it's different for everyone what area is the biggest point of leakage)
Your trap is only in your mind. It's what you believe and then how you act based on that. You can either believe you are helpless and that is not in your power and then just give up trying or you can believe it is in your power and look for ways to make it happen.
And it's same as going to the gym. It's hard at first but the more you do it, the easier and more fun it gets, because you get better at it and start to notice more and more of what to do and what not to do, what to keep doing more and what to avoid entirely. See what is working and keep repeating that and see what is not working and keep avoiding that. It's just a simple math. Keep adding more on that "what is working" scale and subtracting from the other scale. Point is - you can't make something out of nothing you can only transform energy.
And it really starts with the belief, than the choice, than action(s). Repetitive choices and actions. But belief is the main force behind it that propels your endeavor in one way or the other. If you fix the belief (also a leakage point) than it can either work for you or against you. Fix that first and do all you can so it doesn't get broken again and if it ever does even for a bit make it your top priority to make it right. It will be your motor that drives you in the desired direction.
So that's something to think about. One more thing I'd like you to try as a little exercise is do this:
Take a sheet of paper and create 2 columns -** 1) things that give me energy 2) things that deplete my energy** . And also try to divide it into:
a) what gives me energy short term, but takes it away long term
b) what gives me energy both short and long term
c) what depletes my energy short term, but increases it long term
d) what takes away my energy short term and also depletes it long term
It might be a bit confusing at first glance, but when you take a moment you will start to see it. I suggest you focus on doing more of things that fall in b) and c) category , use category a) only when necessary - that is if you would either go crazy or feel really bad, or just really really need to do it and do your best to avoid d) stuff altogether . If you have too little things in some categories, try to come up with new things you could introduce into your routine.
And one more thing - Do this slowly, step by step. Build it like a snowball. There is no point in having a perfect day, if you can't keep it up. Better to replace small things, that you can keep that way, and it will slowly change your life, you will be surprised. It really works, trust me!
Ok, hope you have tons of success. Looking forward to you in my next article :)
And one day..
img by Gait 44/Deviantart.com)