Have you ever watched a dog chase its tail? Come on, yes you have. We all have. I did this for many years. I felt like I was working hard and doing exactly what I was supposed to do. But I wasn’t accomplishing much. Your definition of accomplishment and my definition of accomplishment can have two totally different meanings. So you need to decide for yourself what your definition is.
Get up, take care of my family, work hard, make money, save for retirement. All of the things you are supposed to do in life.
Then I was introduced to the word “Investment”. Now I am not stupid, I had heard the word investment before. However, the word investment to me was a word that rich people used, not people like me. Not people who were in my situation. I was just a guy who worked hard. Investment meant money, dollars to me. I assumed you had to have the money to invest.
That is what investment meant. “Money”. If you look up the word “invest” or “investment” in the dictionary it says to allocate money into something that will provide a return at a later date. I’ll let you look up for yourself.
Then what happened to me was I learned the real definition of the word “investment”. I learned that money wasn’t the only resource that could be invested. Nope, I learned that if I wanted to have more money I first had to learn how to invest other resources and those investments would lead me down the path to money investments.
What I learned is that I could use the definition of “invest” and input other words instead of money into the definition.
For example: Instead of investing money with the expectation of seeing a profit. I could invest my time in to something with the expectation of seeing a profit.
Then I learned that if I invested enough time into certain activities and actions that I could see a return, a profit, from those actions. Actions such as investing more time in to my personal development, my continued education, my relationships, my health, my family, myself.
Once I started investing my time, efforts, and actions into the right activities, I realized that investing is the word I should have been using all along. Instead of saying I am just working at this place or another place. I started saying I am investing my time and skills at this place until I get promoted or a better offer. Instead of saying I have to attend this training seminar. I started saying I am investing my day into this seminar.
When we start using the word “invest”, instead of spending, using, attending, applying, working, etc. It changes our mindset to say, “I am doing this now, to get a return in the future on this investment of my time or other resource.”
Now instead of chasing my own tail around and around, I have now discovered that when I invest my time, my skills, and ultimately my money in to the right things I can get a return that is greater than the original investment that I allocated.
Are you investing or spending?
To your success and your future.
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