How to Invest in Yourself + Make Big Decisions
Every week I have the pleasure of speaking with people who are making big decisions to go after what they most want to become in the next phase of their life.
Every week I am asked how I get so much done and how I stay on task to hit my income and lifestyle targets. Every week I hear a barrage of excuses from people who more than anything want the results we get in my programs not engage because of time or money. I help people make big decisions in two areas: taking their health to the next level, and taking their career to the next level.
This post is dedicated to helping you invest in yourself and what you want to become regardless of the money and the timing. I know over 1000 of you took the *free* Dharma Workshop and now you’re facing some real decisions.
Making Big Decisions
If big decisions weren’t so big they’d be easy to make. The kicker about big decisions is they cause you to pause. They scare the pants off you. You get a sinking feeling in your gut.
Big decisions by their very nature will turn your world upside down. Big decisions must bring you out of your comfort zone. If they don’t, then they aren’t a big decision. (They’re a smaller decision, or simply a next logical step.)
Signs Your Are Making a Big Decision
-The decision is a financial stretch.
-The decision is a stretch for your time.
On the money front, you probably simply haven’t invested in this way in the past. You probably do other things with your money – like spend it, or you invest it in a way that is not aligned with the current big decision. The decision is inviting you to spend or invest your money in a new way, and that makes your ego uncomfortable.
On the time front, if you make the decision, where will you fit it in? Your schedule already overflow-eth. There is no room! You are full. From your current thinking, the decision will stretch your time beyond the bounds of time, which will leave no room for everything else which already doesn’t have enough time as it is.
The Ego + The Decision + Your Gut
“You cannot solve a problem with the same thinking that got you there…”
Over the years I’ve learned that I can’t even trust my gut. Why? Because my gut doesn’t like to feel uncomfortable. My gut, likes smooth easy digestion. My gut loves the familiar, the predictable. My gut loves routine and rhythm. I’ve come to realize that you can’t make a decision with the same gut that got you there.
We’ve already established that a big decision, by its very nature, is going to deeply upset your ego. You want something you don’t have (health, wealth, enlightenment, etc.) You want it from where you’re at – which is where it’s not your current experience. Your ego knows that to take this gamble, to go for the gold, things are going to change. You will change. Your smallness will dissolve. You will become a bigger, better version of yourself. The ego is not interested in the investment and will sabotage you.
So, if you want to invest in yourself at the next level, you need to be on the lookout for the language of the ego. The ego makes excuses. It’s two favorites are (1) money and (2) time.
The Money/Time Objections
If a program/training/coach is going to deliver the promise you are after, the training investment needs to be a stretch for you. Why? Because you’ll need to stretch and grow and honestly, dissolve yourself and explode, within the program. If the program delivers it’s promise, meaning you transform according to what you’re after, you won’t be the same.
How can the trainer/coach know you are serious? Know you’re willing to blow your world apart for the end desired result? By setting a price point that ensures you’ll bust your butt to show up and do the work that will get you to the result you want. The investment has to be scary enough to make you put in the attention, sweat, and tears, to become what you want (whether that is to lose the 30 pounds or make it to the next income bracket).
My single biggest regret is that I gave into the money excuse way too often between 25–35. Where would I be now if I’d learned this earlier?
The last big investment I made was $15,000 in a coaching program. I had the predictable horrible feeling in my stomach. I didn’t have any space available in my calendar. I’ll simply knew the person offering the training had what I next want to experience and was offering to guide me on the journey. And though this has all become very familiar to me, it’s still dreadfully uncomfortable, never at the right time, and doesn’t make sense to anyone else in my life. Now I know I’ll be able to stomach more at the conclusion of the endeavor.
In Conclusion
Where there’s a will there’s a way.
Honestly, it’s a no win situation. Either you take the leap, forever shifting you invest two of your most precious commodities: your time and your money and your ego throws a reoccurring hissy fit. Or you don’t, and your ego keeps you in a smaller, safer, more comfortable version of yourself.
I’m not saying the time/money justifications aren’t real. They are very real to your ego and your current self operating system. But the time and the money are very inconsequential to your future self, who just knows what it wants and how to get it. In my experience, the more I pay attention to what my future self wants, and invest my time and money accordingly, the more time and money I generate.
And I’ve seen it time and again with my students and potential clients. They know what they want, but they don’t have the money. If they commit to what they want, hard, and go after the money, hard, they eventually find their pot of gold to enable their dream. They don’t have the time or it’s not a good time. But if they commit to what they want, their time will restructure according to the next invention of who they want to become. It happens every time.
In conclusion, ignore your ego. Don’t trust your gut. Don’t meditate on it. Invest in yourself and what you want to become regardless of the money and the timing. I hope that helps you make your next big decision.
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