Invest in yourself with time, energy and focus: it’s not all about the money!

When I was starting up People Like Me Coaching business a couple of years ago someone said to me...

“If you invest in yourself, you could be the best...”

Unfortunately, the context of that phrase involved someone trying to sell me a ‘get rich quick’ way of marketing my business. You know the type of salesperson I’m talking about – the type who promise if you buy their very expensive package, you will be doubling your previous salary within a month!

I didn’t buy.

I’m suspicious of people trying to sell magic formulas when I know success or achievement in any aspect of life takes time, dedication, perseverance and constantly showing up.

But that phrase stayed with me because I believe the essence of it is true. If you want something enough, it is not just going to magically happen. You need to invest in yourself to make it happen. That might involve some financial commitment but it might also be:

·      Investing in protecting time to investigate more or learn more

·      Investing time in creating new connections to discuss your ideas

·      Getting your ideas out of head and into action – maybe that is a mindmap of ideas or maybe it is setting up a meeting or booking a place on a course that interests you

·      Negotiating with your family to get some time to yourself so you can concentrate on following up your plan

·      Giving yourself permission to follow a certain path and see where it leads

A personal example

There are lots of areas in my life where I try to be the best I can be, whether that’s as a wife, friend or self employed colleague but there are two areas in my life that I pay particular attention to:

1.        I want to be the best coach I can be

Being a coach has become a way of life to me. It’s not just my profession. I live as I coach, setting and maintaining boundaries (some with flexibility!) to help me keep feelings of overwhelm in check, regularly step outside my comfort zone, make decisions according to my values and listen more than I talk.

Now that sounds easy perhaps but of course it isn’t! It takes lots of reflection, checking myself, sometimes uncertainty when I say no to things. BUT this is important to me in terms of credibility with the people I coach so I invest the time and energy to make sure I make these things happen. I journal all the time to test out my thinking and talk with other self employed colleagues to help me keep things in perspective.  I give myself permission to spend time on this – it’s not an optional extra and it gets planned into my week.

As a coach, I do also invest in keeping up to date through continuous professional development. It’s part of my professional code of conduct but I do it more because I’m genuinely interested and committed to what I do. So, yes, I do invest financially in extra certifications but I choose carefully. I don’t want to be a course collector with no evidence of translating that learning into action. Two recent certifications I’ve enrolled for are directly related to the type of coaching I am being approached to provide and will add to my current toolkit. However, there is so much free or low cost but high quality CPD out there if you know where to look and I also take advantage of this.

2.        I want to be the best writer I can be

Those who know me well are familiar with my excitement about writing my first novel – nothing to do with coaching, instead it’s a destination thriller set in Guatemala. Think Agatha Christie meets Where the Crawdads Sing!

Having toyed with ideas and writing bits and pieces here and there for years, I coached myself into the realisation that nothing was going to happen unless I actually got on with it and made it happen. I got out of my own way and stopped making excuses. So now I prioritise a certain amount of time each week that is non negotiable and I write! I’m over halfway through my first draft and I cannot tell you how excited I get the evening before my writing day.

But I do need to invest in more than my time as I am not arrogant enough to think that writing is not a craft. I am used to writing academically so fiction is a new ball game.  I take advantage of any local classes run at our college or the literature festival. I subscribe to writing journals/online journals about writing and plan in time to actually read them instead of them piling up. I enter competitions to test out my writing and try new techniques. I am just back from my second visit to Oxford University summer school on a literature/writing course and I’m planning to go to a crime writing festival next year.

Perhaps most exciting of all, I’ve just been accepted as a new member of the Crime Writers Association. The email came on the same day as I was commissioned to deliver a piece of training for an organisation I value but guess which email I was more excited about!

Nobody may ever read my book other than friends and family but I will have had a great time writing it and I’m learning all the time, whilst meeting some fabulous like minded writers along the way. I feel part of a whole new community.

My point is, we can all have dreams about what we would like to do or try. I could have sat there and thought about coaching as a retirement plan (my initial idea), passed my initial qualification and relied on that. I could have carried on dreaming about writing a novel without doing anything about any of it.

My mantra is always, what I will I regret not doing once I am no longer able to?

 If it is important enough to us, we can make it happen. But the missing ingredient is us and we often need to get out of our own way. Following what’s important will take:

·      Courage – sometimes choosing courage over comfort. We will not be ‘good’ at something new straight away. Give yourself permission to live with that discomfort.

·      Commitment – giving yourself permission to follow through and prioritising this in your diary/planning

·      Consistency – my writing day is now a confirmed habit and I can’t remember a time I didn’t do it. Make your new plan a normal part of your life – just what you do.

So I invite you to consider this month:

·      Complete the sentence – “If I invested in myself (time, money, energy), I could be the best...

·      What is stopping you from moving towards what you want to do?

·      What could you do to remove some of those barriers?

·      What will you regret not doing when you are no longer able to?

Take a bet on yourself!

If you want some support to move in the right direction, get in touch!