As each year goes by, I try to mature a little bit. Well, now I have no choice to mature – I’m the father of 2 amazing kids and need to set a positive example.
One think I’d like to “get out there” is over the years – I have learned that “investing in yourself” has had the most positive effect on me.
Yet, it took me quite some time to get to that mindset. In my younger days, I was thinking the opposite- the idea was – sacrifice now on my personal life, my personal health in order to build up a great business and then once the business is running, invest in my health and my personal development.
Wow, that has been like completely reversed. Yet, I feel quite a few young entrepreneurs I know have that same mindset. Maybe it is in society – when you’re young you have a ton of energy and you need to push everything into your business or career while you’re young. The idea that you’ll get old and can’t do these things later so push it to the limit now is the general thought process.
Heck, maybe those younger years of working morning till the midnight oil ran out have helped me get to the point I am at, who knows really. Yet I feel the last couple years that I have been going to sleep earlier and waking up earlier, eating healthy, skipping a lot of networking events, etc has had a much higher ROI on my business output than grinding and grinding.
Working smarter not harder.
So, as the clock is close to checking into 2017, I would suggest to you reading this – invest in yourself. Invest in your sleep, your health, your diet. By being a more healthy and happy person, you will be a more productive person. Same goes to productivity, I have invested a ton of time learning tools and systems for working better and that has paid back 10x. While you have to work double as hard when you’re learning and still getting the work done, once you get past the learning curve it pays dividends.
As a father, I hope my kids listen to me about these tips. Yet, thinking back to my own childhood, they will probably need to learn on their own. But if they listen to me, I hope they get the foundation down pat – health and habits for working. Rather than just pushing and pushing to get more output and more awards, have the foundation ready to grow exponentially.
One of my friends liked it when I said, make a folder on your computer (well, for meet a Google folder and a master Google document) for the skills you want to develop. I bookmark those documents and budget time in my day to improve them. Actively realize I am trying to improve in those skills, and throughout my day read blogs and watch videos that are relevant to what I am trying to improve upon.
Compared to the old way I was doing it – and reading articles emailed to me or shared on my social media feeds. Being more proactive about what I am trying to do. Being aware is really more than half the battle.
Some skills for me:
* Learning Chinese
* Copywriting (such a massive topic)
* Information Marketing (again, huge topic)
* Sales (which I really suck at.)
So I have these documents open on my computer and I refer to them as I focus on developing them. I measure my progress.
What Will You Be Focusing on in 2017?
I wish you all the best, and hope we can take things to the next level together.