A Successful Life Comes from Investing Your Resources Wisely.
There is no way in my youth I could have possibly imagined the life I live now. It was a long and tumultuous road to get to this place, one that early on was riddled with struggles and failures, accompanied by my poverty mentality and extremely limited belief in myself.
Through arduous and consistent personal and professional development I eventually grew enough to get over myself, and following a set of very simple platforms and fundamentals for executing in my days efficiently, productively, and in balance, eventually this life unfolded over time.
By the way…some “experts” will tell you that you simply cannot have balance and substantial success at the same time. I call that an excuse for their own lack of willingness to figure it out and work it through over the long haul. As you might guess, I don’t consider those people experts worthy of following if you want to have the best life possible.
Which is What I Want for You; The Best (Richest) Life Possible.
The resources you have to invest are your time, abilities, and financial assets as a general rule. While there are going to be times in the early stages of building an awesome life where the financial resources are limited, and I had times when there were literally none, the other two are always at your disposal.
If I were to ask you what you are investing in, you might say real estate, the equities market, crypto, commodities are some other asset category where you take some measure of risk seeking a later return on your investment. This is smart. If you aren’t doing this, I encourage you to start.
You might also be investing in training and coaching to further your career success. This too is smart, and again, if you aren’t investing in this, I encourage you to begin doing so immediately.
While I consistently invest in the things I mentioned above, there are two other areas I invest in BEFORE I invest in these, where the returns are immediate and compound over the long haul.
An Example from My Recent Holiday
Americans call time off vacation. Europeans call it holiday. I am a fan of the latter word because it just feels better, different, and more festive.
As I mentioned in last week’s article, I just returned from about a month-long holiday time in Florida. During that time, I got to have enormous amounts of time with my daughter Allie and her husband (we stayed near them the first two and a half weeks) and my son Brett and his wife (who stayed with us the last nine days of our trip).
We did lots of things together. We enjoyed many days on the beach, went to a Renaissance Festival, enjoyed some night life, went to Harry Potter World, Universal Studios, Epcot, and hung out some of the time at a resort and enjoyed the pool and activities there. It was an incredible experience, and would have been so even if we hadn’t done all those things, because how often do you get to have extended time with your children when they are in their early 30s and making their way in life, and live many hours away?
Anyway, it was near the end of the trip, and Brett and I were hanging out on the back porch of the resort house we had rented in Orlando for the last leg of the holiday. It was late into the evening, and we were deep in conversation. This is a normal thing for us when we get together (with either Allie or Brett) because we are very close and love to be together.
We were sitting there in the moonlight enjoying a few adult beverages, as everyone else was tucked in for the night. At one point in the conversation Brett says to me “are you ready to stop spending money yet?” (Mel and I had picked up much of the tab for the trip. Not all, but a lot)
I looked at him and said “that’s one way of looking at it, but I look at it a different way.”
Then I said “I see this as an investment. Not a cost.” He cocked his head, as if this idea had never occurred to him. I can’t fault him for that. At his age, I would have been worrying ever nickel of the trip. I would have been totally focused on the costs involved as opposed to the value of what was happening.
I can’t go back and change my younger viewpoint, but I can sure share this one in the hopes it helps you see the bigger picture, and perhaps someone else you might share this with.
How much is time and money invested with the people you love worth? What are the returns?
The answer is simple. IT’S PRICELESS.
Not only do you get the immediate return of the joy of being together, you get the endless returns of the deepening of the bonds and the memories. Memories last a long time. Things not so much.
A Proactive Life is One of Investing in the Right Things Consistently
While we all want to have some sense of financial security, as we equate that to life security, that is a false sense of security. Our lives are finite, and we don’t know the day when our lives end, or, just as important, when some sudden event diminishes our capacity to control what we’re physically and cognitively able do.
Until that point you can always control how you choose to invest your precious resources. What I just shared was an example of investing those resources in the relationships that matter most. That has to be in your top two investments or believe me when I say, no amount of money will make your life better once you suffer the cost of NOT investing in those relationships.
The other place you have to invest your resources is in the person in the mirror. In the self-care to maintain and sustain and develop the human resource YOU are. Many people think this is optional right up until the day, and it comes generally much sooner than it should, when the option is removed. This is typically preceded by an extended period where you aren’t functioning at a high level. This part of this article is for another day, as it is to deep to tag onto this lesson.
This is the starting point for 3 Circles Living…Invest in you and invest in the people you love, and you’ll find that regardless of the curves life throws at it, your life will be pretty darn good.
I hope this is helpful for you. Please share with others if it is.
Many Blessings, Todd
P.S. If you are in need of coaching or training for your organization, reach out to me.
P.S.S. The first order of priority in 3 Circles Living is physical health. A key aspect of this is complementing your diet with the best quality nutritional supplements you can find. If you would like to order the best, at wholesale prices, check out my 3 Circles Living online shop. If you have any questions or would like to address specific areas of need, shoot me an email and I’m happy to help. This has been an essential part of my health journey for 27 years and I’ve helped lots of folks along the way.
