Investing in Your Personal Growth Human Design — I wish I understood the mindset of investing in myself earlier.
***Why?***
**Because I now know that I am my best investment.**

When we mention the word “invest”, the idea of investing in stocks and crypto and bonds comes up. Our capitalist society greatly emphasises investing in financial products, but rarely do we emphasize investing in ourselves.

While I’m so thankful that I had such a privileged academic education, by investing in yourself I mean investing in your personal growth, not just achieving the next degree or just in external financial products.

I believe that there is more to life than titles and degrees. Why? Because nothing will get you further than your own mindset and your confidence in yourself. We often know maps like the back of our own palms, but how often do we actually really know ourselves? School taught me how to excel academically, however, I still felt so empty inside. I piled on degree after degree, to still lack a sense of self-worth and assuredness. When it came to the skills that matter - communication, confidence, knowing what makes me unique, knowing my shortcomings, and knowing how to maximise my time and energy.

It’s assumed that as long as you work hard, you’ll be able to achieve what you want. That couldn’t be further from the truth. The right strategy, energy and mindset will, not just aimlessly chiselling at a piece of marble. (Michelangelo certainly wouldn’t be the maestro/legend he is he did this!)

Here are 3 reasons why it’s important to invest in yourself:

Step into Meaningful Personal Growth

Life is more than achieving what looks good on the outside. When you invest in yourself, you develop new skills that help you build resilience, practice a deeper acceptance of who you are and expand your knowledge and capabilities. While school gives you the skills to get ahead step by step, there’s not much conversation about ethics and morals. Traditional academic schools that emphasize getting the best grades make students see life as a grade. Coupled with a “whatever it takes” mentality, it’s very easy to forgo what actually matters to your well-being and sense of self. It becomes “Let me do everything I can to strive for this grade even if it means compromising my health, my passions and my interests.” All of this leads to a striving for other people to respect you, but the real question is, do you even respect yourself?

Improved Career Prospects & Trajectory

One of the most striking things I’ve learned from Alex and Leila Hormozi is that you make more money when you up-level your skills versus putting money in stocks. Their approach is that once they put money in stocks, they have to be ready to part with it. No matter how decent the return on investment seems, there’s no certainty. There’s something to be said about our current society’s mindset that investing externally seems to be a safer bet than investing in ourselves. When we focus overtly on external resources, we forget about ourselves. When you increase your skills and your mindset, you’re able to increase your income. Picture the you who is able to communicate with your clients what you want and what you can give with clarity because you’re able to know your worth, the value that you can offer, and how to maximise your energy. Take empowered action instead of allowing external forces to dictate your path.

Success Means little if you’re not Satisfied with Yourself

There will always be new milestones, new thingies to buy, and new places to live. As Gloria Steinem writes in Revolution from Within, she cautioned women about the perils of achieving success without doing the necessary foundation building for self-love and self-esteem. bell hooks builds upon this in All About Love that, “She found that achieving women who still suffered internalised self-hatred, invariably, acted out in ways that undermined their success. If the self-hating successful person did not act out, she may have lived a life of private desperation, unable to tell anyone success does not, in fact, reverse crippled self-esteem to complicate matters. Women may feel the need to pretend that they are self-loving to assert confidence in power to the outside world, and as a consequence, they feel psychologically, conflicted and disengage from their true being shamed by the feeling that they can, and never let anyone know who they really are.” I found this incredibly powerful because this is so true.

So…How do I invest in myself?

By knowing yourself and your energy deeply.

When I started to dive into what makes me ‘me’, such as my astrological birth chart, completing the Myers Briggs MBTI Personality test, and especially understanding my Human Design chart, things completely transformed for me. I release the need to compare myself to others more easily because I know what my energy type is and don’t over-maximise myself. I’m so confident in this because when I look back at my previous experiences, the times that I’ve over-exerted myself easily led to burnout and taking even more time to just recover. I discovered and feel assured in my zone of the genius of working smart instead of just hard. I used to look around me and see other entrepreneurs pushing themselves and felt like I was supposed to push as hard as they would. But I realised I operate differently, and am able to attract more aligned opportunities by showing up as myself, in my own energy.

If you’re ready to invest in yourself and accelerate your sense of self-esteem and assuredness, click here for a Your Soul Strategy and Foundations reading, which dives into your Human Design blueprint. This reading is truly an investment that’ll compound because you’re able to learn how to optimise your energy, how to know if you’re in alignment with what you’re doing and your purpose, and to know what themes to look out for this year as you’re building your self-worth and business. Sign up by May 31 for the Early Bird pricing!