Investing in yourself…

A lesson I learned recently has helped me improve my life so much that I after I made this change, I found myself living a lifestyle that worked better from every angle. 

I’ve spent a lot of time investing in others. Helping others is a wonderful feeling and a great way to pay it forward. However, once you invest in yourself, you will have more to share with others.

At first, I felt overwhelmed. But once I started, the process was quite simple and a lot of fun too. First, I identified what area in my life I wanted to grow more. What this looked like for me was that one of the most important parts of my life that needed growth was my career. I knew if I could grow my career, this would enhance other areas of my life as well. Reaching my career goal would also provide the opportunity to better support my family.

After identifying that my initial investment into myself was going to be my career, I wrote down the type of role I wanted, selecting the job titles, as well as including the day-to-day activities and environment that I would want to work in. 

The next steps were to make a list of a few target companies I would like to work for, and I reached out to any one inside my network via LinkedIn or my close friends’ groups. This part was uncomfortable, and after a few tries with some positive replies, I felt inspired to keep the momentum going. 

To better help present my qualifications and interview more impactfully, I enlisted a career coach. This seemed like a lot to invest in a career coach to find a new role, but the professional guidance was important to the process of making a more meaningful connection during the networking that I was doing.

Ultimately, over the course of several months, and armed with the guidance of a career coach, I was able to interview with several great companies and select the job that met the criteria that I originally set out to find.

The investment in myself for my career helped me so much that I integrated this into every other area of my life. Look for my article next week that will talk about how I took a few additional steps that helped me do this easily.