Day One: Invest in Yourself

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

Here we go! It's Day One of the 30 Day Challenge! The next month is a blank canvas of potential and opportunity... to meet goals, make positive changes, to show yourself what you are capable of, to accomplish something positive. How exciting! l I view this challenge as a way to invest in myself. My goals are primarily to bring improvements, order, and strength into my life. Making this a priority helps bring balance because everything I do, everything I pour into others originates from within me. I need to make sure I am full in order to do everything else in a healthy manner. Make sense? l

A blog that I read regularly, The Simple Dollar, had a fantastic article about investing in yourself: "The valuable asset is YOU. If you work on building yourself as an asset - constantly adding new skills, new friendships and acquaintances, and new approaches... You’re building inherent value in yourself, value that you can carry from job to job within your current career or that you can take with you if a great opportunity presents itself..."

l

Though he was referring to careers in this article, the essence of it is that WE are more valuable than what we DO. And it encourages us to pour into ourselves versus maximizing the things we do.

l

Another great blog article with 9 ways to invest in ourselves included this idea (Scott ):

Morning Ritual A morning ritual is the Swiss army knife of productivity. Morning rituals have two key components: the habit of waking up earlier and the habit of using that morning time towards something useful. Cost of Investment:

• 30 days to set up the initial ritual.
• Sleeping 30-60 minutes earlier each night to compensate for earlier waking time.

Investment Payout:

• More exercise, reading, work accomplished or whatever you use the ritual time for.
• Momentum built into your day from the start.
• Added quiet time in the morning.
• Increased flexibility. (Your day schedule might shift around too much to add in new habits such as exercise or reading, morning time has more flexibility to set up these habits)

I listed this example because SLEEP is my challenge. I am committed to going to sleep at 10:00 pm. every night for the next 30 days. I am a night owl and crave the quiet and peace when everyone else is asleep. Unfortunately, this doesn't make me a happy morning person, so I am going to reverse the quiet solo time to mornings before everyone else is awake. I will daily post the outcome of the previous night's experience and anything I implement that will help me reach this goal and develop this new habit.

l

Got a goal you are ready to commit to for the next 30 days? Please post it and walk with me through the next 30 days!