Today I want to talk about a scary topic: spending money….on YOURSELF :\ :\ :\

The idea of spending money on yourself has been given a pretty bad rap in the past. I’m not really sure why but somehow spending time and money on you and your own needs became a selfish act, one that was frowned upon and rarely spoken about.

We are all on board for spending loads of money getting a good education and taking continuing ed courses in order to secure a great job, continue to move up and be successful, but why can’t this concept be applied to other areas of our lives?

We should be investing money in the areas of our lives that need it most!

And not only that, we should be proud that we invested our money in ways that are going to enrich our lives and add to the pure joy we can experience each and every day.

If anything, investing in yourself is one of the least selfish acts you can do.

Let me give you an example of what I mean from my own life earlier this year:

I had a great job…actually I had 4 (maybe even 5?). I was working part-time in Toronto at a sports injuries clinic, seeing clients at home, teaching pilates classes at a studio, teaching athletic therapy courses at a university (which is actually split between two locations, but I digress) and starting my blog. Wow, just typing that is going to give me an anxiety attack 😐

I loved each and every one of those jobs but I was overwhelmed, as you can imagine. I was being pulled in so many different directions that I couldn’t excel in any of them.

I lacked focus.

I recognized this lack of focus and knew it was the source of a lot, if not all of my stress (but the traffic didn’t help either :p)

I always thought I would be happy and stress-free if I could make “X” amount of money.

Well, guess what? I made “X” amount of money and I was stressed the F out! I felt like a chicken running around with its head cut off, barely making it to each of my engagements and working long hours on the weekends to keep blog posts coming out.

This was not the life I had expected to live. 

My life was not aligned with my values. Not one bit. My health started to slip, my sleep was terrible, my relationship with my friends, family and husband were starting to become less of a priority and worst of all, Allen was not getting nearly the attention he deserved 🙁

While I had excelled in one area of my life, I had fallen apart in almost every other area. It was sad. I needed help.

That is when I decided to reach out to my old manager Ryan Hindmarsh for advice. He was always the best at time-management, setting goals, creating deadlines, etc. and I knew he was the person to talk to. We went for coffee and not expecting anything at all from this meeting, I decided to enrol in his 6 month personal productivity course and dropped a significant amount of money on myself.

I was terrified. (so was Mike)

I have never invested in a professional coach before. I had no idea what to expect. Was this going to be the biggest waste of time and money? How am I going to make any return on this investment? What if everyone laughs at my goals or how scatter-brained I am?

Needless to say I had a lot of “worst case scenarios” running through my head (one of the many tendencies I planned to work on). 

Well I am proud to say that I have successfully completed the course (and graduated with honours haha) and I can 100% tell you that none of my fears came true. It was quite the opposite actually! It turns out investing time, money and energy in my own personal and professional development was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, for all aspects of my life, not just my business.

This inspired me to share what can be possible if you decide to invest in yourself.

Below I have listed my business and personal goals as well as my achievements since starting the course. I hope this can inspire you too to spend some money and time on whatever area in your life needs it most. Whether it be nutrition, exercise, sleep, meditation, happiness, finances, etc. etc. These are all topics that are so important to address for our overall well-being, yet we are all short-changing ourselves because “we can’t afford it.” Well I sincerely hope that this post helps you change your view of investing in areas of your life that are ACTUALLY going to make you happy, and not just in the moment, but for a long, long time.

Effective Personal Productivity Course by LMI Canada

Facilitated by Ryan Hindmarsh and Andrew Smith (contact info listed below)

Business Goal: 

@thehealthysweetpotato

Gain 1000 Instagram followers by November 1st 2017

 

Not only did I meet my goal early, I exceeded it! I am so proud of myself!

Do you want to know how I did it? It was so easy:

I had a clear and specific goal set with specific deadlines and I focused on ONLY this goal (to grow my Instagram following). I broke it down into monthly goals, then weekly, then daily tasks. This made it way more palatable and actually achievable. 

Now don’t get me wrong, choosing just ONE goal to focus on was really, really hard for me (as I learned from my personality test at the beginning of the course) but it had a huge pay off! As Jen Sincero would say “What you focus on, you create more of.”

Now you’re probably thinking “OK, great. You got 1,000 followers. Now what??”

Well, I am so glad you asked!

Return on Investment:

Total page views of blog (www.thehealthysweetpotato.com) since Feb 2017 launch

Turns out the majority of my audience was referred to my blog by social media and by focusing on one social media channel I was able to grow my traffic 4-fold since I started the course in June.

Ok so now you are thinking “Great Jess! Now what? How did this actually help you make money?”

Having more engagement on my Instagram and my blog has helped me grow my business so much! Here is a list of some of my achievements from working on this goal:

Business

• Created online injury prevention and rehab home exercise programs to sell (almost complete)
• Made lots of new connections and networks within the Peterborough and Toronto communities
• Recipe writer/contributor for 2 blogs
• Had conversations with two of my role models on Instagram (Angela Liddon from Oh She Glows and Lori Harder)
• Received free oatmeal from Quaker Oats
• Quit all of my jobs in Toronto except for my teaching at the university to focus on my own brand.
• Turned down contracts at the university that I knew would not be a good return on my time
• Created real connections and made new friends on Instagram
• Launching a new service on my blog soon – so stay tuned 🙂
• Consistently published a blog post every week (except last week…eeee :\)
• Have become a master of my schedule and day timer!

As you can see, I have accomplished a lot of great things, and this is only my business goal! Next up is my personal goal.

Personal Goal:

Establish a daily self-care routine of 10 minutes of morning meditation, 30 minutes of exercise and 20 minutes of night-time reading.

From this graph you can see that I have been pretty consistent. There were a couple weeks there when we moved and Allen got sick that things kind of went out the window, but otherwise I feel I did great! And I am continuing to prioritize my self-care.

Return on Investment:

• Read 9.5 books
• Exercised for 45 hours (not all at once haha)
• Meditated for 31 hours so far this year (18 of those since the start of the course)
• Have significantly decreased my anxiety and stress
• Sleep better, and consistently get 7-8 hours of sleep
• Started journaling and writing gratitude lists everyday
• Started playing guitar once a week again with Mike
• More patient and less reactive to situations and people
• Listen more and more compassionate towards others
• Trying to be more generous in any way that I can

Since I’ve been able to get a better handle on my life and my own priorities, I feel like I have become a better listener, a more generous person and a way less selfish person than I used to be.

Because I am no longer neglecting my own needs, I am better able to serve those around me.

This course has been so transformative for me. It was exactly what I needed to make a big change and create positive habits that are going to stick with me and move me forward for the rest of my life.

My experience with a professional coaching program has been better than I could have ever expected. It has helped me learn the value of accountability and gave me the tools to create a more balanced and successful life.

If you do decide to invest in yourself (which I highly recommend you do), there are plenty of amazing professional coaches and programs out there. 

However, if you want to learn more about this course or the facilitators, I have provided links to both below: 

LMI Canada Effective Personal Productivity Course Info

Ryan Hindmarsh and Andrew Smith

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the course or anything at all! You can do so by commenting below, sending me an email, or on social media (Facebook or Instagram).

If you like this article please make sure to share it with someone who may also benefit from it!

You can also check out my other posts: 7 ways to change your life, Feeling anxious? So is everyone else, and How to live a life true to yourself.

Thank you so much for reading. Until next time <3

xoxo