Invest in Yourself: Yes, You Can Afford It

How many times have you denied yourself of something you need such as a financial coach, mentor, or investment in your business? How many times you said you cannot afford something but your splurge your money and time on mindless shopping, going out to eat, switching hairdos weekly and other things that don't serve your purpose? I am all for looking beautiful but don't you think it is time for you invest in your inner beauty and essence to match the outside?
We all have done this once upon a time because we either feel guilty or ashamed into investing in ourselves. Many times, we will invest in frivolous things such as a new outfit, shoes, expensive handbag or something tangible that doesn't provide substances within our lives.  How many times do you "reward" yourself with an expensive gift but still feel guilty or empty within?

 
When you invest in yourself, you are proving yourself with an unlimited wealthy of opportunities. Investing in yourself is a part of self-love and self-care which are two valuable personal experiences that are organic and natural. When you denied yourself of investing in yourself, it will show within your personal and professional life. When you don't invest within yourself, you suppress your inner passion, interests and growth/evolution. How can we be truly free and independent when we don't provide investment and self-love for ourselves? You will always be caught up in the rapture of brokenness and chasing after a deferred dream when we don't invest in ourselves.
Remember, investing in yourself take patience, persistence, prayer, and payment. Yes payment. You are going to pay one way or another, you are going to pay money to attend that long over due workshop, conference, or class to help you achieve your lifelong goal. You are going to have to dig a little deeper in the closet and shop for that cute outfit to wear for that investment meeting with the big investors who are looking to invest thousands into your company. You are going to stop asking your fellow sister-friend for the "hook up" because that sister-friend is worth more than asking for the hook up. She invest in her business, have home and business bills to pay and she is worth it.
Now is the time to invest in yourself and building your empire! Don't defer your dreams and goals for something else.
Here are three ways why you should invest in yourself:

1. Pursuing your passion.  Time is one of the most important things you should invest in when you are pursuing your passion. You cannot get time back. When your pursue your passion, you are providing self-love and perseverance. Your passion is within and at your fingertips but you must discover it. Discovering your passion, being persistence and investing in yourself are valuable tools. When you invest in yourself, you have to be willing to make sacrifices such as cutting back from getting a manicure and pedicure weekly, you have to go shopping within your closet and at times you have to minimize your lifestyle. (Some of you all are probably rolling your eyes but you have to sacrifice something to achieve your dreams.)
2. Creating and Increasing Your Wealth. When people think of wealth, people think of finances. Wealth is not always about finances. The definition of wealth have a plethora of meanings but for this article we will stick with abundance of anything. We should invest in our wealth of knowledge, resources and wisdom. When we increase our wealth, we should also invest our wealth in others who have the wisdom, knowledge and experience in a certain field or business. We should invest in books, workshops, a coach, our community and organization to increase your net-worth, network, and self-worth
3. Holistic Self-Care. “The most powerful relationship you will ever have is the relationship with yourself.” – Steve Maraboli Great quote! If you don't love yourself, don't expect anyone else to love or invest in you. We live in an ADHD and microwaveable society in which we are constantly on the go. Stop, breathe and connect with yourself. Invest in healthy and unprocessed foods which we save you money and sickness. Invest in your health by working out. You don't have to invest in an expensive gym membership in which you may never use but one time. Go put on some shorts/sweatpants and sneakers and work it out. Turn off the TV and sit in your thoughts. Be still, meditate and listen to that voice within called intuition. All these things cost you nothing but time and effort. 

Providing self-care and self-awareness doesn't cost you nothing but time and effort. You must be willing to invest into you, your dreams, your wealth and health. You deserve to love yourself and care for yourself. Stop investing your wealth into tangible and material things which will slowly fade away. Invest into things that matter which is you and your well-being. If you cannot invest and give to yourself, there is no way you will be able to give whole-heartedly to others. Invest in yourself. 
Invest wisely!  

What's really holding you back from fully investing in yourself? Share and comment below!
About the Author: Andrea C. Imafidon 

Andrea is a professional coach with a certification in personal development coaching from The CaPP Institute. She holds a Master’s degree in Social Work from The University of Southern Mississippi and a Bachelor’s degree from Tuskegee University. Andrea is the creator of Brown Girl From Boston a personal growth and coaching blog that inspires, encourage, and empower brown girls everywhere to live life boldly, loudly, and fearlessly on purpose. Connect with Andrea April 10-12, 2015 at the Unlimited You Weekend in Baltimore, MD. Learn more at www.hwhn.org

How to Start Over Without Regret

  

Let's face it: sometimes our best plans and intentions don't work and we find ourselves back at square one. It is during these time that we feel like a failure and we want to give up. I remember starting my coaching business over 10 years ago and struggling with identifying my target market and marketing my services. I had a fancy website and no customers coming through the door, and my cash register was not ringing at all. I felt like a failure and that my "dream job" had steered me in the wrong direction. I decided that quitting wasn't my answer, but instead I needed to start over.

"But where do I start?" I asked myself over and over again. We've all had to start over in some area of our lives like our career, marriage, business, education, diet, etc. It is so easy to revel in the disbelief of the disappointment that we forget the power of pursuing what is next on the horizon if we keep moving.

Here are my seven reminders on How to Start Over Without Regret:

1. Leverage your failures.

Instead of quitting when things don't work out, leverage the learning from your failures. Ask yourself, "What is working or what did work in my situation or circumstance?" Write down even the small things that are your successes.

When things don't go as planned, we often have the all-or-nothing attitude but instead, I want you to do more of what IS working. In my case, I was great at networking, but I was networking in the wrong locations with younger entrepreneurs and not attracting my ideal clients. What was working for me was networking, but I needed to change venues to network with professional women who could afford my services instead of marketing to women who were in startup businesses.

2. Dump your junk.

Don't bring your old attitude and expect to create new outcomes. It's tough not to fault the things, people and reactions that have hurt you or caused you to start over, but if your goal is to start fresh, you can't do that reading yesterday's news. Dump your junk and move on and decide that it doesn't matter why it didn't work; it only matters that you have decided you deserve more in this new season of your life. Decide to give your new season a fresh start without baggage. (This one takes practice.)

3. Don't announce that you are starting over. Just do it.

You don't need to validate your choices to make a change in your life. Just do it. Nike said it best. Move on and everyone around you will soon see the change in your life. Your next steps aren't about anyone but you being comfortable with your new choices and this new season. No public polls necessary. When we are insecure about our future we often consult others so that we feel better or to prepare them for our shift. This isn't required or necessary.

4. Recycle what worked.

Don't discard everything that represents the failed marriage, job/career, etc. Instead, recycle the gifts that these experiences taught you. Even bad experiences start off good. So ask yourself, "What did I love about this experience and what would I never do again?" Use this restart opportunity as motivation to begin again wiser and stronger, and use your bag of tools called "learning lessons" as a result of your experience.

5. Prepare for your weak times.

Plan in advance for those times when you will feel like going back to what did not work for you and create a solution in advance. It might mean that you delete phone numbers to prevent yourself from calling people in your weakest moments. It might mean not buying sweets for the house if you know that stress will make you eat more than your share. Whatever you do, plan for your weakest moments in advance. We all have moments where we vacillate between what is best for us and what is easy for us to have now. Challenge your "now" and replace it with what you want to see in your life long term.

6. Celebrate your baby steps.

Remember to acknowledge all progress toward your new goal. Sometimes, we set milestones that are too far away instead of understanding that the long run is just a bunch of short runs, and that we can and should celebrate along the way. If you sell that business at a loss, celebrate that you are no longer attached to it. If you end a toxic friendship that lacked trust, rejoice that you now have room to create authentic new relationships.

7. Take a new route.

The unknown is scary, but it is also equally scary to do what you know and continue down a dismal path. Give yourself permission to play bigger although you are starting over. So often when we start over we become timid and afraid to swing for the fences because we are so busy recovering from an intimate dance with failure. Understand that success is built on mistakes and lessons learned. You can still have what you want even if you didn't get what you wanted in the past.

8. Keep moving.

Standing still is the recipe for disaster. I want you to move and try something different to change your view. As you move toward your new vision for your life, you will meet new people, opportunities and experiences waiting for you to play full out. I'm writing this column on The Huffington Post because I attended an event and had the privilege to introduce myself to Arianna Huffington and share my work with her, and as a result, learned about this opportunity. What if I decided to stay home that day and not attend that networking event? You wouldn't be reading this post.

9. Learn from your haters.

Yes them. What others think of you really isn't your business so stop replaying that track. The people who study, watch and obsess over you know how powerful you are and that is why they are threatened by you. Instead of asking yourself, "Why do they hate on me?" Ask yourself, "What do they see in me?" It is the answer to this questions that will allow you to elevate this energy and understand that your haters are there to teach you a very important lesson. They see your talent, brilliance and potential sometimes more than you do.

Starting over is inevitable. Share with me how you are planning your new start.

About the Author:

Mia Redrick is a popular speaker, strategy coach for moms, and a best-selling author of Time for Mom-Me:5 Essential Strategies for A Mother's Self-Care and Time for Mom-Me: 365 Daily Strategies for a Mother's Self-Care. She also co-authored Finding Time to Care for Me: A Nurse's Guide to Self-Care. Affectionately known as The Mom Strategist™, Redrick has reached thousands, both nationally and internationally, with her empowering message for moms that "self-care is non-negotiable but necessary to be the best parent possible."

***This Article was originally posted on Huffington Post***

Three Feet from Gold

Excerpt from THINK AND GROW RICH by NAPOLEON HILL

THREE FEET FROM GOLD

One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat. Every person is guilty of this mistake at one time or another. An uncle of R. U. Darby was caught by the "gold fever" in the gold rush days, and went west to DIG AND GROW RICH. He had never heard that more gold has been mined from the brains of men than has ever been taken from the earth. He staked a claim and went to work with pick and shovel. The going was hard, but his lust for gold was definite.

After weeks of labor, he was rewarded by the discovery of the shining ore. He needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface. Quietly, he covered up the mine, retraced his footsteps to his home in Williamsburg, Maryland, told his relatives and a few neighbors of the "strike." They got together money for the needed machinery, had it shipped. The uncle and Darby went back to work the mine.

The first car of ore was mined, and shipped to a smelter. The returns proved they had one of the richest mines in Colorado! A few more cars of that ore would clear the debts. Then would come the big killing in profits.

Down went the drills! Up went the hopes of Darby and Uncle! Then something happened! The vein of gold ore disappeared! They had come to the end of the rainbow, and the pot of gold was no longer there! They drilled on, desperately trying to pick up the vein again-all to no avail.

Finally, they decided to QUIT. They sold the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars, and took the train back home. Some "junk" men are dumb, but not this one! He called in a mining engineer to look at the mine and do a little calculating. The engineer advised that the project had failed, because the owners were not familiar with "fault lines." His calculations showed that the vein would be found JUST THREE FEET FROM WHERE THE DARBYS HAD STOPPED DRILLING! That is exactly where it was found!

The "Junk" man took millions of dollars in ore from the mine, because he knew enough to seek expert counsel before giving up. Most of the money which went into the machinery was procured through the efforts of R. U. Darby, who was then a very young man. The money came from his relatives and neighbors, because of their faith in him. He paid back every dollar of it, although he was years in doing so.

Long afterward, Mr. Darby recouped his loss many times over, when he made the discovery that DESIRE can be transmuted into gold. The discovery came after he went into the business of selling life insurance.

Remembering that he lost a huge fortune, because he STOPPED three feet from gold, Darby profited by the experience in his chosen work, by the simple method of saying to himself, "I stopped three feet from gold, but I will never stop because men say v no' when I ask them to buy insurance."

Darby is one of a small group of fewer than fifty men who sell more than a million dollars in life insurance annually. He owes his "stickability" to the lesson he learned from his "quitability" in the gold mining business.

Before success comes in any man's life, he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat, and, perhaps, some failure. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and most logical thing to do is to QUIT. That is exactly what the majority of men do.

More than five hundred of the most successful men this country has ever known, told the author their greatest success came just one step beyond the point at which defeat had overtaken them. Failure is a trickster with a keen sense of irony and cunning.

It takes great delight in tripping one when success is almost within reach.