57: {Pep Talk} Invest in Yourself

One of the best investments you can make is in yourself. That looks different to different people, but we all need to make this a priority in our life. In this episode, I talk about my personal journey with investing in myself both personally and professionally. I talk through the different areas that have been game changers when it comes to growth.  I  also highlight the value of being in rooms with like-minded individuals and joining mastermind groups to learn from and connect with others. This is my encouragement to you! Highlights Include:

• Reading personal development books can provide valuable knowledge and insights.
• Maintaining a healthy diet and exercising regularly can increase energy levels and overall well-being.
• Practicing gratitude can help shift focus towards the positive aspects of life.
• Therapy can be a valuable resource for mental health and problem-solving.
• Joining mastermind groups and being in rooms with like-minded individuals can lead to personal and professional growth.
• Making time for self-investment is essential for creating a bigger and better life.

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Transcript

Caroline (00:01.309)
Hey girl, I just want to jump on here today and talk through something that's been on my heart recently, which is the importance of investing in yourself. I am grateful that I was raised in a family where both my mom and dad really harped hard on the importance of investing in yourself. And I will say I did neglect that part in my twenties. So fast forward to my early thirties and I had closed the divorce chapter.

I had been recently remarried to the love of my life, Gary, and decided I want to make some significant changes in my life to create a better life overall for myself, both personally and professionally. So what that looked like involves a lot of different pieces, but I think if you can find alignment with at least the majority of them, it'll make a huge difference in your life. So for me personally, I started intentionally reading more.

I wanted to learn and grow. And in the beginning, I started with the big names, the big books like Tony Robbins, the Tim Ferriss, the James Clear books on atomic habits. And over the years, I continued to read more and more. I've learned from Amy Porterfield, Jenna Kutcher, Laurie Harder, Marie Folio. I love her book, Everything is Figureoutable. And at the beginning, I started reading. It was hard for me because I had not been a consistent reader since...

I would even say high school. So I picked up the books again, I wanted to continue learning and growing in my early thirties. In the beginning it was hard. I mean, I would get through one book every couple months and I just continued to read and consume more information and learn more. And I specifically chose personal development books because I wanted to fill my brain with knowledge from others who have lived, you know,

big lives or had good information to share or were experts in their field. So that's one thing I did that was really a game changer for me and now I'm at a pace where I read one book a month. I just read Jamie Kern Lima's book Worthy and it was so freaking good. So I'm now reading a new book called The Super Communicator which I'm loving as well and right now actually my husband and I are reading the same books at the same time which has been really cool experience because it

Caroline (02:25.373)
brings more conversation topics to the table when we have dinner together or date night or whatnot. And it's interesting because he prefers learning on his walks. He listens to audio books and I prefer reading in the mornings the actual books, but either way we still consume the same information, which is really cool. And it just creates for a good conversation. Another thing I started taking more seriously in my thirties was my diet.

I've tried all different kinds of things. I've been vegan. I've been vegetarian. I've been pescatarian. I've been no restrictions, you name it, through this journey. And at this point, I'm at a place where I do what feels good for my body. But I don't do things super restrictive when it comes to the diet portion because that's not possible for me. I gotta have some flexibility there. So I practice an 80 -20 life.

So 80 % is very clean, healthy living. The 20 % is the cheese and the carbs and the wine. So amen if you can relate there. Also exercise, I've always been into exercising. I've always been a runner. I like lifting heavy weights, but I started taking my exercise routine more seriously in my 30s to be more consistent and it also created a lot more energy for me. So right now I go to CrossFit.

four to five times a week, which I love. It's a really hard workout, very intense, and I complain sometimes, but I do feel good afterwards and I do leave with a lot of energy. So I would encourage you, if you're listening into this too, to start taking exercise seriously. Even if you're not into lifting heavy weights or crossfit or group classes, even incorporating walking more frequently into your routine can seriously be a game changer.

So another thing I did for myself too is I started practicing gratitude. I ordered the five minute journal off of Amazon. It's literally, I think less than $20 and will take you less than five minutes to do a day. But it's an exercise that you do in the beginning of the morning and then in the evening. And you write down three things that you're grateful for and then three things that you would like to accomplish for the day. And then you repeat and do the same in the end of the day.

Caroline (04:46.717)
And sometimes I feel like when we get to the end of the day, we focus on the bad things that have happened or, you know, we forget about the good and the small ones, but the five minute journal has been a great way to just be a simple reminder and a way to keep the good in perspective. Another thing I decided to start taking seriously is therapy. If I'm in a season of my life where I've got a lot going on or there's conflict or a lot of change,

I'll ramp up those therapy sessions to either weekly or bi -weekly. But right now I'm in a season of life where that's not the case, thankfully, and I'm in a regular routine with a therapist once a month, which works good and is a good mental health check -in on a monthly basis. So I would suggest investing in therapy. It's just a great resource for you to go and talk out things that are going on in your life with someone who is a professional and can help provide solutions.

I also wanted to start learning and growing professionally. I was working the recruiting industry, which I loved, but I wasn't really doing anything different than I had been doing the past couple of years. So I started putting myself in rooms with other people that I could learn from. So I started going to women's conferences, events that were here close to Beaufort and Hilton Head and Charleston and Columbia. And then I also started investing in digital courses.

because I wanted to learn new skills. And this is actually, I was thinking about it when I was planning out recording this podcast. These are things I didn't talk to people about. So my friends and family, no one knew I was taking these courses and learning these new skills. It was all a behind the scenes situation. My husband, Gary knew, of course, but everything else that I was learning, I wasn't sharing with others. And I don't know why I did that. Maybe it was some kind of imposter syndrome I was dealing with or...

I wanted to make sure I was really good at it before I told people about it. I'm not sure what was holding me back, but as I'm sitting out to here talking this through with you guys, that's kind of where I was, but I started investing in digital courses. And then now I've started investing and being in physical rooms with people who are doing the things that I want to be doing. So for example, I am a part of a mastermind, a podcast mastermind right now. I wanted to really take the podcast seriously and

Caroline (07:10.589)
learn how to serve you guys better so that you can find value here and I can create a community here and I can be a resource to you to help you through things. I want that out of this podcast and I want that for you. And so someone I admire deeply opened up a podcast mastermind. She only does this once a year and I saw it on Instagram and I was like, okay, I'm going to put my name in the hat. I'm going to message her and say I'm interested.

which I did and I thought there's no way in hell she's gonna select me to be part of this, but I was like, what the heck? The worst thing is I'll get ghosted or she'll say no. So I threw my name in the hat, I sent her a DM that I was interested in the podcast Mastermind. I'd had my podcast for about a year at that time. And next thing you know, she DM'd me back. So we went back and forth chatting about the podcast, my goals, where I wanted to take the podcast, how I wanted to serve.

And then she sent me a DM that said, check your email. So I went to check my email and holy moly, she accepted me into the program. And this is someone that has over 10 million downloads and insanely amazing podcast. And so I told my husband, I said, look, this is an opportunity of a lifetime. I have to do this. And I had only 24 hours to decide.

So it was a big decision that I had to make, a big time commitment, a big financial commitment, but I knew it was a once in a lifetime opportunity that I would be in the room, not only with someone I admired and respected exponentially in the podcast world, but 10 other, or nine other, I'm the 10th person, nine other individuals who are doing the same things as me. So my point here is that yes, it's scary. Yes, it takes time.

but it will pay you back in tenfolds of the people that you'll meet and the rooms that you'll be in and you will level up professionally, personally, all the things. I know that investing in yourself takes time and you're like, ah, I don't have the time. I've got work, I've got chores, I got my family, I got my kids, whatever fill in the blank excuse you want to use. I don't want to hear it. You need to make time to invest in yourself professionally and personally.

Caroline (09:28.861)
If you want to create a bigger life for yourself or a different life for yourself, you're going to have to take the time to invest in yourself. So my point here today is just to encourage you to do that. I'm here for you. Thanks for being here until next time.