They say the greatest investment is in yourself, tell that to Anna a few months ago and she would have said “the greatest investment is a trip, a beautiful place to stay, or an experience”. Tell that to Anna 5 years ago and she would have said “the greatest investment is in your wardrobe”. Which TBH I still enjoy all of those things today!
What this shows me is my slow evolution from spending money on physical things, to experiences to currently, straight up investing in energy and knowledge to move the dial on my soul growth and evolution. Which TBH I am still wrapping my head around. Sometimes it feel my like brain is so slow to absorb some things, and others it clicks immediately. But I digress….
Spending money on physical things has always been a source of immediately gratification. Yes I spend the money but look at this thing I have to show for it. Now I can wear this thing around and feel happy. But yet, that’s not really how it ever worked for me, maybe I got a bit of temporary joy, but honestly when I spend money on things, it just made we want more things, and then I hyper focused on all things I didn’t have , instead of enjoying what I did.
Then more recently, I started spending on experiences. I spend a year abroad, with a very limited income coming in, I drained a loan that I took out from the equity on my house. Yes, I did feel a bit guilty. But at the end of the day, what happened with the loan was exactly what I said would happen.
When I got the loan, I said to myself ” I am not paying this back, I am going to spend it all and then pay it back when I pay the house off”…. and I did just that. That loaned enabled me to have a life changing year abroad and then supported me when I returned to the states during COVID, when I could not work.
The experience I got out of that money is worth so much more then an extra 10k I would have got on my house if it sold with an extra bathroom, which was what the money was originally ear marked for.
The experience I will hold as sacred forever, yes there was a physical piece to it, food, shelter , transportation tickets, but it is all wrapped up in the experience. But yet there is a niggling of shame hanging around…. “Anna you should have spent it on the responsble thing of putting a bathroom in” says my inner critic. Well that is more grist for the mill, the processing emotional mill.
But now, what I am spending my money on is primarily, resources to support my growth, mental, physical, spiritual and business. Most of it is access to people that have been where I am going. It’s talking, it’s video’s, it’s courses and it’s all fodder for my inner critic …
“are you really spending that much money on listening to someone TALK”
“this is just a video, are you serious ?”
” you will get nothing out of this, go buy some clothes instead”
But what you are really paying for is to calibrate to someone who has been in your shoes. So your subconscious gets the message, “look this is attainable”, and that is everything. If your subconscious sees it happening to someone else, it has a much easier time, accepting that it can happen for you.
Also I think society has more trouble putting a price tag on someone’s energy, experience and voice. It is easier to spend your money on a physical thing that you what you are getting out of it.
What I have gotten from my investments in myself, has been priceless. It has given me such personal growth that a new wardrobe could never. It could not even come close. And the next trip, with all it’s amazing experiences, will be experienced to an even more full level as I incorporate more of practices that I have been learning by investing in myself.
Investing in yourself really is worth it. It makes everything else you do , buy, or have amplified to a higher level, you feel it more, sense it more and enjoy it more.
The Soul Coach 