Your Best Investment! - Yourself.

Been awhile since the last entry. Many exposure and thoughts these couple of days and I thought I should sought to crystalise them here.

The concept of investing in yourself is not unfamiliar to many but how many do really understand it fully. During a weekly meeting this month, the topic of discussion was financial investment and a couple of attendees mentioned that their priority is investing in themselves at the moment.

This intrigued me. The first time I was exposed to this idea was back in 2009 where I attended a seminar. "Invest in yourself first!" the facilitator would scream. "It's the only asset that will be with you, no matter what happens. Nobody can take that away from you." Wow. At that point, a revelation.

Investing in yourself as against investing in your business (business owners and self employed) is vastly different but yet easily overlapped (or confused). Investing in your business includes buying a car, hiring people, optimising processes, training staff, marketing, purchasing inventory, etc.

In my books, investing in yourself can be simply split into two categories: Improving yourself and Pampering yourself.

- Are you buying books every now and then?
- Are you attending seminars?
- Are you signing up for workshops?
- Are you always curious and asking for answers?
- Are you feeding yourself the right food?
- Are you exercising?
- Do you have a gym membership?
- Do you reward yourself?

While we need the creature comfort of life: good rich food, a massage perhaps, buying the bag that we always wanted, taking a holiday, etc, we still need to always seem to be improving. Always feels like taking a step forward as a person.

You know, sometimes when the stars align, you just have to enjoy the ride. Right after the said weekly meeting, we were back in office and a video was being shown as part of the video screening program in the office. The speaker was talking about Happiness and Pleasure.

Happiness as defined by the speaker is permanent. It trickles from the innate nature of us. We feel happy when we do something for our loved ones. We feel happy when we felt that we had made a difference to someone's life. We feel happy when we have acheived something.

Pleasure on the other hand gives us that sense of satisfaction in that particular time and place. Usually, it don't last as long as happiness. Eating a superb dinner, enjoying a session in the spa, buying that bag. These gives us instantaneous joy, but usually fleeting. 

Happiness creates lasting memory while Pleasure creates a good feeling. Don't get me wrong. Both are important, but what is your balance. And which one are you investing yourself in?