Episode 480 · Nov 19, 2021

How to Invest in Yourself: Daily Habits That Build Real Wealth

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You pour energy into your work, your clients, your family, and your obligations every single day. But when did you last deliberately invest in yourself? On this episode of The Daily Mastermind, George Wright III calls in from Las Vegas where he is attending the Thrive event, a live conference focused on personal growth and networking. His message is straightforward: you are your greatest asset, and you will not be any good to anyone else unless you take care of yourself first.

Think of it the way the airlines do. You put your own oxygen mask on before helping the person next to you. That principle applies everywhere in life. This episode gives you a concrete list of ways to start investing in yourself today.

Why Starting with Your Goals Is Non-Negotiable

Goal setting is discussed constantly, yet most people still have not written their goals down in specific terms. George makes the case that your ability to create results is directly tied to how much time you invest in clarifying your vision. Set goals. Set stretch goals. Build the mental picture of where you are headed before you try to get there.

"Your vision, your dream, your why, your ability to create and create results is going to be determined by how much time you invest in your vision."

How Physical Health Becomes Your Long-Term Competitive Advantage

Investing in yourself physically is not optional. Exercise, nutrition, and a consistent fitness routine are the foundation everything else is built on. Skip this area and every other investment you make will eventually be limited by your health. Schedule your workouts the same way you schedule meetings and protect that time.

What Meditation Does for Your Mind

George has studied and practiced many forms of meditation, from simple mindfulness to transcendental meditation. Right now he uses the Calm app for short ten-minute breaks during the day. His point is not that you need to commit to one specific method. It is that investing in your mind through some form of regular, intentional quiet practice pays dividends far beyond the time it takes.

"Right now I'm using the Calm Meditation app to break up the day once in a while with a little 10-minute meditation."

Why Paying Yourself First Is an Act of Self-Respect

If you are not consistently setting money aside for yourself, whether through savings, education, or growth experiences, you are leaving yourself out of your own plan. Pay yourself first. It is one of the most direct and underrated ways to invest in your future and signal to yourself that your growth matters.

How Education and Mastery Compound Over Time

Mastery of your skill or niche is what builds confidence, increases your self-worth, and drives your results in the marketplace. George points to reading, courses, conferences, and events as vehicles for this kind of growth. The more you understand your craft, the more value you can bring to others and the more secure you become in who you are professionally.

The Case for Travel, Journaling, and Expanding Your Experience

Experience is an asset class most people overlook. Travel exposes you to other cultures, ways of doing business, and perspectives that simply cannot be replicated any other way. George also champions journaling as a way to capture and preserve memories. A life worth living is a life worth examining. Writing down your experiences, your wins, your reflections, turns moments into lasting assets.

How Networking Builds the Net Worth That Money Cannot Buy

Your network is a form of wealth. The relationships you build and invest in become the resource you draw on when you need answers, support, or opportunity. George describes networking as expanding your personal and professional asset base. When you invest in yourself, you naturally become more confident and present in conversations, which strengthens every relationship around you.

"Your net worth is your network, your community, the people you surround yourself."

Action Steps

Write down your goals in specific terms and revisit them regularly to keep your vision sharp.
Block time each week for physical exercise and treat it as a non-negotiable appointment.
Start a short daily meditation practice, even ten minutes, using an app or a simple breathing routine.
Set up automatic savings or a dedicated budget line to pay yourself first before other expenses.
Attend one event, conference, or meetup this quarter and make a point of introducing yourself to new people.

Investing in yourself is not selfish. It is the prerequisite for everything else you want to build. Start with one habit from this list. Add another when the first feels like second nature. As George Wright III puts it on The Daily Mastermind: it's never too late to start living the life you were meant to live.

READ THE FULL TRANSCRIPT

What's going on? George Wright III here with your daily dose of inspiration, motivation, and education. It's a beautiful Friday. I'm actually down in Las Vegas for the Thrive event. I'm going to spend some time and invest in myself and do some networking. And so great weather down here. I think it's good to get away and get out of the office environment once in a while let's go ahead and start with the quote of the day the daily mastermind quote of the day is what is not started will never get finished boy I'll tell you what so many of us plan and strategize and and work on things but action and getting started is the only way to ever get towards your goals and so that's a great quote what is not started will never get finished now as I mentioned before I'm down in Las Vegas for this event and you know it's been a while it's definitely been a while since I've been doing live events and as many of you know I've done events all over the world but I also like to attend events and go to different opportunities to learn grow and invest in myself and that's kind of the message I wanted to share with you today I wanted to share with you the message of investing in yourself because so many of us invest in ourself last we try to do everything for everyone else and bringing value in the marketplace and bringing value to others is a great way to build a life and build, you know, a life around purpose and passion. But I'm telling you, it's like the saying in the airlines, if you've ever flown, you've got to put your own oxygen mask on first before you can help others. And so I made a quick short list of ways that I invest in myself and ways that I think you could invest in yourself. And I'm going to throw these out to you as just suggestions and ideas to give you some inspiration. But the goal here is that I want you to start thinking of investing in yourself because you are your greatest asset You not going to be any good to anyone else in life if you don take care of yourself So I going to give you a short list of things that you could jot down ways that you can invest in yourself These might be ways that you thought of before They might be ways you've never thought of. But also, I want you to just think about different habits or rituals or items you can put in place to invest in yourself. The first one is start with your goals. I know you hear about setting goals, but many of you still don't have your goals written down. I'm talking about specifically, but invest in your vision. Your vision, your dream, your why, your ability to create and create results is going to be determined by how much time you invest in your vision, how much clarity you put, and that starts with goals. So setting some goals, setting some stretch goals, that's very, very important. Another thing you can do to invest in yourself is exercise. Investing in your health is your, I mean I'm telling you, long term it's going to be your number one asset, but your physical health is important. So invest in yourself by scheduling and exercising and having some kind of physical fitness and nutrition, some type of routine. Another way to invest in yourself is to invest in your mind and I highly recommend over and over and over again meditation. And now whether this is a simple mindfulness practice or whether it's guided or unguided meditation or transcendental meditation. I've studied all types, and I'll actually use many of those at different times. Right now, I'm using the Calm Meditation app to break up the day once in a while with a little 10-minute meditation. I'll use the meditation, the unguided meditations on the Daily Mastermind mobile app because we've got sounds of nature and rain and campfire and ocean sounds. I'll also even use some more theory-based meditation or mindfulness like things from Sam Harris. So meditation is a way to invest in your mind, in yourself. Another thing you might not think about much, but you've heard it before, is pay yourself first The best way to invest in you and invest in your future is to pay yourself first If you don have a regular practice of saving money and investing in yourself whether it savings or events or education and things we'll talk about here in a minute, then you're really not taking care of yourself and so pay yourself first and that'll help to invest in your future. Another thing you can do is, you know, invest in your education because mastery of your skill, mastery of your particular niche is going to be key. It increases your self-confidence, your self-esteem, your self-worth, your results, your productivity. Investing in your education, whether it's reading, taking courses, classes, events, conferences, investing in your education is the way you're going to master your skill, mastering your skill that you're trying to bring to the marketplace. place. Another one you might not have thought about is invest in travel. I think creating experience and having experiences and diversifying your experience is key. And travel will allow you to experience other places, other cultures, other people, other traditions, other foods, other businesses. I mean, I've been able to travel all over Europe and Asia and everywhere and learn the way you do business. And in this global economy, you've got to invest in your experience. And that's experience in life, experience in culture, experience in business. And travel's a great way to do that. So I highly recommend you invest in travel. Another thing is investing your time in your daily rituals with journaling. See, I believe one of the best assets you can accumulate is memories. One of my goals in 2022 is to create unbelievable, unforgettable memories. Memories with family, memories with friends, memories in business, memories of successes. And the best way I can do that is to journal them. And a life worth living is a life worth examining, and you can do that if you not journaling So journaling is a great way to invest in yourself in your memories and in your experiences because it really it doesn just help you to learn it helps you to capture these experiences. A couple other really good ones is invest in networking. You may not feel like you're a networker, but if you are talking to anyone at all ever in life and you ever hope to have communication skills, you need to learn to network because your net worth is your net worth, your community, the people you surround yourself. Then when you're struggling or you're having trouble or you're looking for answers, you can reach out. When you're looking to give value, you can give value to your network. Networking is a great way to increase another asset class for yourself, which is your net worth of your relationships. Because relationships are things that you must invest in. And when you invest in yourself, you're investing in your relationships. and it will cause you to be more happy, comfortable, secure, confident, and bring a lot of value to the world as well when you invest in yourself, your network, and your relationships. So much like I'm doing this weekend, I would encourage you to get out there, get online, look at events online, look at events on Facebook, look for meetups, look for local events, look for conferences, look for online events. Really expose yourself to the wide variety of opportunity that's available, And when you do that and you surround yourself with the right people, you're going to find opportunities left and right. You're going to find you're going to expand your own personal, professional relationships, business, finance, communication. It's all going to start with investing in yourself. So that's my message for today. I hope it gives you a little bit of inspiration towards doing things not just outside of yourself, but inside of yourself, investing in yourself. My name is George Wright III. This has been The Daily Mastermind. Have a phenomenal weekend, and I will talk to you on Monday.