Wajahat Ali recently wrote a guest post for forbes.com in which he outlined the four types of investments that we should all be making in ourselves 1. Invest in failure. 2. Invest in creating your own checklist for success. 3. Invest in attracting authentic people by being the best version of yourself. 4. Invest in your ecosystem. You should read the whole thing at Forbes, but I wanted to share the point I liked best because it’s often something I struggle with.
My favorite investment was “creating your own checklist for success.” Going off-script and throwing out traditional trappings of success is something I generally agree with, but have a difficult time living. Comparing yourself to others is the most difficult thing not to do: watching close friends and coworkers move up in the world with pay raises, nice apartments, and new cars sometimes makes me feel like I’m somehow behind in the game of Life.
I combat this by looking over my own goals and achievements. Would I give up past trips to the Emirates or Denmark for a new car? Would I prefer a nicer apartment over the wonderful people I’ve met blogging the last five years? The answer is hell, no! I just need to reshift my perspective from time to time, and remember that a brand new car is something that I can always save up for, but the experiences I’ve had doing what I love are priceless and forever.
This isn’t to say that nice things with big price tags are always evil. Avoiding purchasing things with big price tags is fairly unavoidable, especially for things like cars or houses. But I’m trying to stress that, while setting a goal to save up for your dream car is fine, using it to measure what you’re made of is not. Price tags shouldn’t be what drive you—focusing on acquisitions is the kind of thing that sets you up for an arbitrary checklist for success and won’t fulfill you, anyway.
What do you think about the list? How else do you think you should be investing in yourself?
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