The Best Investment You Can Make is in Yourself
So today we’re talking about getting better today than you were yesterday and what does that mean? You know, I feel like that in this pursuit of, I mean what does that mean in life. You can be better at anything. You can be a better parent today than you were yesterday. You could be a better spouse. You could be a better sibling, family member, friend. You could be better at your job. You could be in better shape. You could be, you could have more energy. You could be a better giver, a better listener. There are so many areas.
Where do you want to improve yourself?
So if you could pick one area of your life right now that you would like to better today than you were yesterday, what would it be? So, what would that be? If you could pick, you can only pick one. You gotta pick one area of life right now that you could be better today, if I just gave you a magic wand. You know, why do we talk about this? Well, we’re wrapping up a year here so you know it’s that time of year that everybody’s going to make resolutions because something’s, you know, magical about January, which it’s not, but it’s what we do. I get it.
It’s that time of year…
We see that calendar flip and go, “Oh, this year’s going to be different,” you know even though we could make that choice any month. Any day could be your Resolution Day and in fact in some ways getting better at any area is almost like having a mini-Resolution Day every morning. Follow me for a second. Getting better is a choice. It doesn’t happen on accident. I didn’t wake up one day and just accidentally lose a hundred pounds or I didn’t wake up one day and had accidentally paid off $60,000 in debt, right? It wasn’t that it just happened by accident. I had to make a decision first.
Step #1: Make a Decision
The decision that “I want to be better in a certain area” so that’s the first thing is, if you’ve listed this, you need to make a decision. I am going to go all in at being better at this. And pick one thing at a time because where people get overwhelmed and people get scattered is when people try to go and improve in a lot of areas at once, right? So pick and start with one because if you start with one you can get yourself what I call “an early win”. Like you want to build on some confidence so you need a win, you need something positive that says, “Oh, that worked. I’m going to keep putting effort in here.”
For me, I’ll use my weight loss as an example. I tried a bunch of different things and when I started following a program, three days in I felt better. That was an early win. I didn’t necessarily see it, the scale didn’t drop a lot, but I felt better. That’s an early win. That’s a confidence builder. If I make this one little change and I feel that much better, what happens when happens if I put more effort in or if I, you know, dial in my food a little more. Maybe I can get more effort in during my workout. So you start in one place and then you just build on it. So, number one is to make a decision that you’re going to be better in that area.
Step #2: Find the Experts
Number two is start seeking out all of these areas that people have talked about. Confidence, prayer, time management, organization, being a better listener, being more consistent, working harder, there are experts in all of these fields. One of the things that I’ve been so blessed with is that I’ve been able to surround myself with experts in different fields and so if I want to be better in a certain area of my life, I start seeking out who is the expert in that area, you know?
So if I’m looking to get out of debt, do I go seek somebody out like Dave Ramsey? If I’m looking for mindset, do I look up somebody like my buddy P.J. McClure or do I look up somebody like Tony Robbins? If I want to be more confident, my friend Chalene Johnson, who I hope you’re following here on Periscope because she’s the Periscope Queen. Chalene Johnson has a confidence club that is literally just based on building your confidence. I’m looking through some of these things. Time management. You can go pick up a book like Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy, one of the best time management books out there. There are things that will help you get more organized.
It’s worth it. You’re worth it. The best investment you can make over anything else is investing in you.
There are tools that sometimes are going to, there’s a lot of free information out there so you can start with that, but somewhere along the lines I’m going to challenge you to invest in some training and that maybe mean buying a book or buying an online course or paying for a coaching session. It’s worth it. You’re worth it. The best investment you can make over anything else is investing in you. I constantly invest in myself because I’m willing to bet on me. And why is that? Here’s the trap people fall into is they go get the training, they go to the course, they go to the seminar, they buy the book, and they get really excited, but they don’t execute on it. Right? They don’t put it into action. They get excited because they’re learning new things and that’s number three, you gotta take action.
Step #3: Take Action
So you gotta decide, we need to seek out an expert in that specific field, and then we have to take action. And action could be a baby step today. It’s applying one of those things. You know, last Saturday I did a live 3 hours training for over a thousand people, entrepreneurs that have home businesses, and I told them at the end that “You’re going to feel really excited because you spent three hours with me and you’re going to feel like you’re going to feel like you’ve accomplished something…” and I said that, “You’ve learned things, but you haven’t accomplished anything.” And there’s two types of knowledge, well two knowledges. Learned Knowledge and Applied Knowledge. So what are the difference between those?
Learned knowledge is like I’ve read a book, I went to a class, I took a course, I learned something. Applied knowledge is the things I’m going to learn by putting those things into action and I’m going to tell you, you’re going to learn more in the action portion than you actually did in the learning portion. Why is that? Because you’re going to go mess it up, right? We always learn more in putting things into action and being willing to mess it up and I told that class, “The people that are willing to go mess this up the fastest are going to have the best results.” So many people are just petrified of failure. They think that everything has to be perfect, but you show me a successful person and I’m going to show you someone that was willing to go mess it up more times than you were. Really, at the end of the day.
So really, if you’re taking notes, write that down. You know, if you see a successful person, they were willing to go mess things up at a faster rate and more often than you are. While you’re so busy trying to make sure everything’s perfect before you execute, somebody else is out there messing it up and that applied knowledge, their learning curve and their results curve is going to speed up so much more. Who do you think learns more? The person that jumps in, and I’m going to use workouts as an example, who’s gonna have faster results? The person that jumps into a program like INSANITY and gets their ass kicked the first day and they’re terrible at it and their form sucks or the person that keeps saying, “I’m gonna wait until the kids are in school. I’m going to get my diet in check first and then lose these 10, 20 pounds, then I’m going to jump into the workout. I’m going to read through the entire book first.” The people that continually over-plans. Which person do you think is actually going to go in and see results the fastest? I’m telling you, it’s the person that’s willing to jump in and is willing go mess it up faster.
You show me a successful person and I’m going to show you someone that was willing to go mess it up more times than you were.
The same thing with a business, the same thing with a get out of debt strategy, same thing with anything. Being a better listener. You can read books about being a better listener, but don’t you really think that you’re actually going to see a faster return on your investment if you go put it into action? Oh, can y’all see my callouses? That’s work hard, right?
So, Jaime, right there with a perfect example. Jumps right in with the weight loss, 57 pounds since July and Jaime, has it all been perfect? Right? Let me ask you that? Have you done every workout perfectly? Has your diet been a thousand percent perfect? No, but you have 57 pounds of results to show for that! That’s the exact same thing. As I look at this list, you know, any of these things, follow through, follow ups, being a better friend, mindset, all these things are going to take action. There’s a huge piece about learning.
I set aside time out of my day every day for learning. So this morning when I jumped up and before I went and did my workout, I jumped on the stair master, put in my headphones, and I went through part of a personal branding course by Gary Vaynerchuk. That time in the morning is for my learning. So, I’m really big about personal development so every time in the morning I find, I always have two forms of personal development. One form that’s dealing with my mindset or my spirit, right? So for me, I usually listen to something that deals with my mindset or I listen to a sermon or something that’s dealing with my spirit and my head. So that’s as I’m getting read to go work out. Then that first part of my workout where I warm up and stuff, I usually listen to something that has something to do with improving a skill set. So I’m learning about nutrition or email marketing or how to be better on Periscope. Maybe I’m jumping on something like Chalene Johnson learning how to use Periscope better. Maybe I’m listening to a podcast about Twitter or Facebook or YouTube channels or something like that so I’m going to have a piece of my day that is increasing my skillset.
The name of the course? If you go to Udemy, it’s an app, but it’s also a page. Just search for Gary Vaynerchuk. It’s his personal branding course and I think right now that if you use the promo code GaryVee you can get it for like ten bucks. It’s normally a hundred bucks and you can get it for ten dollars. I just think it’s great. It’s really, really awesome.
Step #4: Be Consistent
So you get better today than you were yesterday by doing one little thing today. By learning something new and applying something new and it’s not gonna be sexy. I’m going to be honest with you, you’re probably not going to see results immediately. In building a seven figure business, there wasn’t one…I get this question a lot too, “Jimmy, what was the one thing that got your business to take off?” and it wasn’t. There was no ‘one thing’. It’s showing up every day for eight years, learning something new, and putting something into action. Learning something new and putting something into action. Learning something new and putting something into action.
So for me right now, I want to be more consistent here on Periscope regardless if I have 40 of you watching right now or 400. I could be sitting here and be like, “Oh, I wish there were more people on this right now!” I haven’t earned more people. I haven’t been consistent with this. I haven’t continued to learn about the trends on Periscope and how do I make the most of this. So, it’s a perfect example, if you’re looking to gain more followers on something like right now, I just passed a goal of five thousand people on my YouTube channel. So this is a big goal that I hit on Saturday, but I have a…as you can see right there that Training Camp right there is a YouTube show that I bring out a new episode a week and the new episode should be out today or tomorrow.
But, you know, I’ve had to learn how to be consistent on my YouTube channel to build it to 5,000 subscribers as a brand new channel and learning from people like James Wedmore. This is a really terrible angle. James Wedmore would say to never shoot up. So, I’ve been learning from people like James Wedmore and different YouTube experts on how do I build my YouTube channel.
Recap
So just in recap real quick, I want to be better today than I was yesterday. So, I’m going to make a decision on what it is that I want to be better at. Something specific, not something like I want to be a better person, make it a specific skill set. I need to be better at this. Number two, identify and seek out an expert in that field. Number three, make the time to learn today. Number four, put something into action however small it is super, super fast. And last, but not least, be consistent. I had somebody just a second ago say that they start and fall off when it’s not new. You have to decide why it is that you want to do this. Who else does it impact?
Who else is affected by your decision?
This is the thing that I ask the people that I mentor, “Look, outside of yourself, who else does this impact if you follow through and get results with this?” Even in their own weight loss I’ve had people say that, “If I lose weight, I’m more confident to go to my kids soccer matches, etc. I want my kids to be proud or if I got in control of my weight it would inspire my parents or my friends.” At the end of the day, it’s amazing. Most people’s true motivation to do something impacts somebody outside of them more than it does themselves. So think about that right now as you share these things with me that you want to be better at today than you were yesterday. When you make the commitment to be better at this skillset and make it something you master, who’s impacted by that? Who is really honestly, who’s life is changed or improved or bettered because you took the time to get better at that?
Want to get started right now? I can help!
So, thank you guys so much for being on here. If you need more motivation, if you feel like you would love a little pep talk like this on a daily basis, I would love to spend the next five days with you. You can go to 5DaysFire.com and what I’ve put there is totally free and it’s a five day, five minute a day video. I’ve got a pep talk for you the next five days on video and I’m going to help you learn how to create your motivation, how you create and stick with something. I’m going to teach you the five things I did that allowed me to lose a hundred pounds and keep it off for over ten years, to start a business, to get whatever that thing is that you need motivation because you can’t get over the hump with, these five videos are going to help you do that.
So if somebody wants to pop that there in the comments, it’s 5DaysFire.com, pop in. Stick your email address in there, sign up, let’s spend the next five days together because I really do what to make sure that we create that momentum now. Let’s not wait until January. Create it now and think about it. If you create that momentum and that consistency now, how far ahead of everybody else are you come January. Let’s get a head start. Let’s get a jump on these people. Don’t be part of the masses. You’re better than that and you deserve better than that. So, thank you guys so much. My name is Coach Jimmy. Thank you for clicking follow, thank you for sharing, and I’ll be back next week because I’m going to be consistent with this. Take care.