The Most Important Investment You Must Make – And It’s Not Stocks

You can carry out a billion other investments, but if this particular investment is lacking, you will have invested in nothing.

We can talk about investing from now till eternity; however, if this one investment is not made, everything comes to naught. You can carry out a billion other investments, but if this particular investment is lacking, you will have invested in nothing.

This investment should be in your TIME. Time is the most prized possession in the world. It is limited and no matter how much you try to buy time, it is finite. One second you’re 20 years old, and by the other, you’re in your mid-forties.

In order to not just watch it slip by, you must invest it profitably. This is where the difference between just spending time, watching it go and investing it comes to play. Here are a number of ways to wisely invest your time:

Be Proactive

The first rule of investing your time wisely is to be proactive. Reactive people are the ones that watch time fly by. They are the ones who wait for life to happen to them.

While it is okay to not want to rush your journey to success, it is worse to wait for things to possibly work. To invest your time wisely, you must actively seek change.

Every other item on this list requires that you take action proactively. Proactively live the life you want to live and make up your mind not to settle for less.

Take Care Of Your Health

Your health is the most important aspect of your life. This is because no matter what you want to do in life, everything is going to be done in your body. A common mistake many people make is ruining their health in their twenties only to regret it in their fifties.

Eat well, sleep well, exercise, take breaks, meditate, and keep as many healthy habits that your older self will thank you for.

Attain Mastery

Another important thing you must do with your time is to attain mastery – or at least strive towards it. To do this, you must establish what your core competencies are and what you want them to be.

Educate yourself by reading books and taking courses, and develop your skills by working on them at every opportunity you get. As time goes by, it is the education you have garnered and the skills you have perfected that will open doors for you.

Invest In Relationships

With time, you will realize that your success is as strong as the people you have in your life. Spend your time building key relationships. Also spend time with your friends, family members, and business associates.

Make new friends that will grow with you and seek bits of advice from successful mentors. At the very least, even if you can make it to the proverbial “top” without any help, you don’t want to be old and rich without anybody to share it with. Do not alienate people; it’s never worth it in the end.

Invest Your Finances

There is no way we can talk about investing in time without highlighting the importance of investing your finances - and time is a key factor for this to happen.

Let’s say, two friends, Titi and Tosin are the same age of twenty today. This automatically means they will become forty at the same time. Titi might simply focus on earning money and working hard to take care of herself.

Tosin, on the other hand, might have invested in securities from stocks to bonds and even real estate. In two decades, Titi might be rich but Tosin will have had her money work for her and will have built enough wealth to be financially free.

Time is going to be expended anyway; why not invest it wisely?

Written by Lawretta Egba.