When I hired my first business coach, it was a huge amount of money for me at the time. It scared me. It terrified me, actually, to invest that kind of money in myself. I’d never done anything like it before!
What paying that much for coaching gave me, though, was a real sense of commitment. I thought to myself, “Okay, I cannot afford to play around with this because I’ve put so much on the line.”
I didn’t think those thoughts in a punishing or regretful way. It was just that I had told myself I was going to take the process of business coaching seriously, and the financial investment held me accountable for that decision.
Paying someone in exchange for a service can be really powerful. Making a significant financial investment raises the bar on your own commitment level and demands that you stand in the belief, “I am worthy of doing this.”
Spending vs. Investing
Often, when we’re considering hiring a coach or working with someone to increase our self-awareness, personal growth, or business acumen, we think in terms of “spending” money. In fact, I recently hired a new coach and this same conversation happened inside my head!
One of the thoughts that I had was, “Well, I could choose not to hire the coach and instead save that money in case things go poorly. That feels like a good back up plan.” I had the feeling that I would be ahead financially if I didn’t spend the money on the program.
I soon realized that “holding back” in case something went wrong was the recipe for creating that exact scenario of something going wrong!
I also became clear that hiring a coach is not the same as “spending” money; it is an investment. In the same way you would invest money in the stock market with the hope and expectation that the value will go up, you’re investing your financial resources in yourself with the expectation that your expertise, experience and growth will increase.
And the thing is that when you SPEND money, the value of what you spend it on immediately goes down. Drive a brand new car off the lot, and its value can drop by thousands of dollars.
When you INVEST money, the value of what you invest in goes up, especially when you invest in your own knowledge, health or performance.
The experience of investing in myself led to my creating more income than the money that had been sitting in the bank account in the first place. I would call that a good investment, wouldn’t you?
Money is a Wonderful (and Strict) Gift
My business is in the healing / coaching realm, and many of my clients are also coaches. I often see (and have experienced) coaches thinking that their business is about helping other people. While that may be the “why” behind having a business, the more immediate purpose is to generate income and be self-sustaining.
Often, we think that we can just give and give and give. Over time, this belief and behavior starts to deplete us.
Money has a wonderful way of demonstrating the concept of depletion in a very tangible way and in a relatively short amount of time. While we could give our time, energy and attention without balance for months or even years, we simply can’t “do” money that way. It will run out, and we’ll have no way to pay the mortgage.
That is the gift of money. It’s a tangible representation of time, energy and attention that demands balance. As business owners, it’s our responsibility to account for all our investments, financial and otherwise.
Our modern society can feel a bit backwards when it comes to investing ourselves too heavily without receiving compensation in return. I can personally speak to times when I took pride in only getting four hours of sleep per night. I thought I was so strong and focused because I was willing to put others’ needs and expectations before my own well-being.
That’s completely backwards, and not sustainable.
If you’re ready to make an investment in yourself and create more balance in your work-life experience, I would love to talk. We may be a great fit to work together. Please click HERE to find a time for us to connect.