Guaranteed Time Investments

If someone younger than you who you cared about came to you for advice, and they asked you, “What is the best way to get a guaranteed return on investment?” – What would you tell them?

Would you tell them the stock market, because it's been good over the long run? Would you say mutual funds, because they're diversified? Would you say bonds or certificates of deposit? How would you respond to that?

Guaranteed Returns on Investment

As I've worked with clients over the years in their businesses and looked at the risks they take on team members, advertising, new projects or research and development, the only things I’ve found that is a guaranteed return on investment are:

1. Investing in yourself

2. Investing in life experiences

3. Investing in your most treasured relationships.

Those 3 things seem to be just about guaranteed that you're going to get a positive return on your investment.

Investing in Yourself

Hopefully, you already know that your most valued asset is you. You're your most valuable asset, so it makes sense for you to develop yourself and educate yourself. I’ve personally invested well over $100,000 in my personal development, in addition to the tens of thousands or possibly hundreds of thousands that my parents have invested in me.

I can’t emphasize enough how important it is that we invest in ourselves. That's one area where we get a guaranteed return on investment.

Investing In Life Experiences

When we invest in experiences in things that are important to us, we broaden our horizons, and this is another way of investing in ourselves.

Travel, volunteering, doing things that help others, doing new projects, doing things that scare us, trying something new, doing something different, expanding who we are, what we're about, traveling, getting to see a different side of the world, Reading books that maybe we didn't consider, even something as simple as being open to reading a post on Facebook that's from a different point-of-view of yours and opening your horizon and see maybe that there's something more to that, maybe there's a different perspective.

All of these are life experiences that are worth investing in and which are guaranteed ways to invest your time.

Investing in Your Most Treasured Relationships

And then another great way to invest your time is spending it with your loved ones, and just having time to appreciate them and enjoy their company.

As a father who has two young children, gosh, they grow up so quickly! Everybody who’s a parent says it, and it's so hard to explain, but it's so true. We all talk about that and yet so often, I get caught up in feeling like I need to provide for them and I need to get these things and make this money.

All that is certainly important, and yet if I miss out on being present with them, if I don't have time to shoot a basketball with them or read a book with them, or listen to what they have to say when they come home from school, then something’s gone wrong.

I want to have the time and space to be able to pause work to just hear them and sit there being present and taking it all in.

Making the Right Choice

Those are the investments that, in my experience, will almost always pay off. Yes, there are certainly some other investments financially that will pay off, and yes, you want to save money and you want to invest in your long-term future and your finances, I'm certainly not against that.

But if you have to choose, if you find yourself thinking, “Do I want to spend more time with my kids or my loved ones or doing things that I enjoy most? Or do I want to make $5 to $10 thousand extra? Its money that maybe I don't need to get by.” Then I'm going to suggest you choose the people, the experiences, and yourself.

Do that and you'll find your life is full of joy, happiness, excitement, and wonder and you won't be looking to buy things to provide that because you'll already have that.

The 4-Day Work Week Entrepreneur Academy

As entrepreneurs, sometimes we need to be locked in a room to get something done.

We’ve created a workshop called the 4-Day Work Week Entrepreneur Academy, where in two days we help you put together your Game Plan to create a 4-Day Work Week lifestyle.

You'll be in the room with other entrepreneurs who are networking with each other, creating a support network to implement throughout and after the program, and also understanding and learning the fundamentals of how to best do this. We also follow it up with an online program and with weekly calls to help people make sure they're able to implement the content of the program.

If you're looking to make something happen and get closer to 4-Day Work Week, go to 4dayworkshop.com and you can learn more about the live events.

I’ve helped many entrepreneurs with this before, and I look forward to helping you and seeing you at one of our workshops.

As always, I look forward to helping you make more money in less time, doing what you do best, so you can really enjoy your friends, your family and all the experiences life has to offer.