“The best gift you can give to yourself is to invest in yourself”-Pooja Agnihotri

Building a healthy self-esteem start from the inside out, through cultivating a solid foundation. It is the inner work we must do to help us become the best version of ourselves, by gaining the knowledge about who we are, what we want and where we want to go in life.

 However, just like working on gaining knowledge of self is important to our growth, so is the knowledge we gain by building skills, strengths, and exploring our talents and qualities. The truth is as human being living in our reality, we need to be able to connect to something tangible or physical that can remind us of and help us see the progress we are making, which in turn will benefit our self-worth. 

This is why investing in ourselves in any way we can, is the best act of self-care. Not only we get to learn, challenge ourselves, but we grow and build our self-esteem in the process.

Knowledge is power and how we gain it is by investing time into learning. It is the one thing that cannot be taking away from us, no matter what is going on around us. Knowing that we have created, acquired or build things of value for ourselves can only improve how we view ourselves. 

By building real life competence through gaining skills or knowledge, we can prove our self-worth through action, by moving from hope and dreams to doing. Not only we prove to ourselves that we can do the hard work, but we recognize that we can learn and adapt. These actions build our self-esteem while helping us forge our character.

Investing in ourselves also help us pursuit our goals, and work toward our potential,and can even lead to finding the meaning and purpose of our life. 

When we choose to invest in ourselves, it creates internal value by building self-reliance, through trusting ourselves and reducing the need for praise or validation from others. This can eventually translate to creating tangible value in some ways, either materials or overall improved well-being. Most of us recognize that when we are constantly seeking validation or approval from other, we tend to feel down about ourselves when they do not meet our expectations, thus affecting our self-esteem. But when we learn to rely on our own validation based on our values, needs, interests and what matters to us, we tend to feel good about ourselves.

Furthermore, investing in ourselves help keep our mind healthy through continuous learning, which promote brain health as we challenge our mind to learn new things, to adapt and expand. And when our mental state is positive and healthy, we are more likely to feel and see ourselves in a positive light, thus improving our self-esteem.

How do we invest in ourselves?

 It starts by choosing to build new skills or hon old ones, exploring our interests, developing our talents, qualities and strengths that can reveal more information about ourselves, while allowing us to empower ourselves. For instance, you may take a course, a certificate or hand on experience to learn about a subject that interest you, learn free from YouTube videos and other educational platforms, which can likely boost your self-esteem and self-worth because you prove yourself that you can learn, complete a project, and can achieve your goals. And when you apply these skills in your life, you can see tangible results manifest in your reality, and this can only bring a positive feeling. 

Another way to invest in ourselves is to read books of interest, articles, blogs or even find a mentor to help guide in what you want to achieve in life. 

The idea of investing is about finding ways to create values from the skills, talents, strengths we have or can build, and manifest them into our reality.

Learning through investing in ourselves is one sure way to grow, but applying what we learn can have an even better impact on our growth. This help improve our self-esteem by putting actions behind the knowledge we have gained. 

These actions can come in many forms, like starting to apply it in our own life, choosing to volunteer and share our skills, in our work, hobbies or business or any ways we think suit our needs. But the idea here is to take actions to apply what we have gained, otherwise it can easily go to waste because the beauty of gaining knowledge is to connect it to something tangible, wherever that maybe to see its benefits. Actions can be as simple as changing our behaviors and actions because we have a new info or understanding.

For instance, when we look up at many teachers and leaders in history, such as guru, personal development leaders, philanthropic, spiritual teachers or people we admire etc—.It is how they apply those knowledge in life by the what they say or do, that make us connect with them. They choose to volunteer, teach, lead, write, speak, help other, while transforming their own life in any small ways possible. This is to show that the goal of gaining knowledge through investing in ourselves is to help us grow, find fulfillment, and expand in life by application. 

Also, when we apply knowledge, it can bring a level of fulfillment within that we may not feel if we did not take any actions. 

How do we find these skills, qualities, strengths and talents?

We can start by paying attention to things we are good at, things that pick our interest, bring us joy, excitement, and positive energy flow. Perhaps, it is a hobby, a work project or random things that started making sense to you, where you realize that you are good at something.

 We can also recognize what other often appreciate or compliment us on. Perhaps, one may have natural skills that come easily, but never pay attention to it, and maybe it is time to change that and start taking actions to horn that skill.  Maybe one is good at making people laugh, have great people skills, team building, crafting home goods ect–

The truth is when we are doing something we enjoy or are skilled at, we are more likely to feel good and want to share with others and eventually boost our self-esteem in the process.

Finally, while building a skill or gaining knowledge may not guarantee the results we can expect, choosing to invest in ourselves can be the most rewarding act we embark in for growth. Not only we discover part of ourselves that we did not know existed, but we get the chance to transform ourselves and our life, and our self-worth can benefit tremendously.