Creating Your Own Empire: Investing In Yourself

For most people, the idea of creating your own empire equates to monetary wealth and material pursuits. There is nothing wrong with money and beautiful things, but those are pursuits and accomplishments derived from outside oneself. Creating an empire in the way that I am referring to is a bit different, this endeavor is crafted from within. “What can I do to invest in myself today?” is a question I ask myself every morning. Yet the way this came about was rather simple. Every day I would spend hours cleaning, doing laundry, taking out the trash, mowing the yard, cleaning the pool, on and on it went, when I began to notice that all the things I wanted to do for myself and that were important to me would sit on my to do list pushed off until another day, and all the energy I exerted getting my home look the way I wanted I would be doing all over again tomorrow. That didn’t equate to progress for me.

That’s when I realized, if I didn’t make myself a priority now, as in today, then when would I? A clean house and a tidy yard were not going to push me any further into becoming who I wanted to be, and it certainly wasn’t going to provide me with the security I wanted for myself. I began to apply this “investment” mindset to all areas of my life, self-love, finances, relationships, and even hobbies. To me, my time, energy, and my mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health, were far more important than a perfect house as they are resources I could not get back, and yet they are the resources that directly influence the quality of my life.

It took a bit of refining, but I now have a structure to my day that allows me to ensure I am investing in myself while also accomplishing the mundane things that are part of living. So how do I do this? How can you create your own empire by investing in yourself? Here are a few tips.

Create your own security. Creating our own security isn’t just about creating wealth and planning for retirement. It’s actually about creating a mindset. Creating a mindset that is centered in the self, that’s strong, resilient, and that’s resourceful, is all that’s needed to accomplish any goal we set. When I think of building security for myself, I think of building internal security first. Internal security to me is creating a healthy mindset, continuously becoming emotionally secure in myself, thinking about what I want for my life, and asking myself what I need to do today that’s going to allow me to get there tomorrow. Once that internal security is developed, the outside tasks become easy because change, growth, and manifestation all take place within first, and then materialize in our reality second.  

Focus on priorities. You need to ask yourself what a priority to you is. Is it your family? Is it money? Is it travel? Your priorities should be the number one thing you work towards accomplishing because the bulk of your energy will already be invested in this as our priorities are on our minds. Tending to them first makes room for other areas of our life. For me, creating my own security is my biggest priority. This is both internal security as much as it is external. Structuring your day in a way that allows you to continuously work on that priority is an investment in itself because you are providing yourself with the self-discipline needed to progress in that pursuit. I am a list person, so my daily to-do list has my priorities for the day written out; priorities both mundane as well as those that play a role in my overall plan.

Pay attention to your thoughts. Our thoughts influence our feelings, and our feelings largely dictate our actions. Many say that learning to control and wield our thoughts is the purpose of our life, and ultimately determines the quality of our life. I too agree with this notion. And with that, during the day I like to check in with myself and ask myself how I am doing. What am I focusing on? What is the tone of my thoughts? Are these thoughts empowering me or am I being drained by them? It’s important to ensure we don’t lose ourselves to the rabbit hole focusing on things that are not beneficial to us.

Ration your energy. I remember hiking Mt. Washington for the first time. Me, being so green at the time, burned through all my energy only to realize I was only halfway up the mountain. Learning to ration my energy was a lesson I have since carried with me all these years because it made the hike so much harder than it needed to be. Rationing our energy throughout the day helps ensure we don’t burn out. This can be difficult for some people who feel they must be productive all the time (I’m raising my hand), and for those who have a lot of responsibility. But if we don’t slow down and take things as they come, we will eventually burn out, and that can bring along with it all sorts of complications such as depression and illness. As Lao Tzu said, “nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”

Pursue your passions. I am a big believer that in that pursuing is the key to a happy life. A lot of people struggle to balance a career in which pays the bills and pursuing what they love, because often times what they love may be a creative endeavor and not a stable source of income. I think that our passions are there for us to pursue, and by not going after them and exploring that potential is a tragedy. One thing that I have learned over time is that you must remain open to how this passion manifests in your life in terms of logistics. As long as you honor what your passionate about and continue to pursue it, the universe will do the how.

Ask your ideal self. I like to imagine that my ideal self is really my higher self for she is centered, stoic, and full of love and wisdom. At the same time, I also know that I am human and with that comes the full spectrum of human emotions. However, during the day, and especially when I am triggered, or in relation to something I am unfamiliar with, I like to ask myself what my ideal self would do. How would she conduct herself right now? How would she interpret this experience? Shifting that mindset from reacting to what’s outside myself to responding from within myself, allows me to get above the situation and interact with it in a more enlightened and empowered way.

Do something creative. I have tons of projects; in fact, I have a list entirely dedicated to them. Some are small such as framing pictures to more in-depth projects like mounting my Coyote skins. Complexity aside, I like to try to accomplish one project a week. This way I can slowly chip away at the things that I enjoy while not being overwhelmed by them and feeling as though they have become just another responsibility to tend to. Give back to yourself. Do something you enjoy simply because you enjoy it. It’s important to make room for play and creativity in our life as it helps refill our inner well which in turn helps fuel our pursuits.

Those are just a few of my tips for investing in yourself. Each one of those can be expanded on even further in your journey to creating your own empire. Just remember, that your empire is your own, and it’s always built from within.