This is not about good financial literacy habits or money management... It's about how you view the use of your time and money as tools. In a capitalistic economy we rely on mutual exchanges in order to give and receive value. But in this way everything is painted as very transactional. This means that it appears the exchange happens all at once, the entirety of value for full compensation at the moment of transfer. This is why we describe it as how you “spend” your money or how you “spend” your time, because the resource is determined to be completely allocated all at once.

Instead, let’s think about this transaction through the lens of investing your time, and investing your money. When we buy food, we’re investing in our well-being and the lasting effect it has on the body and its ability to perform. When we invest our time in a project it provides lessons and learnings that we take with us far longer than the literal time we spent working on it. This perspective on the way we spend our most valuable assets deconstructs the transactional nature of the exchange and highlights the prolonged benefits we receive, which is a more accurate representation of what we get.

This all comes together in a very common term - Return on investment. By labeling the way you spend your time and money as an investment, you have the opportunity to squeeze as much value out of it as you can in order to get a better return. This allows you to evaluate the exchanges you have that involve your time and money in a new way, with more clarity on what you’re actually getting for it. Seeing it as an investment allows you to be more intentional about how you spend your valuable resources, and ultimately allocate them in a way that produces more joy and fulfillment.

Here's a story something that happened and I’m still shaking it off!

I had been working for months to make the interview with Tanya Ramos happen. I’m co-founding a project that is incredibly interwoven with her work at Pencils of Promise, the mission she stands for, so I wanted to start building a relationship with Tanya as a way to begin exploring opportunities for collaboration and mutual support. The call was booked as the culmination of a ton of hard work, accomplishing a big goal that I had set, and I lost sleep the night before out of excitement and fear that I wouldn’t wake up in time for the interview.

Well as luck would have it, I converted the time zones incorrectly into my calendar and was late for the interview! I immediately felt dejected and so disappointed in myself, that I could squander an opportunity like this that I’d worked so hard for, and was very critical of myself. I started scrambling trying to make everything work and needless to say, was really flustered. But then I thought about the situation and what my ideal response is: Breathe, be calm you can’t change the past, have faith that she’ll understand, and focus on what you can do moving forward. Taking a moment to be mindful and intentional allowed me to refocus, appease her concerns, and conduct the interview as scheduled! It was mission accomplished, the interview was incredible and it represents something I’m really passionate about. And it all was possible because I managed my emotions, had faith in the process, and chose to take action!

This is  good news and bad news all in one because it's the same news applied in two different ways. The way things are right now, they’re not going to be like that forever. But that’s exciting and an opportunity we need to seize because everyday we are creating our future.

When things are going really well, that's great and I love to hear it. But they won’t be like this for long. It’s most definitely possible that things could change for the worse overnight. If that’s the case then recalibrate, find the lesson, and proceed in the best way you can. Alternatively, things can get way better too! The satisfaction you’re currently experiencing might only be a fraction of how things are meant to be, so it’s always important to keep an open mind as things morph and change in your life.

Or if things are not going so well at the moment, then keep fighting, because this phase is only temporary. View it as a necessary trial that will equip you with the mindset and strength you need to excel in the future. It is so much easier said than done, but you still can reclaim the life you deserve by fighting through it today.

In any and all of these cases, it’s important to acknowledge this: Your current state is not your ultimate state. Good, bad, right, and wrong, things will be different shortly and it’s up to you to steer your life in the direction you want. So believe in yourself and your destination because I believe in you, and know wholeheartedly that you are capable of great things!

A pervasive problem that we see in society today is this idea that vulnerability is a weakness. That you should maintain a tough persona to show others how resilient you are. Be tough, yes, but also be emotionally available and honest. Tanya Ramos, the CEO of the For Purpose organization Pencils of Promise, was taught to be protective and strong as a child, but she found that being vulnerable and honest has allowed her to excel as a leader!  

The humility and authenticity of Tanya’s message concedes that you’re always going to need others to help fill in for your weaknesses or deficiencies. The opportunity, thought, is that the sooner you are receptive to receiving support the sooner it will stop holding you back.

To me, this quote embodies a mindset of gratitude. So often we go through life without acknowledging the blessings that are around us because they are merely there by circumstance. We take these things for granted, but when we take responsibility for these elements, and become more mindful of the processes that provide it for us, we start to realize how lucky we really are. By carrying the weight of the task, and experiencing for yourself the effort required to produce the result, you’ll develop a new level of respect for everything that goes into it.

For example, think about taking out the trash. You take 30 seconds to move your trash bags to the bin, once a week you put the bins out on the street and the trash is gone for good. But what isn’t acknowledged is the process and full mechanism behind managing your trash, and it may be a utility you take for granted. Or the mail, and how it travels thousands of miles seemingly without effort in order to arrive to your door. It’s not so easy when you make the trip yourself.

More appropriately for personal development, let’s liken the quote to education. You can go on the internet and find a blog or podcast or book that answers your specific question. It’s so easy! But then you try to write a book or blog and you realize the work that’s required to produce that asset for you. In that way you get a glimpse of the true value of it and have a newfound respect for your access to education.

So take yourself seriously, invest in yourself, carry your own water just to know how heavy it is, because then you’ll know what it’s like and you’ll appreciate it more.

We go through many problems in our lives, from massive life shifting news to minor inconveniences, but there’s something that all of these problems have in common - They are simply unmet needs.

A problem is something that you are experiencing or going up against that is preventing you from a desired result in your life. That desired result is simply a standard you’ve set about how you want your needs to be met. It’s an expectation for a life balance, an equilibrium that we feel most comfortable in as it pertains to our survival, safety, sense of belonging, sense of self-worth, and sense of fulfillment. You may have noticed I just listed a version of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Many problems are just the superficial representation of a more deeply rooted need, and we often come upon incorrect solutions to those problems because they are addressed at a superficial level. 

For example, let’s say you’re having an issue with a friendship because your friend has flaked on you a few times in a row. On the surface this may be perceived as a problem that your friend no longer values the relationship, and your solution could be to push away out of self-preservation, providing an immediate solution to the problem. But that would only bring you further from meeting the need that is being compromised, your desire for love and belonging, which could be maintained if you chose to be empathetic and understand on a deeper level what is motivating the problem.

I encourage you to think more about the problems in your life and how that might relate to your basic human needs.

Trust me when I say that everyone deals with loneliness. It may not be obvious, it may not be to the same extent, but everyone has moments or circumstances where they feel lonely. When it comes down to it, we all have a deep desire to be loved and appreciated by others, and when we don’t feel like we’ve received that, we feel lonely. It may not seem this way because as humans we are so good at protecting ourselves, adding layers to mask the truth behind the feelings we have. But that is usually an engineered, defensive facade that is used out of self-preservation.

Overall, I think loneliness is misunderstood. Just because you’re alone doesn't mean you’re lonely. In fact when we start to embrace our alone time we find there’s a lot of power and growth to be found in it. It’s fundamental to gaining self-awareness and standing in your independence, helping you find value in what you think of yourself and not completely dependent on what others think. There’s nothing lonely about being alone, and there’s a different word for it - It’s called solitude. 

So when you’re feeling lonely, try reframing it as solitude. See loneliness as an opportunity to celebrate you, to get to know yourself better, and to focus your attention on your own well-being. It might be difficult if you have frequent and extended bouts of loneliness, but in any case I’d encourage you to view it from a larger lens. This independent time in your life is teaching you something you need to learn about yourself, and when it’s all said and done you’ll be ready to experience a new level of happiness, connection, and alignment.

This is an incredibly effective productivity mindset that can help you better manage all of the random things that come across your plate. At first glance it seems impractical because it sounds unnecessarily disruptive, but when you do it right it actually frees up your time. Do it now. 

I understand that when you’re "in the flow" and you become aware of something that can take you off task, it doesn't sound like a good idea to address it. But let’s reveal what it actually means and in doing so change the perspective on this.

What’s important to note is the following applies for when you have already been presented the stimulus. You’ve been notified of something else going on and you are debating how to respond. Of course you can eliminate the notification from the onset and prevent the disruption in the first place, but that’s a different topic. 

With that in mind, when that notification or disruption does come through, do it now. As great of focus as you may have in the moment, subconsciously the notification affects your ability to focus and it demands your attention. We are evolutionarily hardwired to detect and seek to understand changes in our environment because it may present a threat. So in order to appease our threat detection systems, we can “do it now” so that we can return to or work with complete focus.

This takes two forms. If the interruption requires a small action to be addressed, something that will take a minute, do it now. Complete the action in its entirety so that it doesn't linger over your head. Alternatively, if a larger action is required of you, have a system that allows you to address it now. Write it in a notebook, or put that thought somewhere that you will revisit so that you are confident you can address it when the time is right. Then you can return to your task with focus knowing you won’t overlook the new deed that needs to get done.

In both cases, it’s as simple as doing it now. Don’t try to ignore the stimulus because it will continue to affect you more than you know.