Tip For The Year: Invest Rather Than Spend

First of all, Happy New Year! Let’s make 2015 better than all of our previous years. Whilst most of us are nursing hangovers, I’d like to kick this year off by giving you a tip that has changed my productivity and success tremendously. I guarantee you that it will evoke greater action and thus greater success in you.

"Invest rather than spend" is the principle that I'm referring to. At first glance, you might think that I’m talking about investing money rather then spending it. Granted, that’s part of the meaning behind the saying, but there’s more to it.

Money isn’t the only thing you can invest: time is another resource which one can invest into something, or spend doing something.

The beauty of time compared to money is that everyone has the same 24 hours. It’s up to you what you’ll do with them.

I’d like to introduce you to the Stoic and Epicurean school of thought.

Epicureans believe that happiness can be achieved by omitting oneself from hard work, great achievement and pain. They emphasize current pleasure and spending time with friends and family.

The Stoics adhered to a different mind-set: they endured pain and adversity and strived to cultivate their minds as well as their bodies. Stoics, compared to Epicureans, sidestep current pleasure in order to reap the rewards later of the work that they put in now.

When it comes to time and money, be a Stoic.

Invest your money into things such as books, seminars and stocks and invest your time into reading, working and exercising for example. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t enjoy short-term pleasure. Watching movies, eating unhealthy food and partying can most definitely be part of a successful life, limitation is the key word here.

So, in the upcoming year I will (and I hope you’ll do so as well) invest more of my time and money into improving myself and helping the people and the nature around me.

Comments are greatly appreciated.