Investing In Yourself

I never imagined investing in myself could involve, or start with, wanting less.

For once in my life, I have found myself wanting less. First because of sheer exhaustion and then it revealed clarity. ?

Wanting less because I have been tired of having clutter and moving so fast.?Wanting less so that I could be more in control of my time and ultimately my life.?

So often, we talk about wanting more. But many of us can't even really describe what wanting more is. In order to determine how much we want, we have to take a step back to see what more looks like for us in our lives.?

For some people, more is a promotion in their existing career.?

For others, more is a new home.?

Some might see more as a new everything! New environment, new job, new friends and relationships…

And for a lot of people, more is simply saving more money.?

I think what we all really mean, when we say we want more, is that we deserve more. It's so hard to figure out what on Earth that really means when and if we live a lifestyle that moves so fast that we don’t have a single moment to slow down and think.?

In the last few months, I’ve realized that the more I wanted was harmony. And I came to this realization because life forced me to pause.?Having prioritized harmony and knowing what it feels like has been a blessing in disguise.

In my 19 year career of breaking barriers and being the first (and often the only), I finally stopped to look up and realize that my life has completely changed. I’ve wanted more harmony and I didn’t even know what to call it.? It all comes down to wanting less, and therefore not feeling so stretched.?

Recently, I had the incredible opportunity to chat with Dominic-Madori Davis for TechCrunch . Dominic asked five key questions that made me reflect on my career and the pace that I was working so hard to keep up with for the last five years.?

In my former role, I was working 70-plus hours a week and feeling the toll of the physical demands, along with the mental and emotional weight. I knew I needed to take a step back, and I decided to invest in myself.?

Looking back, I think I exceeded my expectations and I’m proud of what I see in the ecosystem happening for all the founders I served while I was leading digitalundivided. But I also know that there are so many other ways for me to continue serving and collaborating with the ecosystem.

I needed to take a step back to allow myself to build that next approach; to leverage the best parts of me. I’ve never taken time in my career, so this has been a really critical time for me to reimagine the future.?

Finally, I’ve been able to focus my attention front and center on harmony. Striving for balance in every aspect of my life - from my day, week, routine, bank account, work relationships, home design, partnerships, investments of my time, money, energy or space.

I’ve got clarity. To finally not feel like I’m spreading myself too thin, or constantly trying to do too much, and still somehow always worried I wasn’t accomplishing enough.?

I have time for my family. My friends. My passions. My goals.?

Time to map out the next move. Time to see it through on my terms.

You can’t find clarity in clutter. But you can't find clarity if you don’t have time to think, let alone execute. Find what it is you want more of, so you can focus on what you need to give less of your energy to.?

Here’s to building wealth to create boundaries to freely walk away from places, jobs and people who don’t serve you so you can find harmony.

You deserve it!

Lauren