There is one crucial thing I’ve learned about personal and professional development in my nearly five years in the field. That is the importance of not cheaping out on myself. As a lifelong overachiever I like to be my best at most things I endeavor to do. It has become clear to me that achieving certain levels of mastery rarely happens without an outlay of a decent amount of cash.
Coming from someone in a service field, I know this may seem like a self-serving message. Honestly, I’m speaking as a consumer here. I value proficiency and efficiency. When at all possible, I’m a huge fan of taking advantage of any option to expedite a process that otherwise may require years to yield small progress.
The fact is I can get better at a lot of things using free resources. If I want to be my best as quickly as possible, I usually have to come up off some coin.
Often, I can fool myself into believing being miserly works when I am very novice. When I know roughly nothing, all the information I get from free content online can exponentially increase my knowledge on a subject. Blogs and YouTube tutorials are amazing sources of introductory information.
The counterintuitive thing is the more I know, the more money I usually have to invest to learn more. It seems wrong. From med school to business development, it has been shown to be true over and over again in my life.
I think this seeming contradiction is what keeps a lot of really accomplished people from paying for the help we need. God bless us. We physicians are among the worst I’ve seen when it comes to recognizing how much simpler our lives could be with outside assistance or guidance.
As we enter this new year, there will be all sorts of people offering all manner of services to maximize improvement of our lives in various ways. I have one simple tip to share on how to approach due diligence when it comes to determining who gets our hard-earned cash. We have to know the right question to ask when we are seeking mastery in an area. Rather than “Will I have to spend money?”, it is “With whom will I spend money?”.
Making the most of free or inexpensive content is a great way to decide who to give your money when the time comes. You will get some useful tips, tricks and insights from the online exercise videos, the business articles and the self-help books. By all means, gather all the good info you can from the complimentary sources. Do also recognize this consumption of material is your screening process for which philosophies and personalities align best with yours.
Typically, you will eventually hit a ceiling on your progress with the do-it-yourself method. That isn’t a bad thing. That is a normal thing. When that happens, you have to determine whether this person/company/entity has earned your favor and trust enough to get a more significant investment. Have you gotten enough return from the time you have invested so far to feel comfortable investing money in the future?
The combo of having gone to school forever and being very curious means I am blessed to know a lot of stuff. Over the years, there have still been many times when I had size-able knowledge gaps. I had no idea what I needed to know to gain the level of mastery necessary for satisfaction in certain areas of my life. Gaining that knowledge started with me asking for help.
I invite you to consider where in your life your DIY approach may have reached its limit. Are you ready to ask for help for your next steps? Who has earned the right to the money you invest to be your best in the new year? If you are unsure, now is the time to start compiling a list of contenders.
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Dr Jattu Senesie is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist, certified success coach, physician satisfaction specialist and speaker. She blogs about issues of self care and well-being in an effort to help her fellow altruistic high achievers find satisfaction in their success as early in their careers as possible.
