SELF CARE AND INVESTING IN SELF

Posted on June 23, 2022 by CHANDANA GOSWAMI, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

Self care is not about only “me time”. It is also about investing in self for further upward movement. Upward movement is not promotions alone, it is about self discovery of one’s passion and trying to realise those suppressed dreams.
We spend most of our time in trying to fulfil wants and needs of our family and office. In the process, our dreams and desires tend to take a backseat and is lost in the cobwebs of time without even our realization. Sad, isn’t it? It takes an earthquake in some form to shake us up and question the purpose of our life. And by then, lethargy has set in and we unhappily continue being in the comfort zone comforting ourselves with all excuses for not having made the move when we should have.

Moving out of the comfort zone is not easy. We have to pay a price for that. And we know that there is no free lunch. I decided to upgrade myself at a point in time when my kids were in primary school. My university did not agree to give me study leave and still I decided to go ahead. Husband was supportive and he now had additional responsibility of taking care of kid’s school and homework, while I moved to a different state. I used up my earned leave and then had to be on leave without pay. I hope you can appreciate the amount of financial investment and the emotional price that I had to pay by leaving behind young kids at home for nine months.

This self investment helped in getting an international fellowship where my expenses during my stay was fully funded. This meant another four months away from home. In this manner, one thing led to another and I have managed to realize most of my dreams.

Please don’t label me as selfish. I have supported my husband and kids to also realize their dreams and by virtue of my exposure I have encouraged my kids to dream big and stretched myself to facilitate their upward movement. If you are thinking that I managed to do all these things because of the support from my family, I agree and let me tell you that any support system has to be built over the years.

I encourage you to spend money on yourself for upskilling and please don’t feel guilty about it. The returns come in terms of new knowledge that you can use as well as pass it on to your home and office. I am continuing to invest in myself even when I am towards the fag end of my career…..because retirement is going to be a new beginning.