“Whatever energy you put into something will manifest itself in equal amounts when it comes out.”
Gary Vaynerchuk, Crushing It
Beyond the Quote (81/365)
Rather than go on defense and pray and wait and hope that everything turns out okay for you and your family—go on offense! Time is our most precious commodity and if you have an abundance of it from the COVID-19 crisis, then it’s time to utilize that time and make something happen. And I’m not talking about panic buying and stocking up on your toilet paper. I’m talking about taking initiative and making moves that will leave you—not behind or even in alignment with where you were before the crisis—but AHEAD. And the only way to get ahead is to shift from ‘damage-control’ defense to ‘abundance-mindset’ offense. Here are some ideas:
Money saved is money earned. And now is a great time to save (and earn) money.
- Take that defensive driver’s course that you never have time to complete and get 10% off of your car insurance for the next 3 years (and 4 points off your license).
- Do some shopping around with your services. For example, I called different phone carriers to see if there are any specials or incentives to switch to a different provider. I found a provider that allowed me to bundle my phone and internet and ended up saving me $90 / month. Plus, because of COVID-19 all activation fees were waived AND they included two (2) $250 Master Cards.
- Now is a good time to unsubscribe from services you haven’t been rendering. For example, I was paying $99 / year for an online piano training service that I haven’t used in… a year. So I cancelled it before the next payment came out. I’m sure there are a few things that you’re subscribed to that you haven’t used in a long time. And now is a great time to check your statements.
Start a side hustle. Or double-down on your current side hustle.
- Gary Vaynerchuck swears by ‘flipping.’ Maybe it’s something you could try? Sell some of the stuff you have laying around your house that you don’t use anymore. Look for stuff at discount stores, discount websites, or garage sales and sell them for retail price. The possibilities with this are endless and are only limited by your hustle and imagination.
- Start producing and sharing content of value. Maybe you could start a brand? Launch a website? Produce a YouTube Channel? Pick a niche that is of interest to you and start putting content out into the world. It can be so easy to get sucked into ‘consuming’ all of the time—why not be the producer for a change? Be warned, whatever you choose to do, make sure it’s for you and not for anyone else (or to just make money)—if you set you with the wrong intentions, you will lose.
- Create an online course? Maybe you just lost your job due to COVID-19. Why not try to create a course outlining and sharing your current skillsets for others to learn from? Maybe you could just make a series of YouTube videos and go over some of the tips that have helped you progress throughout your career? Or maybe you could make a more formal course that has sign-ups? If you have skills built already, why not share them? If you don’t think you have skills worth sharing—then it’s time to invest in yourself.
The best investment(s) you will ever make isn’t in the stock market—it’s in yourself.
- My favorite investments are books. The return on investment, in my opinion, simply can’t be beat. It’s one of the most underrated values in our society. Books are literally the best of another person’s mind, organized, formatted, and packaged for you so that you can download and install that information into your brain! All it takes is some simple jumps of the eyes and WHAM! …Your brain is upgraded. And in today’s world, it’s not like you even have to actually even read the books to get the info! Like, seriously. You can listen to entire books on Audible or us a service like Blinkist to get the key insights from popular nonfiction books in a fraction of the time. Busy isn’t an excuse—especially if you’re quarantined. Now is the time to invest.
- Next, build skills of value that are in alignment with your field of interest. If you’re not working, then get to work on yourself! There are infinite ways you can build skills in today’s world. There are amazing services like Skillshare, Udemy, and MasterClass that can take you through actual curriculumized courses and will leave you way ahead of where you are. Make it your mission to return to the work force way ahead of where you were than when you left it.
- Finally, forget about formal—try experimental! Trial-and-error is the mother of all teachers. Experiential learning is the type of learning that doesn’t happen to you, it happens within you. It’s not being presented to you from the outside-in, but rather it’s learned from the inside-out. So, pick up that guitar, grab that bo staff, get out that paint and canvas, search out that YouTube video, practice in front of that mirror, and just get down and dirty with some new experiences. What better time to do it than now?
So, what do you think? How will you be shifting to offense during this COVID-19 crisis? Or have you already been on the offense? Drop some of your thoughts in the comment section below so that we can all come out of this stronger, wiser, and way better than we were before. A rising tide lifts all boats. Let’s rise.
Read Next: 25 Tony Robbins Quotes on Money and Achieving Financial Freedom
Don't Let the Motivation Stop There...!
Join our newsletter and get the BEST of what we post every week. Here's an example. Like? Sign up.
[amp-optin id=42297]