Recently, I discussed the value of investing in yourself - putting time and money into improving you, not building assets. Today, we’ll look at one area of investing in yourself as part of an ongoing series on the topic, spread out once per weekday over two weeks. If you’d like to review all the entries, look at the investing in yourself subcategory.

I’m a rather introverted person. When I’m in a group of people, my gut instinct is to clam up, be quiet, and sink into the woodwork (unless, of course, I’m very comfortable with most of the group). It takes genuine effort for me to speak up in a group situation, and for much of my adult life I simply wouldn’t do it. I’d just sit there, waiting for someone else to talk and quite often not engaging at all.

This antisocial streak was hindering me, and I knew it. A large group of friends and associates are incredibly valuable to have - they can provide support to you in countless ways and you can provide support back to them as well. By sitting there like a bump on a log, not only was I not actively working towards building friendships and relationships, I was actually sending off a negative vibe to people.

There were two books that really turned things around for me: Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People and Keith Ferrazzi’s Never Eat Alone. These books actually have a lot in common - they both focus on how exactly to effectively interact with other people. Carnegie’s book focuses on the actual interactions themselves - how do you actually step up and converse with someone? Ferrazzi’s book continues that thought - how do you build a conversation into a relationship that has value? They’re both filled with very specific tips that you can start applying right off the bat.

With that information in hand, I had a good idea of what to do - I just needed to get started doing it. Here are some direct actions you can take to start investing in building a network of friends and acquaintances that actually have value, both to you and to the person you’re connected to.

Engage in activities that enable a lot of interactions with a lot of people.
The first step is to simply meet people whose interests overlap with your own. Sure, you may know people through work, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg - there are many, many people out there to meet, to know, and to develop friendships and relationships with. Here are some tips for getting out that front door.

Identify social activities that mesh with your interests. Like reading books? Join a book club. Like outdoor activities? Join an outdoor club. Curious about the community? Go to any sort of community activity - check at city hall for the community calendar. Obsessed with your career? Go to meetings and conventions related to your professional area. Join Meetups for any activity of interest to you. Most large cities offer a lot of opportunity to explore whatever interest you may have.

Don’t give up on it after just one meeting. The biggest mistake that people make when joining a potentially interesting group is that they give up when they go to the first meeting, the people there already seem to know each other, and there are ongoing things that they’re not familiar with. Give it a few meetings. Ask questions if you don’t know what’s going on. Don’t just assume that you’ll immediately be part of any ongoing social circle at this group - give it time to happen.

Don’t be afraid to be the first to talk - but don’t be the only one talking.
One intense challenge for me is to know how to deal with a group of people when no one is talking. Everyone’s experienced them - those periods of silence when no one has quite yet taken the initiative to start a conversation or to bring up a new topic. That’s the perfect time to get a new conversation rolling and to be noticed by others, so take advantage of it. Here are some tips.

Realize that everyone else is probably feeling as uncomfortable as you are. If there’s a silence in the room, it’s probably a good indication that many of the people there don’t know what to say next and are feeling some of your discomfort. By stepping up and getting the ball rolling, you often attract a positive response from others.

If all else fails, ask a contextual question. Most of the time, I don’t know what to say, so I’ll use what’s going on as the context for a question. I’ll ask a question about the group itself, the event we’re engaged in, the book the book club is reading, or so on. If you’re in a very small group, current events can be a good topic to break the silence.

If you notice you’re the only one talking, it’s probably time to give someone else an opportunity. In other words, trim your point to a close and try to finish by encouraging someone else to talk. One good way to do that is to finish with a “What do you all think?”

Ask questions.
The most effective way I’ve found to get a conversation going or to continue it is to get a person to talk about themselves. The easiest way to pull off that trick is to ask a question - create a situation where it makes social sense for that person to begin discussing themselves. Here’s some advice on how to do that.

Ask a question that the person would feel comfortable answering. If you’re in a book club, questions about the book you’re reading are always fair game. If they’ve brought up their children or family, cursory and positive questions about that topic are fair, too. In general, questions that are positive in tone and aren’t too personal are always worthwhile. Compliment someone, for example, and ask where they got that item or idea.

Listen to the responses. Listen to what they’re saying. Try to understand their viewpoint and experiences - they’re going to be different than your own. If you find yourself getting bored, then you’re either discussing a topic that truly doesn’t interest you or you’re not clicking with that person, which is fine, but the first step to a positive connection is to listen to what they say and try to figure out what they mean.

Use the responses for follow-up questions if you don’t have a compelling idea of your own to interject. If you don’t know how to respond to what they’ve just said, figure out the part that’s troubling you and turn it into a question again, allowing them to explain further. It not only clearly shows that you’re listening and are engaged, but it gives the person a greater chance to expound their thoughts in a positive light.

Focus on the people that interest you.
There are going to be people you are uncomfortable interacting with, either for obvious reasons or for reasons you can’t quite put your finger on. You don’t have to interact with them. Instead, focus on the people who give you a positive feeling - people who click with you and engage you. These people will be much more likely to build up an actual relationship with you, whether it be a friendship or a business relationship. Here are some tips.

At first, interact with a lot of people. Listen to who’s talking and figure out which people are actually interesting to you. When you see people standing alone and not talking, talk to them. When there’s a group talking, listen in. Spend some time interacting with as many people as you can. The reason is to figure out which ones you may click with.

Gravitate gradually towards the people you find most interesting. It might be the person talking the most at the center of the room, or it might be the person sitting quietly off to the side. Keep conversing with the people that click with you. Don’t be afraid to move on if they exhibit behaviors that make you uncomfortable.

Once you’ve narrowed it down, focus on building up ties with the people that fit best with you. Exchange contact information with one or two of them if it feels like you might really have something in common. If that doesn’t feel appropriate yet, just make sure that you have opportunities to meet those people again at other, similar events - come to the next group meeting, for example.

Follow up.
If you’ve actually traded contact information with someone in a genuine fashion, meaning that it was because of a desire to actually further exchange ideas, follow up. Don’t just let it dry there on the vine. I usually try to contact new people I’ve met once every few weeks - for example, I recently was elected to a community board, so I’m slowly putting forth an effort to get to know everyone on that board.

Wait a bit, then make a contact. I usually find that for most people, a follow up email that’s non-fluffy is worthwhile. I try to recall what we’ve talked about (I usually jot it down on the back of whatever contact info I get), do some research on the topic, and continue the conversation in some regard. I always make sure to include a reminder of who I am as well, usually starting it off that way (”This is Trent Hamm. We met recently at the Smith’s fire benefit dinner and we discussed some changes in the town’s sidewalk policy….”).

If they don’t respond back, don’t push it. Just wait for another opportunity to meet that person in a social environment and chat about it. Quite often, people intend to respond but just get busy with things - it’s often not a snub. However, you should make sure not to make yourself a nuisance.

If you can easily do a favor for someone, do it. Quite often, opportunities will come up where someone is in obvious need of a helping hand. If you have the opportunity to help out, especially if it’s easy for you, do so. Helping out the people around you is the single best thing you can do to build a solid relationship with the people you’re helping - plus, you get the opportunity to make someone else’s life better.

Dabble in hosting social events.
One great opportunity to build and cement relationships and friendships is to host small social gatherings. I’m pretty partial to the dinner party or barbecue, myself - inviting people into your home and serving them food is a great way to get people to open up and connect to each other.

Invite a diversity of people. If you have a gathering, it’s good to invite people who do know each other and people who don’t. I usually try to keep the number small and make sure that everyone there knows at least someone else besides me, but ideally not everyone knows everyone else. If you don’t know that many people, just invite who you know and keep the number relatively low.

Try very hard to accept any reciprocal invitations. If you get invited in return, make a special effort to go to that event. Social invitations are more valuable than you think and they’re often a sign of acceptance into a larger group. Make an effort to go to any invite you get, especially if it’s the first one.

Keep the communication going - don’t let it die off.
Once you’ve built a connection with someone, don’t let it fall apart because you’re too busy. It only takes a few minutes every once in a while to keep a relationship healthy, so take the time to do it.

Keep in contact regularly - a handwritten note on a special occasion is a great way to do it. Send out New Year’s/winter seasonal cards to everyone you can, with a quick handwritten note inside greeting them. One year, I made up almost three hundred of these and it was worth the effort. Similarly, if you find out someone’s made a career change, bought a house, got married, or had a child, make sure that you pop a handwritten note and perhaps a small gift their way.

Send quick emails semi-regularly. Some people do this with their cell phone, but I find that to be kind of intrusive for just touching base with someone. I often use a quick personally-written email just asking how they’re doing and maybe delivering a few sentences on what I’m up to or what’s currently interesting to me. I don’t do this too regularly - every few months or so - but it does a great job of helping a relationship to not wither and die over a long period of time.

The real key, though, is to build a solid number of meaningful relationships and friendships and make sure they don’t wither - these are the people who you support and will support you when you need it. The first step is up to you.

Recently, I discussed the value of investing in yourself - putting time and money into improving you, not building assets. Today, we’ll look at one area of investing in yourself as part of an ongoing series on the topic, spread out once per weekday over two weeks. If you’d like to review all the entries, look at the investing in yourself subcategory.

Most of the time, I’m a reasonably happy and content person. I feel upbeat about my own life and I feel in touch with the world around me. Sure, I occasionally dive into melancholic moods, but compared to my mental state several years ago, things are going incredibly well for me.

It’s not easy, though. I spend time virtually every day keeping my mind in good shape and keeping my spiritual self - that sense of connecting with things I don’t fully understand - in shape, too. Without proper care and feeding - without a little regular time investment - it’s easy to watch these areas of your life wear down, leaving you feeling constantly exhausted, unhappy, and feeling rather empty on the inside.

Obviously, one big part of this puzzle is to eat well and to engage in exercise, two specific areas that will be addressed in other essays on investing in yourself. Another one may actually be proper care for psychological ailments - if you feel you need such help, getting that help can be a profound investment of your time and money. Beyond that, here are some things that you can do to shore up your mental and spiritual health.

Pray and/or meditate every day
Just try this, right now. Close your eyes, then breathe in deeply, hold it for about a second, breathe out completely, hold that for about a second, and repeat it ten times. While you’re doing it, concentrate on letting every muscle in your body relax. If you need to think about something else, try to mentally return the most peaceful experience you’ve ever had in your life.

Got it? That’s meditation in a nutshell, albeit a one minute taste of it. I spend twenty minutes or so each day doing this, usually in conjunction with stretching and basic yoga. I usually do it each day right after work, in a quiet part of my home. Prayer can also be a part of this if you choose. Spend some of your time being thankful for the blessings in your life, and use the relaxation of a meditative state to recharge yourself mentally and spiritually. Here are a few tips to help you get into the groove.

Put aside a bit of time each day to pray or meditate. It can be in conjunction with other activities - I do mine along with stretching, for example, and one of my closest friends does a short meditation and prayer each day in the shower. Just clear your mind of the mental clutter of the moment and allow yourself to unwind.

Try several basic meditative techniques until you find one that works for you. There are countless different techniques out there to help you meditate. Try using Google to find a few to try out. If it seems pointless and doesn’t work for you, throw it out and try another. Eventually, you’ll find something that clicks with you.

Accompany it with a spiritual reading to meditate on and/or some music. Often, I start meditating by reading a Bible verse aloud, something to give me a bit of focus as I meditate/pray. Try reading a short snippet from any work that is powerful in your life. Another useful thing to try is to select some ambient music to play softly while doing it - I find Boards of Canada to be very good for both meditation and any activity I do that requires mental concentration - their album The Campfire Headphase works very well for me.

Get adequate sleep
This is a particular challenge for me, as I tend to overstuff my days with activities. Sleep tends to be the biggest thing that I shortchange, and I sometimes suffer for it, feeling deeply worn down and mentally not engaged with the things I should be engaged with. If I’m sitting around yawning and thinking about sleep, I might as well be sleeping.

Take a power nap. Set aside a small period of time during the day to take a nap - thirty minutes should do it. This is a technique that I often have a hard time executing, but one of my coworkers closes his office every day and takes a thirty minute nap on the floor with the lights off - when he awakens, he’s like a new person.

Sleep extra on weekend nights. I tend to use my weekends to recharge from an overpacked week, and one aspect of this is sleeping extra on weekends. I’ll sleep as much as four hours more on a weekend night than a weeknight, and it makes a huge difference for me.

Fall asleep faster. I do this by organizing my evenings carefully. I’ll do things that require mental effort until I notice that I’m not as mentally sharp as I should be. Then, I’ll fill the next hour with mindless physical tasks - vacuuming, doing dishes, doing laundry, and so on. When I reach the point of genuine tiredness, where it’s challenging to actually stay awake, then I go to bed and I usually fall asleep in a minute or two. Alternately, if I went to sleep earlier, I’d just toss and turn in bed for a while, read something, toss and turn some more, and maybe get a half an hour of additional sleep out of the deal - not worth it.

Eliminate burdens that are wearing you down
As most of you know, the number of responsibilities I have on my plate are many. I often have to come up with creative ways to manage my time - writing in the early morning hours (as I type this, it’s 4:25 AM, for instance), buying groceries during my lunch break at work, mastering the art of balancing an infant while reloading the dryer, and so on. While I’ve been able to juggle everything effectively for a while, it can be a major mental load at times, and I am prepared to make some changes if I feel that I’m becoming overwhelmed. Here are some tactics for discovering things to cut out of your life.

Make a master list of all of the responsibilities in your life. Sit down and list every significant responsibility in your life. Your work commitments. Your family commitments. Your social commitments. Your community commitments. Just write them all down in one place, all of the things that are a burden in your life. You can make it highly detailed or just list the big things - I find, though, that the more items you list, the better off you are for what you can do with the list.

Rank them by importance. I usually split them into five groups ranking from absolutely essential (time with my family) to trivial (scooping the sidewalk or mowing the grass). This is mostly to gauge what’s really important to me - and what’s really not. Some honesty is vital here - I have some responsibilities that I should view as more important than I actually do, for instance.

Consider eliminating the bottom few. When you’re done, start from the bottom and look for ways to eliminate them. Can you hire someone to mow the yard or scoop the snow? Can you perhaps step down from that useless committee? Maybe you can cut out the sports booster activities in the coming year. Trimming away some of the least important things leaves you room to breathe - and perhaps room to grow in other areas.

Focus on your personal positives, not your negatives
Many people find themselves in a downward spiral of self-reinforced failure. They come to believe that they’ll never succeed at anything. This belief then influences their behavior and then, when this failure finally comes to pass, they use it as evidence that they are a failure. This self-reinforcement leads to a hugely negative self-image and a very strong likelihood that success will never happen in a person’s life. I’ve witnessed some variation on this in a lot of different people in my life and I’ve also witnessed that the best way to get out of it is through some positive reinforcement.

Consider the things that you do well. I have a friend named Tori, who sometimes comments on this blog. She’s the type of person who has a lot going for her, but she tends to dwell on the negatives. She’s a better writer than I am, for starters, and her ability to recall facts is probably the best I’ve seen. She’s also very good at lifting the spirits of others, she’s great at seeing the positive aspects in other people, and she’s one of the most patient people I’ve ever met. Yet, quite often, I’ve seen her drowning because she looks at her “bad” traits, when there are so many good ones to look at.

If you have a hard time thinking of your positive traits, talk to a friend about them. See what your friends view as your most positive traits. You might be surprised at what they say - I’ve heard friends describe traits in me that I would have never seen on my own.

Once you’ve really got a grip on what’s good about you, choose ways to spend your time that accentuate those positives. Tori, who I mentioned above, would probably be the best person I’ve ever met to write a pop culture blog of some sort - she’s got the writing skill, the knowledge base, and the right attitude and humor to really make that kind of thing work. Perhaps she should adopt something like that as a hobby, as it could naturally lift her spirits by letting her use her good traits and minimizing the traits she views as “bad.”

Set tiny goals each day
A friend of mine recently told me that she feels as though she accomplishes nothing in her life. That’s a shame, because almost everyone accomplishes far more than they ever realize. Here are some tactics to raise your awareness of the many things that you can accomplish in a day.

Set some microgoals for the day. I do this almost every day. I usually do something along the lines of the prep card idea, where I actually write down three or so things that I will do today, and two things that I won’t do. It’s simple stuff, but stuff that feels like an accomplishment at the end of the day, whether it be something that I actively do or a triumph of willpower. For example, you might write down that you’ll stop at the library today and finally get some books on a topic you’ve been wanting to follow up on, and you won’t eat any fast food today. At the end of the day, if you made that library stop and the willpower held out, you accomplished some goals today.

If you feel out of touch with your spiritual side, try to explore it in some fashion each day. Make it your goal to pray every day, or to learn more about a spiritual topic, or to read a small amount of scripture. Just touch base with it every day and you’ll eventually feel more in touch with your spiritual side.

Engage in regular mental exercise
Regular mental exercises are a great way to improve your concentration skills as well as your ability to solve problems. There are countless ways to approach this, but doing a somewhat regular series of mental exercises can really pay off. Here are some of my favorite web resources for mental elasticity.

WebSudoku is a brilliant way to solve sudoku puzzles at your convenience. Solve them online, or print off a handful to do later if you wish.

The New York Times crossword is another good challenge, particularly for word-oriented people. I enjoy solving them in pen, meaning I’m not allowed to erase and can’t make a mistake - it adds to the challenge and the focus I need.

Bridge, however, is my favorite mental game. It’s an incredibly engaging card game - don’t let a bit of terminology scare you off. Once you learn to play, it’s a brilliant way to learn to focus and make predictions. Not only does it help with mental acuity, it can also be a strong social game as well.

Take some time off
If you’re simply mentally and spiritually exhausted and the above solutions don’t help, it’s probably time for a recharge. Take some time off from your responsibilities - schedule a lengthy vacation from work and get in touch with other aspects of your life. Time off is as much an investment in yourself as time at work is - they both pay great dividends in different ways, and a healthy life contains some of both.

Recently, I discussed the value of investing in yourself - putting time and money into improving you, not building assets. Today, we’ll look at one area of investing in yourself as part of an ongoing series on the topic, spread out once per weekday over two weeks. If you’d like to review all the entries, look at the investing in yourself subcategory.

The biggest cost in my grandmother’s life right now is health care. She spent most of her life not getting adequate exercise - most of her jobs involved clerical work and she was always more content to be standing in the kitchen making lasagna than getting out of the house and going for a brisk walk.

Whenever I see her gasping for oxygen, I’m reminded that I could easily be in the same spot. Right now, I have the advantage of youth, but that advantage is slowly slipping away. I don’t have any trouble doing almost any activity I want to do right now, but I do get out of breath when I’m unloading heavy boxes or moving furniture or other tasks that should be relatively easy. Even now, I can see some slippage - I could play basketball for an hour without scarcely pausing for a breath, but not anymore - a ten minute pickup game leaves me wheezing.

My health and vitality are things that I don’t want to slip away from me as I age, so over the last year I’ve been working hard to invest in myself by getting better exercise - and I’ve found that it’s one of the best investments of time and money that I could possibly make. I feel better each day. I have more energy to do the things that I want to do and need to do - like keep The Simple Dollar updated, for example. Even better, I know that I’m adding years to my life - and years of enjoyable life later on when I’m free from the shackles of the day-to-day work grind.

I’m not talking about peak performance or getting into killer shape. I’m talking about maintaining a basic level of physical fitness that can extend your life, reduce your health care costs, engage in more strenuous activities now, and enjoy reasonable health during your later years. Plus, it can help you to both look better and feel better every day, improving both your outward appearance and your inward sensibilities. Here are some basic steps to take.

Talk to your doctor
Before you begin any significant increase in your regular activity level, it’s useful to schedule a routine checkup with your doctor, just in case. If you’re suffering from an ailment that might hinder significant exercise, or you have some sort of condition that needs to be noted before you start, a doctor’s visit before you start upgrading your activity level can be a real help.

Be sure to lay out your plans and any concerns you have with your doctor. If the doctor is worth their salt, your concerns will be listened to and addressed. You’ll likely also get some advice on what you can realistically expect and what your safe limits should be - it’s always useful to get your heart racing just a little, but for many people (especially those out of shape), suddenly jumping into triathlon-style training wouldn’t be good at all.

I’ll admit to being partial - my physician is a wonderful person who genuinely cares about the health of everyone who visits him. I’ve never been as pleased with a doctor in my life as I am with my current physician.

Learn how to stretch and do basic yoga
The most basic exercise that most people should do isn’t even something that people think of as exercise. Stretching is a major piece of the foundation of health for a number of reasons: it improves flexibility, it makes other exercises easier, it improves range of movement, it reduces muscle tension, it improves circulation (which directly relates to improved energy levels), and it improves muscular coordination. Better yet, all stretching costs is a bit of time - you don’t need any equipment (other than maybe a clock) to do it. Here’s how to get started.

Start off with some basic stretches. A few times a week, run through a small routine of simple stretches just to see how it works for you - you can do it in about fifteen minutes. Here’s an excellent battery of very basic stretches. What I’ve found with stretching in my own experiences is that the first time is sort of painful, the next few times after that leave you feeling incredible, and the times after that just feel good. I’ve also found that playing some quiet music while doing this helps - something in the background that’s soothing but not distracting.

Move on to some simple yoga poses. Once you’ve done several sessions of stretching, you’ll find that your flexibility has increased quite a bit and your energy level is higher, too. That’s the perfect time to move on to yoga, which is basically a mix of stretching, isometric exercises (ones where you effectively use your own body as a weight), and meditation. Try out some of the basic positions - I’ve never really done anything that isn’t listed on this page.

I often incorporate stretches and yoga into my meditation routines. I use the time I’m stretching to relax my mind as well and I usually finish not only feeling physically refreshed, but mentally refreshed, too. For many people, spending twenty minutes stretching and meditating seems like a poor use of time, but when it raises your energy level and mental level so much, it’s well worth it.

Walk
Walking is another simple exercise that can be used to build up basic health. Even better, you can get a lot of this exercise in your daily life and supplement it with dedicated time for walking each day. You can combine a short walking period (fifteen minutes) with little moves like parking on the far end of the parking lot in order to slowly improve your muscular and cardiovascular health without turning it into a major distraction. Here are some tips for getting started.

Get good running shoes and a pedometer. One major challenge when you begin to increase your levels of walking is sore feet - most shoes simply aren’t designed for a lot of walking. Try getting a pair of shoes intended for walking/running and using them when you’re going to be doing it for exercise. Even more important: get a pedometer so you can count your steps. I personally use the Omron HJ-720 because it stores my daily stepping totals and I can easily extract it to my PC for easy record keeping.

Get a baseline before you do anything else. When you get a pedometer, don’t immediately start in on the exercising. Just keep it in your pocket for a week and do things normally so that you can get a baseline of how many steps you take in an average day. This will help guide you as you define what your goals for walking will be and also make sure that you don’t set an unrealistic goal right off the bat.

Use that baseline as your first daily goal. Take all of those daily counts and use them to define a daily goal. For me, I found success in using the first “even thousand” number above my highest normal day’s walking count to start with. So, if my highest normal day involved 3,800 steps, then I defined a daily goal of 4,000 steps as a minimum. This usually meant that I would have to walk 1,000 steps extra to make sure I broke that goal every single day. Once that became routine (a week or two), I kept upping my goal, with the long-term goal of eventually reaching 10,000 or more steps in a day.

Make a one month commitment
Most people who begin exercise get frustrated when they don’t see any benefits after a week of consistent work and they abandon their plans (or at least begin slacking off). A week is far too short of a time to see any noticeable changes, and even after a month your biggest changes will be in how you feel, not in your appearance. When you start, make a minimum of a one month commitment to exercising or else you’re just wasting time.

Start at the beginning of the month. This will help you keep your timeframe in mind throughout the month - you can clearly see the beginning date and the ending date. It’s a nice, constrained time for you to get started on things.

Define an exercise schedule. Literally list the activities you’ll do each day - and follow it. Mix it up, too, so that it doesn’t get boring. I usually stretch and do yoga every day, but I try doing a variety of things throughout a given week so that it doesn’t get too repetitious.

Take measurements only at the start and the end of the month. If you’re trying to lose weight via exercise or you’re gauging things by how out of breath you are after running around the block, do this measurement once at the start of the month, then don’t do it again until the end of the month. This gives you time to build up some real progress so that you can clearly see that things are working well.

Set clear and concrete goals based on the exercise
When I first attempted to shed some pounds, I set a target weight as a goal - and I was continually frustrated as I repeatedly failed to reach the goal. It took me a while to realize that I was setting the wrong goals. I was setting goals that were only partially controlled by exercising and expecting that exercising would do the trick. A much better approach is to realize that exercise will eventually lead you towards the level of fitness or the target weight you want to reach as long as you’re consistent with it. Here are some tips.

Use specific exercise numbers as goals. Instead of saying, “I want to lose 40 pounds,” instead say, “I want to walk 10,000 steps a day for the next three months.” That way, it’s just a matter of putting forth the effort to exercise, not a question of whether your body chemistry will help you along the way.

Always look upward. Be sure to set goals that aren’t easy for you to reach. If your current exercise seems very easy, try changing your goals around to increase the challenge level. If you can easily walk 10,000 steps in a day, add to that step total or make some of the steps into running or jogging steps.

Celebrate your successes with others. When you achieve a challenging goal, don’t be afraid to be very happy about it. Tell others about your successes and you’ll find that they’ll quickly become a great support for you as you challenge yourself to get into better shape.

Try other exercises
Although walking and stretching are two easy ways to start getting in better shape, there are lots of things you can do without ponying up the expense of a gym membership or expensive equipment - just a time investment. I personally use the exercise ladder as a way to keep motivated. It gives clear directions on what kinds of exercises to do, how many of them to do, and how to tell when you’re ready to keep increasing your exercise level, plus it directly integrates goals into the program. Here are some general tips for expanding your exercise regimen.

Start off below what you think you can handle. That way, you don’t over-exert yourself or accidentally strain something by doing too much at first. Once you’ve got the hang of it, slowly ease upwards until you find a level that’s challenging for you - and then work at that level.

A lot of repetitions with light weights or exercises are better than a few repetitions with heavy weights or exercises. The point is to exercise your muscles, and repetition is the real key to victory. If you’re a beginner, you’ll get more overall benefit out of five sets of ten reps with a ten pound weight than one set of ten reps with a fifty pound weight - it might not maximize your muscle growth, but it will help with overall aerobic health and have a vastly lower chance of muscle damage.

Is a gym membership necessary? For some people, the camaraderie of others exercising or the availability of coaching can really make the difference, but don’t jump in and sign up for a long-term plan. Pay for the shortest plan you can get (even if it’s pricier) and see whether it’s of real use to you. If it is, keep going and sign up for a longer stint - if it’s not, you’ve minimized your expenses.

Recently, I discussed the value of investing in yourself - putting time and money into improving you, not building assets. Today, we’ll look at one area of investing in yourself as part of an ongoing series on the topic, spread out once per weekday over two weeks. If you’d like to review all the entries, look at the investing in yourself subcategory.

When I graduated from high school, I was blessed with the opportunity to be the first person in my family to attend college. I had earned a mountain of scholarships, enough to cover four years of tuition, room, and board at a state college, and the total value of this education was an amount that far exceeded my family’s annual income. I went to college without any real concept of what the experience would be. My preconception of the experience was based on popular culture - thus, my perception is that it would basically be a continuation of the high school experience but with substantially less supervision.

What I found out - much later than I should have, actually - is that education isn’t just what you pick up in a classroom. Sure, the classroom education is useful and valuable, but the real opportunity to grow and learn more takes place outside of the classroom. Even more importantly, the person that steps up and takes advantage of all of the educational opportunities to improve puts themselves in a better lifelong position to succeed.

Obviously, this takes some investment. You have to invest time, money, and your own mental energy to make education and cultural literacy work for you. Here are some ways you can invest in your own education, from the obvious to the subtle.

Get a college degree
This is the most obvious method for investing in your own education - but it’s obvious because it works. A college degree opens countless opportunities for you, whether it’s an associate’s degree, a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, or a Ph. D. The major drawback is that a college degree requires a huge investment in time, money, and mental effort. You can’t just walk down to the corner shop and pick one up - it requires years of continuous effort to acquire it.

Thus, the best way to maximize the value of a degree is to figure out the area you’re passionate about as early as you can - and perhaps you might even find that your passion can’t be followed in a college environment at all. Pay a lot of attention to what you do in your spare time - activities that you find enjoyable that you’re drawn to time and time again. Looking back at my high school years, I see a lot of patterns there that could have pointed me down the road to writing, but I chose to ignore them and go for areas where I believed the “money” was. I wish I hadn’t.

Also, don’t just assume that a degree at an expensive college is the best investment opportunity for you. No one will deny that a degree at Harvard is more valuable than a degree at East Overshoe Tech, but for most schools, the important part is that you achieved the degree at an accredited school. Do your own research and find the best educational value for you - it might be at your local state university or even at your local community college, especially if you don’t have significant resources to invest up front.

Engage in activities that can teach you new things
Most people go through the same routine, day in and day out. They do the same activities each day and rarely put forth the effort to stretch their wings and try new things. However, time and time again, trying something new teaches us quite a bit about the world around us from people (what others believe, how they act, and the realities they face in everyday life, etc.) to ideas and skills (how small businesses handle computer networking, how a soup kitchen prepares food for six hundred people, etc.). Here are a few ways to dabble in potentially educational activities in your community.

Engage in activities outside of your comfort zone. This isn’t a call to go do something illegal or unethical, it’s just a suggestion to find things that you’d never think of doing and give them a try. Go to a community dinner. Go to a speech at your local university. Attend a religious service of a faith you don’t subscribe to. Spend your vacation in a third world country helping impoverished people. You’ll learn a lot of things from all of these - and also learn things about yourself.

Join a community or student organization. There are all kinds of organizations out there that you can join and use to learn new things. Visit city hall - or your institution’s activities board - and see what kind of organizations are available in your community. Attend their meetings and see what sort of knowledge they have to offer, in an environment with others that are passionate about the topic. Try new activities with the group.

Travel to new places. Spend your vacations going to places you’ve never been before. Go to a part of the world you’re unfamiliar with and observe how people live there. Get off the interstate and visit areas you’ve never been before. I’ve stumbled across unexpected museums, festivals, and countless other opportunities for cultural learning just because I bothered to go somewhere new.

Find a mentor
I’ve had a small handful of mentors in my life and they’ve taught me more than I can ever possibly relate. They’ve offered intelligent advice when I’ve needed it, provided a sounding board for my own ideas, constantly encouraged me to push myself and grow, and provided valuable intellectual company. No matter what area you’re trying to grow in, a mentor can be a valuable thing to find. Don’t know where to start? Here are a few basic steps to get started.

Look for people who have attained a level of respect in the area of interest to you. It might be someone who works for the company you work for that others look up to. It might merely be someone in your industry, or possibly even someone in the community that’s earned the respect of others. Just look for a person that you respect who has experience and likely has ideas in their head that can help you grow.

Also, look for people who won’t have a conflict of interest when helping you. The best mentor is a person who isn’t tied down by a conflict of interest in helping you. If you’re both shooting for the same position in a company, that person is probably not going to be a good mentor. Similarly, don’t look for a politician to be your mentor if you see yourself running for office against that person in the near future.

Pick up the phone and actually make the contact. This is the hardest step for most people. The best way to get started is to simply be complimentary and polite and then ask for a lunch where you’ll pick up the tab. I got the attention of one person by telling him I would buy his lunch at a very nice place in town and that I just had some questions about how the radio industry works - I didn’t want to sell him a thing and I didn’t want any money, just conversation and learning. He loved it.

Attend a trade school
One of my closest friends in the world scored a 29 on his ACT in the late 1990s, yet he didn’t even bother to apply for college. Instead, he immediately became an electrician after high school, working as an apprentice and eventually becoming a journeyman. He’s now making almost as much money as I am and wasn’t saddled with the college debt, either. Better yet, he’s happy as a clam - he figured out early on that he really enjoyed assembling complex wirings and such.

The biggest thing to remember here is that college isn’t necessarily for everyone. If you’re passionate about a skill-oriented trade, like electrical work, carpentry, or plumbing, you’re probably better off not going to college and instead attending a trade school or getting involved in an apprenticeship program.

Also, remember that a trained person in a useful trade can earn very good money. Many people believe that you have to go to college to make a good living - it simply isn’t true. If you find that you’re passionate about carpentry or woodworking or electrical wiring, you can earn a very nice living and you don’t really need to go to college.

Trade school is a very solid investment for some people, particularly considering that the costs to get started in a trade like this is much lower than the costs of a four year degree. If your passion is in an area that overlaps with a trade, consider the investment of going to trade school instead of going to college.

Get additional certifications
Many careers revolve around continuing education and a big part of it comes in the form of professional certifications. Certifications generally indicate that a person has received and (to some degree) studied a significant body of information and has performed a certain set of tasks that usually indicate that the person has a certain skill. In other words, when you see a certification on a resume (and it can be validated), you can be sure that that person has learned and applied the skills described.

Certifications do two things: they add a nice line to your resume and they often boost the skills you can list on your resume. In combination, a number of certifications can significantly raise the level of income that you can potentially earn in your career. Here are a couple of things you can do to get the train going.

Identify certifications that you could potentially be earning. What sort of certifications can you earn in your career? These might not initially be obvious to you. The best place to start looking is within any trade groups or guilds that service your area of employment. For example, if you’re an electrical engineer, it’s useful to see what things the IEEE is offering.

See what certifications are currently in demand. Do some Google searching for any certifications that you don’t know about. If you’re not finding much about it, it’s probably not worth that much. Focus on the certifications that give you the most bang for the buck.

Find out if your employer will pay for some certifications. In a previous job, the employers were very happy to pay for almost any certification an employee wanted up to a certain dollar amount each year - you were even allowed to work on it during 20% of the work week. If you work in an environment like that, take advantage of it!

Educate yourself
Another potential avenue for acquiring new knowledge is to educate yourself. This goes beyond just reading books and absorbing material on your topic area. It’s about expanding your ability to think and understand the world around you. Putting effort into absorbing challenging materials on any topic will do nothing but improve your ability to think, your ability to communicate meaningfully and intelligently with others, and your ability to understand the world around you. The best part? The cost of self-education is mostly just time. Here are some ways to get started.

Identify areas that you’d like to learn more about. Are you trying to learn more about economics in order to gain a greater understanding of how people spend money? Perhaps you’re into history, because many of the people you associate with are big history buffs? Maybe you’ve always admired the life, actions, and ethics of someone and you’d like to build a much greater understanding of that person (much like my personal near-obsession with Theodore Roosevelt). Perhaps you’d just like to absorb some challenging modern literature in order to gain insight into the modern human condition. Figure out an area or two that you’d like to know more about.

Identify challenging and informative materials to absorb in one of those areas of interest. Again, the internet is very useful for this. Look for reading lists on specific topics. One good place to start is to look for the reading lists for courses on these topics at schools with open notes, like MIT’s OpenCourseware. Better yet, use those materials to actually work through a course on the subject in your own time.

Set aside some time each day to make progress. I usually devote about an hour each day to self-directed learning - right now, in fact, I’m reading a lot of material on economics as well as collections of great essays (and books on how to write them). I do this in two half-hour pieces, spreading out my thoughts.

Take lots of notes, expressing the ideas you’re picking up on in your own words. If you come across a great idea - or even a moderately interesting one - write it down in your own words. That’s the single most effective way I’ve found to absorb a new idea.

Stay aware of changes in your field
Many people work in fields where there are constant changes. New ideas crop up all the time and are slowly absorbed by the people in the field. Of course, the people who are most successful are the ones who learn the new ideas first and figure out how they connect with what they already know and what they’re already doing. Keeping up to date on these big changes will do nothing but help you out in your career.

Read trade publications. Find publications dedicated to the work you’re doing and keep up to date on your reading. Many employers will pay for subscriptions to such journals. If not, utilize the nearest large library to stay up to date.

Read message boards and blogs. You should also keep tabs on any message boards and blogs you can find that focus on your area (or similar areas). Some topics, like computer programming, are very well covered by these - others are not. You might be surprised, though, at what’s out there in your area. I know friends who are active participants on journalism and nursing message boards and blogs.

Attend meetings. If there are meetings and conferences available in your field, try to take the time to attend them on occasion. Not only is a meeting a great time to learn new things, it’s also an invaluable time to meet new people.

Become culturally literate
One final way to invest in yourself is to regularly take the time to remain culturally literate. By this, I mean be aware and informed about current events and have an idea about the cultural topics of the moment. Not only will you inform yourself about what’s going on in the world, cultural literacy improves your comprehension of many additional things in subtle ways. Here are some things that can help you get started.

Listen to the news on your way to work. No, “Bill and Timmy’s Funny Mornin’ Show” doesn’t count. Use your commute to stay aware of what’s going on in the world. I usually listen to NPR, but in large media markets there are a lot of good choices on the radio dial.

Pay attention to what others around you are talking about. If you hear a lot of conversation in the workplace about politics, put some effort into learning at least a bit about politics. If there’s a lot of talk about college basketball, at least raise your basic awareness of the topic. Not only will you learn something, you’ll also be able to relate to people better because you’ll share common knowledge.

If someone makes a reference you don’t understand, keep quiet, remember it, and look it up later. If someone in your circle is making reference to something, it’s likely important enough that you should be aware of it. Google the terms you remember and see what you can find out - it can educate you quite a bit on the topical culture of the people you interact with.

For many young people, particularly people under the age of thirty, there’s quite often more value in investing in yourself than there is in investing in stocks. A well-conceived investment in your future can continue to pay dividends over the rest of your life. Some investments in yourself can even be worthwhile near the end of your career.

In my own life, I’ve found that some of the most valuable things I’ve ever done were investments in myself. My parents invested in braces for me when I was in junior high, straightening out some crooked teeth. I invested the cost and time to get a college education. I’ve even invested a lot of time - an amount that some of my friends have believed was excessive - carefully figuring out who I was, what my true talents are, and what I should be doing with my time. I did all of these things pretty early in life, before I was thirty, and they were all worth the time and financial costs associated with each of them.

Here are some specific examples of what I’m talking about.

Education This is the obvious one - there’s a reason so many people go to college straight out of high school - it’s a great investment. Post-secondary education can vastly increase your earning potential over your life, even if you choose a degree that isn’t “money.” Even if you didn’t get the needed grades to get into college, learning a trade in trade school - like learning to be a carpenter or an electrician or a plumber - also vastly increases your earning potential.

Later in life, education can still be very valuable, but in a somewhat different way. Many people don’t realize their deeper passion until later in life - if you return to school with that burning passion in your gut, you’ll be in a much better position to get through school successfully.

Steps anyone can take to get started with further education include figuring out what you’re passionate about and where your natural talents lie, then seeking education that can maximize and cultivate those passions and talents. For example, I have considered enrolling in the creative writing program at the University of Iowa, because I’m passionate about writing and believe I have a modicum of talent in that area that could be cultivated.

Specialized skills These are things that you don’t necessarily learn in school (or at least don’t major in). Skills such as the ability to speak in public, the ability to present in a dynamic fashion, the ability to communicate with others, technical certifications, and so on are valuable. Most of these skills primarily cost time rather than money - you can build them by participating in groups like Toastmasters.

Steps anyone can take to get started with further specialized skills include identifying skills in others that you’d like to acquire, figuring out what you could do to work on those skills, then setting aside the time to work on them. For example, I’d like to continue to hone my public speaking skills, so I’m getting involved again in Toastmasters.

Appearance I’ve written about the value of personal appearance before, but it’s true - the first impression most people get of you is your appearance. The investments here are a mix of time - practicing good hygiene every day, keeping your hair cut well, and so on - and cost - dental work, nice clothing, and so forth. Remember that your appearance is an investment - you’re maximizing the first impression that you give people, as well as the continuing reinforcement of that impression.

Steps anyone can take to get started with personal appearance include simply bathing every day, brushing your teeth, using deodorant, and other basic tasks of personal hygiene. If you have problems with your teeth, talk to a dentist - I know that my braces made a huge difference for me when I was in junior high, for example.

Therapy Many people have something on their mind that would feel good to relieve, if nothing else. Others might have some psychological issues that need to be worked around. The biggest key is to talk about it, whether to a therapist or to a close friend. Talk about the things that bother you, upset you, and keep you from being happy. One of my closest friends and I spent several years where we basically functioned as therapists for each other - it not only built a very close bond, but it helped us both come together as people.

Steps anyone can take to get started with therapy include just talking to a friend or loved one and laying out the things that really bother you. If you don’t have anyone, a therapist will also work. Some people may find that they do in fact need psychological help, but for most of us, relieving the burden of the things on our mind is enough to make us feel much better and more confident about our lives.

“Feeling good” By this, I mean things like massages, free time, meditation, aromatherapy, and other environmental things that can improve good feelings in ourselves. I’m not talking about spending for the rush of spending - I’m talking about investing in experiences that genuinely improve our outlook and feelings on life. If something genuinely lifts your mood consistently without negative repercussions - like getting a massage from your spouse or spending twenty minutes each day praying or meditating - then do it.

Don’t be afraid to invest time or money improving yourself, particularly early in your career. Over the long run, education, skills, strong appearance, and a grounded and positive outlook on life will pay enormous dividends for you. The key is to not become obsessive about each individual area, but to balance things - a strong appearance is great, but if you’re spending an hour each day “getting your face on,” your time can probably be better spent working on learning a skill, for example.