In this episode, we're talking about the power of celebrating the investments you're making with your time, money, attention, and resources. You ready? Let's do it.

Hello! You are listening to Love Your Life as a Performer podcast. I'm Kelli Youngman and I am the life coach for performers. I help actors, singers, and dancers love themselves and their lives way more. So keep listening to learn how you can love your life. Both on and off the stage.

Hello, and welcome back to episode 83 of the Love Your Life as a Performer podcast. Today, I want to talk about celebrating your investments and allowing yourself to enjoy your investments. And I wanted to bring this to the podcast because I've noticed that I've been struggling with this and I've watched myself really straddle the decisions of recent investments that I've made in myself, both as a performer and as a coach, as a human, as just me, Kelli Youngman.

I think I shared recently that I just started working with two new coaches. One is in more of a course and a program. And another one is a mastermind where I'm doing one on one and weekly coaching in a group container.  And  I'm so thrilled to be in these containers because I'm experiencing a lot of growth and stretching and discomfort and like all of the yumminess that coaching has to offer. And these investments were collectively $16,000. Yeah, $16, 000. And  I feel like throughout the course of the last five years, I've been very public about the fact that I've invested over $115,000, almost $120,000 in myself  and part of me sometimes looks back and thinks like, where did I even come up with that money?

Because it was not just lying around, right? Like I really had to, you know, Intentionally make the decision to invest in myself, even before I had the money. And so the other thing that I'm learning is one,  I've learned to make investments safe for myself by learning and deciding ahead of time that I'm going to get what I came for and like really doing the internal work to feel safe and making the investment and  beyond safety.

I feel like is the celebration, is the acknowledgement, is the appreciation of the investment itself. Now,  I do want to also say this, is that yes, I've made this large investment in myself, right? To, to be clear though, it's not the largest investment I've made. I've made several $25,000 investments in myself previously and I've done that  I don't know, with like ease, like I've gotten to a place where I'm like, okay, like this is a good decision. And I've noticed that when I'm not celebrating the investment, that's when my energy gets a little wishy washy. 

The other thing that I want to mention is that yes, it's the financial investment, but then it's also the decision to invest our time. And that's where I can see that my human brain has been struggling to be fully on board because yes, I've gotten to the place where even making a $15,000 investment in a coach feels really super delicious and good. And I've watched my brain struggle with then, like, the overwhelm of the responsibility of getting what I came for and all of those things. 

This is where I think we have to be willing to find the balance, like I said, in not only honoring the decision, giving it our full commitment, like, doing it with our whole ass, not half ass. Right? Like, and  what does it look like to then also be in the celebration of it? 

I've like really been struggling. I don't know why my brain has just not seen  the celebration, has not felt the celebration of this new up level because I've been in like the growth of it, right? But when it comes to investing, Right. Even if you haven't made a $16,000, $25,000 investment in yourself yet, right, there are ways that. You're making other investments, right?

Like I noticed for an audition, I needed to get a skirt and the skirt ended up being $50 and I noticed that I was having like resistance to making the investment in the skirt, right?

So investments can be any amount of money and it also could be no money at all. Another way that I invested in myself this past weekend was by giving myself time and energy to invest in learning a combo for a Broadway audition. I invested my time. I invested hours of my life  because I wanted to and I felt really good about it. But when I wasn't having my back, it looked like, well  That was a waste of time or  that was time I could have used doing something else, right? Like there was like these sneaky thoughts that were coming up for me where even though I had made the decision to invest, even though I felt good about investing,  It was like the aftermath of like, I don't know, I want to say like guilt or like this perception of laziness. Like I wasn't doing enough because I was investing in one way and not another. 

Okay,  so I'm saying all of this in real time as I'm processing to invite you to check in with yourself.  Are you  loving the way you're investing your time, energy, and resources? And if you are, as you're honoring the investments you've made with your time, money, and resources, are you also celebrating the investments you've made with your time, energy, and resources?

What I can tell you from getting coached and being in this process, like I said, in real time with you,  is that if you are not celebrating and looking for the ways that this new investment, allocation of time, energy and resources...  if you're not actively looking for the way that that's stretching you in an amazing way, even though it's uncomfortable, your brain is going to want to say, we should be doing something else.

We should be doing something else. We could be doing something else. This investment isn't making me time  or money or this investment isn't worth it, right? Like those thoughts come up  if and when we haven't celebrated and connected to the outcome of the result  even before it comes.  This ties in with one of my foundational concepts, Belief Before Results. The only way we're going to take action and do something is if we're in belief that the result is coming. The same is true with investments, right?

It's almost like, and maybe I'll say this in this way. It's like when we put money into a 401k or a Roth IRA or some kind of investment or the stocks, we understand that that investment is going to take time  to get a return. And we're willing to put in, because we know the return is coming. 

As you're investing in yourself right now,  are you holding that same belief that the result is coming?  Are you valuing the investment itself  and who you're becoming in the process?

And so I wanted to give you just a couple of thoughts to think about and some questions to, just like journal on because they're, they're There are questions and thoughts that I've been asking myself as well as I'm navigating the discomfort  is like, who am I becoming in the process?

How is this investment already worth it?   Regardless of whether it's a financial investment or if it's an energetic investment of like spending hours preparing for an audition  that may or may not pan out, right? Like, what are you choosing to think about that work?  And who did you become in the process?

When you're investing in yourself,  how do you guarantee a return? 

Again, I think the return is inherent, but when you take your brain through this question, through these prompts, you're going to discover your own answers. How do you guarantee a return?  What metric  are you using to measure that return?

I think it's easy for us to understand the idea of returns when we're constantly seeing and getting something tangible, but what does that mean and look like when the investment and the return is intangible,  right?

How do you measure more confidence? How do you measure more ease? How do you measure more emotional resiliency? Like, what does that actually look like for you if you're making an investment and expecting a return,  right?

Like, I think this is where our wires get crossed if we do make a $15, 000 investment and we're waiting for the money to come out right away, right? The money will probably come, but what is already Being experienced in the transformation and how are you already experiencing a return? 

I think these kinds of questions will lead your brain to new answers and allow you to access the celebration  of your belief in yourself of your courage,  of your resiliency, of your commitment  right now even before the ROI is in the tangible 3D.

So just check in. Because if you are making investments in yourself, if you are,  right? Like taking these leaps and doing these things, it's not good, bad, right, or wrong, but it will have you in the straddle, like my brain has been doing too. Of like feeling a little bit of fear about the decision to invest even if it's not financial, even if it's with your time and energy. You'll just feel a little more drag and resistance,  when the investment itself can feel delicious.

Okay, this is like super simple, short, and sweet, and to the point.  And, what does it look like to enjoy the investments you're making?  What does it look like to enjoy how you're spending your time, energy, and resources? And of course if you're not enjoying it, guess what? We always have the opportunity to make a different choice  and to just start asking the question, what would it be like if I could enjoy this investment?  What would it look like if I did choose  to love how I'm spending my time?  Because most of the time I think that when we are actively investing,  when we are putting things on our calendars that we want to do and then we kind of get swallowed up by the overwhelm, I think that's just us hitting our upper limit a little bit and having to adjust to the new decisions and the bigger capacity that we're expanding into, right?

And so I think the overwhelm really comes up, at least for me, it surfaces to kind of slow us down and keep us at status quo of where we have been.  But when you're actively stretching to the next level, if we decided that overwhelm was so normal, so perfectly on time, what would be different? If we tapped into and like intentionally aligned to the celebration of the investment  even before the return,  right?

If we're in the celebration, the whole journey becomes celebration,  right? When we're in the celebration of investing in auditions and we're like really acknowledging and celebrating the fuck out of who we became in the process, right?  And who we are for choosing to lovingly invest that time,  to lovingly do the work and show up prepared and confident and grounded in certainty that we did everything that was in our power and control.  I just think that then we have expanded belief and self concept in what we're capable of achieving.  Right? So that is the loving work that I'm doing right now. And I want to just invite you to come on the journey.

What does it look like to love  the investments you're making with your time, energy, and resources? And if it could be different, if you could align to the celebration of them,  rather than the hardness or the burden or the struggle of having to navigate them,  who would you get to be and what would your life experience be? Like right now today as you are  making decisions and how you're investing your time, energy and resources.  I know my brain is already opening up in a totally different way even from just asking the question.  And so I hope that gives you something beautiful and simple to think about and reflect on this week as well.  I love you all. I'll meet you back here for another episode.

Hey, I want to invite you to get started because if this is blowing your mind, imagine the impact of when we actually work together. You get to love your life as an actor, singer, or dancer, even including auditions.

And if that sounds amazing, come join us next week. Inside of momentum, you get lifetime access to the performer's plan, coaching, community, and more. And I will be supporting you the entire way. Go to kelliyoungmanwellness.com/momentum to join us now.