In our finale episode, Taylor wraps up the season-long conversation around support. She explores the concept of investing in yourself, and the vehicles to help us get there. As a bonus, she shares three contextualizing questions to guide your self-investment journey.
Taylor Elyse Morrison
You're listening to Inner Warmup. I'm your host, Taylor Elyse Morrison, Founder and Author of Inner Workout, ICF certified coach, and fellow journeyer. In 2017, I set out to build a life that didn't burn me out, and I found my life's work in the process. On Inner Warmup, we talk about how self-care and inner work show up in your relationships, your career, your schedule, and then the conversations you have with yourself. We get practical, we get nuance, and we're not afraid to challenge wellness as usual. So, take a deep breath and get curious. This is where your inner work begins. Here we are at the end of another season, it's time to wrap up our conversation around support.
And something I was really conscious of while putting the season together is that seeking out support can feel intimidating. There are all of these barriers, both real and imagined, that stop us from reaching out to potential support partners. Things like insurance or shame about needing help. And that's why it felt important to start this season by talking to Dr. Xuan Zhao, about the value of asking for help. Because I don't know about you, but that conversation gave me some much needed reframing about these underlying beliefs I didn't even fully realize I had around asking people for help. Things like feeling like I shouldn't need help or that I was being a burden to people, I was getting in the way, that she did such a great job of debunking. What we didn't cover in that episode though, was everything that comes up when we expand the conversation.
And we move from just thinking about getting free support into starting to invest in yourself. And when we expand that conversation, we encounter some different things. Realities about what fits into your budget, stories about what is and isn't worth investing in, if you're worth investing in, and fears about spending in the wrong way. My goal for this final episode of the support system is to talk about how we can invest in our care, growth, and support in a way that meets us exactly where we are and as we are. So, let's start with a definition because you know we love defining things, making sure that we're coming at a conversation from some shared language. So, when I say investing in yourself, what I mean is allocating resources towards knowing, caring for and becoming your full self. The same way that you put money into a retirement account or an investment account with the expectation that it's going to grow.
You're taking these actions with the expectation that you will grow. But you'll notice, If you listen to that definition again, that investing in yourself is allocating resources towards knowing, caring for and becoming your full self, that I just said resources and not money. That's because there are currencies beyond dollars, or whatever currency is local to you, that support our growth. When I personally think about this idea of investing in ourselves or self-investment, there are three currencies that come to mind. Time, money, and energy. Let's talk through each of those currencies. So, time is what you are investing in right now. This podcast doesn't cost you a thing monetarily.
I don't charge you for a subscription. But what it does cost you is time that you could've potentially spent doing something else. Even if you're like me and you like to multitask while listening to podcasts. You could have been multitasking your dishwashing by talking to, I don't know, calling your mom, or watching a YouTube video, or just being alone with your thoughts. You invested time by being here listening to this podcast, which is a good chance for me to just say thank you. Thank you for listening. I don't take that for granted. Let's move into the next form of currency, Money.
This one is pretty self-explanatory. I'm not gonna tell you what money is. I think we've all experienced what money is. What I want to lean into here though, is that investing money doesn't have to be this huge thing. It could be as small as chipping in a few dollars for a donation based yoga class, or it could be as large as spending tens of thousands of dollars to go back to school for a master's degree. Or maybe it's something in between. You have a monthly subscription to the Inner Workout App, or you decide to invest a few hundred dollars in coaching. And then the last currency is energy.
And before I get into the idea of energy as currency, I've got a question for you. When's the last time you've been a beginner at something? Just take a second and think about it. For me, I don't have to think that long. I am doing ballet again. It's something that I did growing up. I did it a teeny tiny bit in college again. And then I haven't done ballet for pretty much like a decade since then. It's wild.
And so, I started dancing again, actually partly because of the series that we did on play. And realized, I need more play in my life and my inner child loved doing ballet, so I decided to get back into it. And even though I'm not completely a beginner, I'm not learning new terminology. I'm learning how to do something that was once familiar in a body that's changed a lot. They say that your body turns over, like, every 7 years, so I'm doing this in essentially a new body. And both my body and my brain are working double time to memorize the combinations, to remember the little things of, Am I using my turnout? What am I doing with my hand? Like, these things that just take a lot of brainpower because I'm not used to it anymore. None of it is second nature anymore. It's energetically expensive.
And for people who are introverts like me, some types of self-investment might be more energetically taxing than others. So that's another shift. Depending on your personality traits, things can be more or less energetically expensive. Energy can be mental energy, like my example with ballet. It'd be emotional energy, like the feeling after a therapy or a coaching session that was so powerful, but also really tiring. And if your self-investment involves something in the spiritual space, it might feel like there was some metaphysical energy that you had to expend. And these types of currency, the time, the money, the energy, they're not mutually exclusive. I always like to add the asterisks. I find that our brains, when we start to make categories, it's easy to say, okay, what's the one category that something fits into? But the reality is, is that two or more of these currencies are typically present.
They tend to work in tandem. So, we're talking about the idea of investing in ourselves. We're talking about these different currencies. And I feel like I should say that I'm not a financial planner. I'm not someone who's legally trying to give you financial advice. I'm just trying to make a metaphor. I'm probably going with this metaphor a little bit overboard, but thanks for being on the journey with me. What I'll say though Is that when I've been in conversations with people talking about money and investment, the advice that I've often been given is to diversify my portfolio.
It's that age old advice, don't have all your eggs in one basket. So, with money, that might look like having your checking account. That's where your money gets deposited to you, right, your day to day that you're paying for. Hopefully, you're also able to have a savings account, retirement accounts, and investment accounts. And then within those investment accounts, they might be invested in different things. So, some might be in the S & P 500, some are in mutual funds, maybe you like to dabble a little bit in crypto or put a little in crowd fundraising sites so you're able to invest in a small way in startups. There are all these different ways that you can invest your money, and the same is true for investing in ourselves. And not unlike what we talk about when we're having conversations around self-care at Inner Workout, the goal with all of this is to find the balance that works for us.
So, if we are investing these currencies of time, money, and energy. It kinda begs the question, okay, so what exactly are we investing in? And as I already said, because I'm just going all in on this finance metaphor, we're gonna call the things that we are investing in, investment vehicles. And so, for investing in yourself, the vehicles that I wanna explore right now are consumption, DIY, and co-creation. So, let's start with consumption. Think books. Side note, we had a lot of great book recommendations from guests this season that you could use as a jumping off point for some of the topics that they introduced. Other things related to consumption could be podcasts, like this one, as well as masterclasses. When we think about the currencies that we're investing in consumption, we know that the time investment tends to be higher, the money and energy investments tend to be lower.
Like I said earlier, podcasts tend to be free. Books you can get from the library. And energetically, it's a little bit lower because it's relatively passive. You're receiving information, and you may or may not be integrating it or applying it when you're using consumption, when you're investing in consumption. The next category that we have is DIY. So, examples in this category could be like a self-paced course that you're taking. Workbooks also fall into this category. The time investment here is still on the higher end.
You are reading the thing. You are doing the exercises. You're answering the journaling prompts, whatever might be involved, doing the practice problems. And the money and energy investments are more moderate here. You're probably paying something, whereas with consumption, it could have been for free. And you're putting a little bit more energy in as well because it's not just hearing someone talk about the thing, you are now having to do something with that information. You're starting to take action and really engage with the concepts, and hopefully starting to apply them. Then finally, we have co-creation.
And with co-creation, you are working with someone else. That person could be a coach, a mentor, a practitioner, like the ones that we've interviewed this season. You're working with someone who can pair their subject matter expertise with your self-expertise. So, it's not that this person is better than you. It's that they've had training and experience that allows them to see you and hopefully help you see yourself more clearly. So, within this co-creation relationship, the time investment might be more moderate. You have someone who, maybe they have their own frameworks or they're guiding you through things in away that's more streamlined, but the energetic investment goes a little higher. It's work to do the inner work, isn't it? And that money investment really depends on the situation.
So, if it's therapy, maybe you got a grant or your insurance, they subsidize the cost of therapy. So maybe it doesn't have to be exorbitantly expensive for you. You might be paying a coach, or maybe you find a great mentor who's willing to volunteer their time once a month with you for free. So, co-creation, just because you're bringing another person in, doesn't automatically mean that you need to be spending a lot of money, but it can mean that you're spending more money. Really just depends on your situation. So, consumption, DIY, and co-creation are all valid parts of investing in yourself. There's no hierarchy here. The point isn't to be like, you should only be doing co-creation.
That's where you wanna go. That's the top of the pyramid. No. These are all valid. To borrow another investment term, what we're working towards here is a balanced portfolio. We wanna have all of these things in a way that is helping our needs. And I think that the best way to describe this and to talk about how you can make your own fit is to share some questions, some contextualizing questions that can help you find balance for yourself. And then I'm gonna walk through an example to talk about what this could look like in practice.
So, if you're a person who likes to write stuff down, you might wanna write these questions down. So, the first question to ask is, what results do I want? This sounds simple, but honestly, evergreen question to just ask yourself. So many times, I can say this for myself too. I get so excited about something. I'm like, I need to apply to this program. I need to buy this thing, I need to read this book on this topic, whatever it might be, and I'm not entirely sure what I'm trying to get out of it. Now, there's something to be said for just following your gut that's really valuable. But when we're talking about making an intentional investment in yourself, you wanna have a sense of like, okay, what is the return that I'm trying to get on this investment? So, first question is, what results do I want? Then you ask yourself, how much of each currency, again, those are time, money, and energy, How much of each currency is available tome? This question is only gonna be useful for you if you're honest.
So, if you think, I really can only concentrate for 30 minutes before I get distracted, and I can do that 3 times a week. Cool. Your currency for time is 90 minutes. That's the 90 minutes that you can dedicate. Maybe realistically, you have, like, I don't know, 10, 15 hours of free time every week, but you can only concentrate for 90minutes of them? Cool. Just be honest with yourself. Same for money and same for energy. I personally like to be more realistic because I find that when I'm realistic, I set myself up to succeed.
And when I'm reaching, when I'm pretending that my reality It's something other than what itis. I just set myself up to be frustrated and disappointed. I don't enjoy when I do that for myself. So, I'm going to encourage you to just be honest and be realistic. The next question looks at what you're already doing. So, what am I currently consuming, DIYing, and co-creating? And again, that's as it relates to whatever results you're trying to get right now. So, thinking about what you're reading, watching, and listening to, under consuming. So, for DIYing, you're thinking about the practices that you're doing, the ways that you're not just taking in material, but you are working with it.
It's the difference between, like, watching a video or reading a book about the pottery process, and actually working with clay and making something and it falls down and then rebuilding it, that type of thing. And then for co-creating again, What are the relationships and the people that you're working with who are helping you move towards your goals, the results that you're looking for? And one more thing to add with that question, what am I currently consuming, DIYing, and cocreating? Is to notice if all of your eggs are in one basket. So, are you only consuming things? Like, you're only watching YouTube videos, and reading books, and listening to podcasts, but you're not actually doing anything with it and certainly not doing it in community? Or are you only kind of co-creating things, but not learning more about yourself or working with the concepts on your own. Again, we want a balanced portfolio in the long term. So just something to notice. It doesn't mean you need to drastically change everything. But if you're seeing that you're weighted in one direction, you might wanna have a conversation with yourself about it. And then the last question is, What is the most supportive and accessible way for me to make those results a reality? So supportive and accessible, it really is leaning into what's realistic? What can I do in the short term and potentially for the long term? So, if you have a bunch of money in savings, but you know it would stress you out to spend a lot of it but on investing in yourself, then don't see that whole chunk of money as your budget.
Maybe take, like,10% of it or whatever feels comfortable for you. You wanna understand that, yes, it's good to stretch yourself out of your comfort zone. But if you are trying to cram too much in time wise or if you are depleting a lot of energy without having time to restore it or you're spending more money than you feel comfortable spending, it's gonna make it hard for you to realize, to enjoy the investment that you're making in yourself. So, we're gonna talk through an example. We'll go with each of the questions. So, question one, what results do I want? Let's say that the result that I want is to feel more confident. The next question is, how much of each currency is available to me? So, I might say, okay, currency wise, I have a few hours a week. That's my time.
I've got $300 set aside that I'm willing to invest. And energy wise, I have, like, really focused energy, but in short bursts. I can't do, like, a whole day class. Well, I guess I said I only had a few hours a week, so I can't do, like, a 3 hour class. I'm gonna be better served to do three 1-hour chunks or even six 30-minute chunks. Next question is, what am I currently consuming, DIYing, and co-creating? So, in this example, I might already have listened to some audiobooks, or maybe I'm currently listening to some audiobooks. I bought a course, but I haven't actually started it. That's another side note is sometimes we get, like, the dopamine hit from buying the thing, whether it's the book or the course or whatever it might be.
And we allow that to trick ourselves into thinking we actually did the thing, learned the material, applied it to our lives. So, this is super common to be like, yeah, I bought a course. Oh, wait, I didn't actually watch it. And another thing I could say that I'd done is I actually brought up the idea of confidence and how I was struggling with it in a conversation that I had with my mentor at work. So those are the things that I'm currently doing. And then that last question is, what is the most supportive and accessible way for me to make these results a reality? So, knowing that I do well with accountability, maybe finding an accountability buddy or even a coach you could help me strategically use my time would be the best use of all of my currencies. So, with an accountability buddy, it might be like, We meet once a week for coffee, and we discuss an article that we each read about being confident, or we talk about where we're struggling to be confident, and then we send each other a text twice a week to see how we are applying whatever came up in our conversation. That's just an example.
With a coach, maybe you're meeting with them on a weekly basis and you're uncovering some of where your lack of confidence comes from. And they're giving you homework, things to reflect on and to test out in order for you to build your confidence. So, looking at the time, money, energy that I have available to me, those two options are really solid, doable investments that could help me become more confident. So, as we wrap up this season on support, I have a few hopes for you. The first is that I hope you will practice asking for help in big and in small ways. I always find myself going back to what Oludara Adeeyo said in a previous season where she talked about starting safe and starting small. When it comes to asking for help, those little things like, hey, can you help me open this jar? Or do you have 10 minutes to listen to me practice this presentation. They're not huge asks, but what they do is they get you more comfortable asking.
The next hope that I have for you, is that you now have a better understanding of the support that different practitioners can provide. We talked to so many this season, a dietitian, a coach, a therapist, a primary care provider, a dermatologist, personal finance support. I hope you understand what they're able to provide and can be a little bit more discerning about what is and isn't a good fit for you and a practitioner. And then finally, with this last episode, I hope you have an expanded perspective of what it can look like to invest in yourself. Yes, with money, if that's what you wanna do, but also with the other currencies of time and energy that you have available to you. If you're listening in real time, we are headed into an integration break until May. We like to practice what we preach. And I know that for me, doing this podcast, having this integration break is a great time for me to internalize these things that we are talking about on the show.
Like I said, like, I do ballet because I applied the concepts from last season and realized that I was missing some play in my life. And Now I'm taking dance class twice a week. So, the integration breaks are for me, they're for the Inner Workout team, and they're for you too. I hope that you keep wrestling with these concepts. Keep working with them. In the meantime, if you're like, I want to hear more from Inner Workout, you can check out the Inner Workout book. You can make sure you're on the waitlist for the app. We also have some content that's on the YouTube channel.
I haven't talked a lot about it, but we're creating some core educational videos for the Inner Workout YouTube, if you wanna hear more about some of the concepts we explore at Inner Workout. And if you enjoyed this season, my last thing to say is a little bit of an ask. Could you please leave us a quick rating on Apple Podcasts? And if you've already done that, share your favorite episode of this season with a friend. Maybe that's an opportunity for you to connect, and maybe they end up being some type of co-creative partner for you as you both invest in yourselves. Our support season might be ending, but you are entering your most supported season yet. Take care.
Inner Warmup is a collaborative effort. It's hosted by me, Taylor Elyse Morrison. Danielle Spaulding provides production support, and it's edited by Carolina Duque. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend. And if you're looking to continue your inner work, our free Take Care assessment is a great place to start. On that note, take care.
