How to Protect Your Most Valuable Assets

What are your most valuable assets?

For years, I believed my most valuable assets were external possessions like my car, home, and savings account.

It took a near-death experience to realize that the assets most valuable to me (or any other difference-maker) are internal—my time, attention, and effort.

That realization, and the impetus for it, made me rethink where I was spending my valuable time, attention, and effort. If I'm honest, I wasn't spending them wisely. If I'm really honest, I was spending my valuable time, attention, and effort as if they were limitless resources.

What about you? Where are you spending most of your time, attention, and effort?

To become more judicious about how, when, where, and with whom I was spending time, attention, and effort, I started establishing boundaries and guardrails for each. I got clear about what I do and what I don't. I also refined who I do work with and who I don't.

Instead of spending my time, attention, and effort, I began investing them.

Oh, I definitely still overspend and underinvest more often than I should, but I do so with far less frequency. And that has made all the difference. 

And here's the thing about treating an asset as an investment, its value is enhanced. You begin to do more of the right things with more of the right people. And this grows another vital asset for the advancing difference-maker, equanimity.

How might getting clear on spending vs. investing and establishing better boundaries and guardrails around your most valuable assets help you make a bigger difference?

Scott Perry, Chief Difference-Maker at Creative on Purpose. 

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