When you decide to invest in yourself, you need to know the next steps to take in order to achieve your goal.

In this post, I share the things you can do in order to invest in yourself and build yourself into that smart woman that you are looking forward to becoming.

Remember that becoming smart in life as a woman doesn't only mean relying on the knowledge you have so far but it also requires that you learn daily to increase your knowledge and confidence and ability to make the right decisions.

Here are ways you can invest in yourself to become a smart woman in life.

Read: Ladies, Invest In Yourself To Be A Smart Woman

How To Invest In Yourself As A Woman | Becoming A Smart Woman

1. Build Your Knowledge

Increase your knowledge. It could be general knowledge or knowledge about the things you are passionate about or things that you want to pursue.

Do not stay stagnant when it comes to knowledge. Search for vital information that will help you improve yourself.

Find knowledge about:

- Yourself; your existence, your values, your health and how to protect your sanity.

- Your career or passions.

- General knowledge about art, sports, politics or any field that you admire (knowledge that can help to have an interesting conversation with someone).

- Your environment (be it work or home environment)

You can build your knowledge by doing the following:

- Attending conferences, forums, workshops and meetings related to your passions or areas of interest.

- Finding a coach to guide you or direct you in certain areas of your life. If you can't afford direct working sessions with a coach or mentor then simply go on social media and find people you admire or want to be like. Follow them in order to learn from them.

Read: How To Have Free Coaching & Learn From People You Admire On Social Media

- Research. Google can teach you a lot of things. Do research on topics you want to learn about. Consult blogs and watch videos on Youtube.

- Find and be part of a circle of women or people who are doing, achieving and growing daily. Like they say, if you are the smartest person in the room then you shouldn't be in that room. Find people who are better than you in the things you want to do or achieve so that you can learn from them.

2. Improve Your Physical Appearance

While it is great to be yourself and present yourself the way you want at all times, you also have to keep in mind that people will judge you by your appearance whether you like it or not. So you have to find a balance between being yourself and looking appealing or acceptable to others.

Also Read: Balancing Being Yourself & What Others Expect Of You.

Improving your physical appearance has got a huge role to play on your self-confidence. While you have to love yourself the way you are; it is also important to improve and highlight your assets in order to feel good and better about yourself and gain confidence in your presence and the presence of others.

Here are a few ways to invest in your physical appearance:

- Selfcare. I believe that self-care is the ultimate way to improve how you look. This is because self-care involves:

*Exercising

*Eating well and right

*Cleaning up (bathing, shaving, exfoliating, grooming and nourishing your body)

*Dressing up the right way and according to the occasion.

Selfcare is loving yourself and giving it the best. So for your physical appearance, you can go the extra mile and give yourself or pamper yourself with a fancy hairdo, manicure or pedicure to enhance your appearance and feel good about yourself.

Investing in your physical appearance makes you feel good and confident and it also makes other people treat you well and accept you easily. It's a two-way thing.

3. Improve Your Confidence

When I talk of confidence here I mean your mental state and how you feel or think about yourself in general. While the physical part is important, the mental part is also very important. The physical aids you to feel good but sometimes it is not enough to keep you as confident as you should be most of the time.

That's why you should invest in off rooting negative thoughts and energy in your life especially in your head.

This is how to invest in your mental energy:

- Listen to motivating messages every day. Find things that will lift you up. It could be a book, an article, a video or a quote.

- Meditate. I know meditation is always mentioned in mental development but it is not for nothing. Meditation is not magic nor is it difficult. It is all about finding peace and calm in the middle of all the chaos and challenges or up ad down of life. It doesn't have to be done for long. You can simply find a moment in the day to be by yourself and just don't think of all the worries you have. This will help to reset your mind.

- Be around positive minded people. You can't have positive mental energy if you are constantly consuming negative content or hearing negative things about yourself or about others or about life in general. Be with people who find a little positivity in situations, people who uplift your spirit and make you feel good about yourself.

4. Practice Making Decisions

Being good at making decisions takes practice. Learn to consult the emotional part and the logic part while making a decision.

Read: How To Make Smart Decisions

Don't be afraid to make decisions. Even if you are not sure of it just do it. If the decision is wrong, take responsibility for the consequences and move on. There's always a lesson to learn from the decisions we take so don't be afraid to make decisions for yourself and those under your responsibility.

As a smart woman, you will be confronted with situations that will require that you decide and as you grow and become smarter you'll have even more difficult decisions to make. So start learning now and get better at it.

5. Take Action On Your Dreams And Passions

It isn't enough to learn and acquire knowledge on your passions. It is also important that you take action by applying the knowledge you gather. Start small no matter how small, start doing something about achieving your dreams.

One thing about chasing your dreams is that it makes you more confident and powerful. It makes you feel like you can do anything and achieve anything in the world.

So my dear woman, don't abandon or put your dream aside. That's why I keep encouraging you to go for your dreams no matter how big or small it is. Follow it. Work for it. Stop being afraid of whether you will achieve it. Just start working towards it because it is your purpose. So take action.

6. Don't Get Discouraged When Things Are Hard

Invest in taking yourself up when you get discouraged. I call this an investment because it takes lots of gut and energy sometimes to lift yourself up after a lot of disappointment. So be ready to find ways to boost your energy when you feel weak.

what I recommend for this is motivation. Find things or people to motivate you and push you. People will talk down on you because you want to e smart, people will even hate you because you want to be smart, people will insult you because you want to be a smart woman. Because you want to be better than the rest, people will try to bring you down and even make you feel like you have committed a crime. But you need to be strong and not be discouraged because only you know where you are going to on this journey.