Abundance Assets

Put your brain, time, and money in the order that lets each one create more value.

When you think about your most valuable assets, does your brain make the list?

We are used to thinking of assets as something we buy or a place we put money. But I want to look at three resources we already use every day: our brains, our time, and our money.

For me, the order matters.

My brain is first. My time is second. My money is third. Understanding that order changed the way I invest in my life.

Think of an asset as a resource with value

An asset is a resource with value that can give you a return on your investment.

When you broaden that definition beyond financial assets, you can see your life differently. Your mind has value. Your time has value. Your money has value.

The question becomes how to increase that value and where an investment can create the greatest return.

I am not talking here about choosing houses, buildings, or stocks. I am talking about the resources that help you create and experience your life.

Your brain is your most important asset

Everything else depends on your ability to think and experience. Yet we often treat the brain as a tool for getting another asset rather than an asset worth investing in itself.

When you pay for an education, you are not only buying something outside you. You are increasing the knowledge and capacity of your brain.

You can make your mind more valuable through knowledge, skills, thought management, problem solving, and ingenuity.

Thought management matters because your thoughts create emotions. Those emotions are the fuel for action. If you can manage your thinking, you can generate the feeling that supports useful action.

You can also recognize when a thought is creating an emotion that keeps you still or drives an action you do not want.

Problem solving and creating new ideas are valuable too. The inventions and solutions people have created came through human minds.

How deliberately are you developing yours?

Invest upward

I think of the investment moving upward through the three resources.

You can use money to make your time more valuable. You can use money and time to make your brain more valuable.

For example, hiring people to do work in our company gave my business partner and me more time. Then we could invest that time in thinking and learning.

As our brains became more skilled, we could create more value, time, and money.

This is why I do not put money at the top. Money is useful, but the ability to create it is more valuable to me than the amount I already have.

If I lost money, I would still have the knowledge of how I created it. I would still have the skill of managing my thoughts about the loss and choosing what to do next.

That ability is something I have invested in over time.

Time management requires mind management

People often want to manage their time as though it were separate from their thinking.

But making a schedule is not usually the hardest part. Following it is.

You can decide what to do and how much time to give it. Then procrastination, distraction, or lack of focus gets in the way.

That is where managing your mind matters.

When you develop the ability to follow through on what you have decided, your use of time changes. Investing in thought management increases the value of another asset at the same time.

Make the time you have more valuable

You cannot literally create more minutes in a day. But you can create more value in those minutes.

Planning helps you do that. You decide consciously what matters and how you want to use the time available to you.

This does not mean you must work constantly or make every moment a productivity project. It means you choose rather than letting your time disappear without knowing where it went.

Imagine waking up with $24,000 to invest each day. If you do not use it, it gets shredded. You cannot save it for tomorrow.

How carefully would you decide what to do with it?

Now think of your 24 hours that way. What do you want to experience? What do you want to create? Where will you put that resource?

Do you spend more time considering how to spend your money than how to spend your time?

Use time to develop your mind

I spend time reading, listening, trying skills, thinking about ideas, and developing concepts for my company.

I do that because I want to increase the value of my brain.

That investment can also return time to me. A new idea can eliminate a task I used to do. Learning about planning and productivity can reduce the time something requires.

Studying a skill can let someone do more valuable work instead of needing as many hours to produce the same income.

Ask how much of your time you invest in your mind. Learning is one part. Practicing and coaching yourself are part of it too.

Money can support all three assets

You can use money to create more money. You can also use it to create more available time or a more valuable brain.

When I began making more money, many conversations focused on investing it to make more money. I wanted to consider the other possibilities too.

For me, investing in people who could do work gave me time. Investing in coaching, courses, and learning strengthened the resource I use to create.

My personal philosophy is to invest in my brain first, in time second, and in money third.

If I want to create money, I can use all three. If I want more valuable time, I can use my brain and money. If I want a more capable brain, I can use time and money.

They work together. The order keeps me clear about what I consider most valuable.

Look at your current investments

How are you investing your money? How are you investing your time? How are you investing in your brain?

Do not only look at purchases. Look at the energy you put into thinking about your thoughts, learning a skill, solving a problem, and practicing follow-through.

I have invested in learning to coach, teach, run a business, and manage my mind. That is why my brain is my rainmaker.

I want you to recognize the resource you already have instead of treating a shortage of money or time as the end of the conversation.

Begin with your mind. Develop its value. Then use your three assets deliberately to create more of the life you want.