I recently watched a clip from an interview with the world famous investor, Warren Buffett. The question was asked, “What’s the best investment you’ve ever made?” His answer is irrelevant; however, the context of his answer was mind blowing. Naturally, one can assume it was about money and a company he invested in.

So I asked myself the same question, “What’s the best investment I have ever made”?

I’m surprised at the difficulty of the question. I fought through the idea of things I’ve done with my family, lessons I’ve learned from spending time with others and more importantly the lessons I’ve learned from NOT spending time with some other people. Time I’ve spent training for a big race or the hours learning a new skill. The superfun times of teaching my kids how to walk? Time with family experiencing something new together. The list goes on… Here’s the really interesting part – none of my immediate thoughts were about money, they were all about the time I’ve invested in the people in my life or myself. The dictionary defines the word “investment” with being an action or process of investing money for profit or material result. Really? Money. Material result? Something’s fundamentally wrong here.

Q: The best investment I’ve ever made.

A: The time I invested in going past the point where I felt like stopping.

Aren’t the best places in the world often the hardest to get to? Doesn’t the greatest sense of accomplishment come from the hardest effort you’ve ever put in?

The fun parts of life are the hard parts. Anyone can ‘do’ easy.