Would you rather survive, or thrive?

What kind of question is that, you ask. 

Of course I want to thrive!

Yet how often do we live our lives like we are just surviving?

Have you ever felt like you were just hanging on, or maybe more like going through the motions? 

Things may be ok, but you feel a bit of a disconnect, and loss for what you should be doing, or even what you want to be doing.

So how do we move from surviving and maintaining day to day, to actually thriving in our every day?

Here are a few key steps to thrive:

  1. Clarity is key.  Always clarity.  Here’s why … if you don’t know where you want to go you don’t know what steps to take.  A big reason we stay where we are is that we don’t have a clear (or even blurry) picture or vision of what we want..
  2. Change your stories. One of the biggest things that will keep you surviving is the language you use with yourself.  Those stories you keep telling yourself, that hold you back and believing you aren’t deserving, or you aren’t capable, or can’t.  All untrue.  To move to thriving you need to shift the language and start telling yourself the true stories.  You deserve it.  Anyone who works for it deserves it, and why would that be any different for you?  You can, and you can learn whatever you need to in order to be capable, but my guess is that you are already.
  3. Grab a lifeline.  What is it that will help you stay consistently moving forward?  You are probably surviving because you are trying to do it all, and on your own.  Find a friend, an accountability partner, that will walk with you and remind you that you can do it. We were never made to take this journey of life alone, and we definitely cannot do it all.  No one can, and when we try we just end up not doing any of it well.
  4. Practice Gratitude.  This is the most powerful mind shifter there is.  It will change how you show up for your life.  Not only does it change your mindset and where you are looking to, but it reminds you that you have what you need.  You have everything right now to thrive.  We just get so busy at looking at what we don’t have, we miss what we already have.  What we focus on grows and when we focus on gratitude we start showing up in a different way with what we already have.
  5. Dream Big.  Do  you settle?  Just keep with what you have because you can’t picture anything bigger.  When we start to dream, we start to see a bigger picture.  If you can imagine it, then you can step towards it.  A vision board is the best way to dream big because the pictures connect with your emotions and remind you of your why.  The same reason I watch videos of my grandchildren every day!  Those who thrive keep focused on the big dreams they want to go for, and have a purpose behind them.
  6. Learn.  The best investment you can make is on yourself.  I don’t mean that you only spend on yourself, but rather that you take the time for personal development and life-long learning.  Take the posture of a student.  Learn about the steps to take to be who you want to be.  Be the leader in your life to do what you believe you were made to do.  I believe we tend to wait, and hope it comes to  us.  To thrive we need to move forward.  Personal development shows up in every way in our lives because as we grow, it overfills into how we love, how we live, and how we serve.

I promise you, you start to use these key steps and you will notice a shift.  To not settling just because you can’t see the dreams yet.  Momentum builds confidence because once you start moving you realize you can reach so much more.  The more you were designed for, made for, and that is truly you.