Don't Just Survive...Thrive

We have been conditioned in a big way to simply “accept” our life. You are encouraged to slightly steer your life in a direction, but once you choose that direction you’re encouraged to let the powers that be take over and from there you simply “accept and deal with” whatever comes your way.

This could be in the form of a job that you simply “accept” now, but you don’t enjoy it, you don’t love it and you have no passion for it. It’s because you accepted that this is where you work and you’re comfortable now. And for many of us we will stay in this comfort zone for a lifetime and we will simply survive. But we are meant to do so much more than survive, we are meant to thrive. And thriving for some will look like surviving to others. Thriving for one person will look like building a massive business. And thriving for the next person will look like being a stay at home parent that is involved in the PTA, field trips and any other school activities they can get involved in.

For me “Thriving” used to be owning a medium sized lawn care service, but after spending years building this business and getting there in 2016, I quickly realized that this wasn’t my dream. This was the dream that I felt compelled to pursue because I was conditioned to believe the only way to success, therefore the only way to “Thrive”, was to move upward in my career/business. Achieving this turned out to be one of the darkest points in my life. I had achieved this yet I felt like all I was doing was surviving. I had simply accepted that this is the way life is and that the way I was feeling was simply the price you pay in life to “Succeed”. In short, I was not thriving at all.

Fast forward several years and I have learned what “Thriving” is for me and it has absolutely zero to do with building a medium sized business. Thriving to me is soaking up every minute of life that I possibly can. This of course starts with my family, as they are the most important thing in my life. This means playing Spider-Man with my 4 year old, riding bikes and skateboards with him, teaching my teenager how to drive and parallel park and encouraging him to carve his own path in life. This means cherishing the friendships that I’m so lucky to have and spending time with them. Work has become something that I simply do while the kids are in school.

We are all different in practically every way. So I encourage you to take a step back and uncover what it means to “Thrive” for you. Ignore anyone else’s thoughts on this and simply focus on your definition of thriving. Write it down, record it on camera, but keep it to yourself, at least for a bit (well intentioned people have a way of tearing down our dreams). Once you’ve done this, and this can take some time, start to really look at your vision of “Thriving” and put practices into place that will move you toward the life that you want to lead. This may steer you away from the life you accepted thus far and that can be scary, but trust me, it will be a good thing.

As you can tell, I learned that thriving at a job has never been anything I really felt compelled to do. But thriving as a father, husband and friend, that’s where I want to thrive and make my mark.

How will you thrive and make your mark?