Three Powerful Ways to Thrive, Now

Do you feel like your life is fine, but it could be better? Perhaps you dream of what things could be like one day, but get jerked back to the daily hustle and grind.

It’s your birthright to feel amazing on the inside and have a life you're wildly in love with. Right now, you may be caught in a cycle of surviving, and it’s hard to switch gears so that you can actually thrive. 

Below I share how to actually upgrade your life, to move from survival mode to actually thriving, so that you can have the time and energy you crave. And, most importantly, be truly living a life you love. And the cool thing about this is it might just be a very small perspective shift for you. 

Here are three powerful ways to shift from survival mode to thriving.

01 BE PROACTIVE

Too often we live reactively. In other words, we allow our actions (and therefore, life) to be influenced by external sources rather than our internal compass. We may lack clarity and connection to what we want and as a result are pushed and pulled by what others want. If you’re easily distracted, confused, and often frustrated, this might be your area to develop. 

Thriving in life is the result of intentionally taking action from a clear vision. Which means, you need to have a vision in the first place. 

A vision, or clarity around what you desire, keeps you focused on the important and aligned actions. To use the 7 Habits language of Dr. Stephen Covey, begin with the end in mind. From there, you will know what to start doing, stop doing, and continue doing. 

Practice to Consider:

Take 15 minutes to visualize and write down what you really want to be experiencing in your life. 

Coach Tip: It’s important to to focus on what you want to be creating rather than what you’re avoiding. Doing the latter subconsciously has us focused on the exact things we don’t want. And what we focus on expands!

From there, take one daily action that works to this vision. However, because you’re human, you may forget, or lose connection to the vision. So come up with a way that you’ll be reminded of it often. Maybe it’s creating a vision board or vision statement and putting it somewhere we will see regularly. Or a piece of artwork or a photo that reminds you of what you’re working towards.

What other ways could you stay connected to your vision?

02 BE PRESENT

Listen, I know gratitude practices are nothing new. In fact, I’m sure you’re saying “Yeah, yeah….I know, I know…” just hearing me mention it. 

But there’s a big difference between knowing and doing. And I want you to consider a spin I put on this that has supported me tremendously.

When we are in survival mode, we experience life like we are wearing a pair of glasses designed to see the negative. In our mind, we travel to the past or future to find negative experiences. Because we’re human, we allow past experiences or future ones to influence how we’re feeling, instead of what is currently happening. 

When you train yourself to be present, you allow yourself to stop creating a future based on the past. 

An active presence and gratitude practice allows us to focus on what’s actually happening now, and to take in all that is working in our favor. Most importantly, we allow ourselves to receive the goodness and beauty in our lives. 

Here’s the thing - these practices may not change your current circumstances, but it changes your experience of your life. When you allow yourself to experience not just the bad, but also the good, you allow yourself to live fully. 

Practice to Consider:

Practice being present with what’s so good, great right now. Look around. Think about your life as it is now. Extract the good. 

Coach Tip: At dinner, think of or share your “rose” and “thorn” of the day. The rose was the best thing or your favorite part, and the thorn is where you may have struggled or felt bad. Example: My rose was a walk in the sunshine with my dog. My thorn was forgetting about an appointment I had.

03 SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

What if you’re so used to operating in survival mode that you’re denying your thriving? The perspective shift I’m about to share with you is a simple shift that may have a big impact in getting you out of survival mode. 

So, from survival mode, you might relate to yourself as a busy bee. It might feel chaotic. You might be convinced this is wrong. But what if you are actually living a full, well-rounded life, filled to the brim with all the experiences you desire?

Sometimes we interpret feeling tired to mean we’re in survival mode.  We forget that living an aligned and intentional life can also tire us out because we fulfilling our purpose and passions. 

There’s a difference between being tired because you are pursuing your passions and desires versus being tired because your day-to-day is filled with busy-work and energy-sucking activities. 

Consider this Practice:

Practice redefining success based on things that are less tangible to measure.  Like joy, peace of mind, and love.  Excitement, adventure, and fulfillment. 

From survival, we are often taking action in hopes of getting these things one day.  But with this perspective shift, we might realize that we literally already have what we’re working so hard to get.

The people that are thriving are one who have created success that includes the things no one can see like joy, peace, their values.

Without making this shift, it’s quite possible we’ll miss the beautiful life that exists right in front of our noses.  It’s also possible that we’ve made incredible progress that we aren’t even present to because survival mode is our default mode.

Need more support?

Working with therapists, coaches, and mentors can support you to thrive personally and professionally. Helping you to overcome blind spots that have you stuck in survival mode so that you can work-life balance and well-being.

Explore that opportunity with an experienced coach by heading here www.wellwolfe.com/call