How to Thrive: 5 Steps to Get Started

Rarely, if ever, are we taught or encouraged to define what thriving means to us in our lives, work, or businesses.

As a result, we often end up in situations when we do not feel we are thriving. This can negatively impact the things that matter most to you as well as your quality of life, well-being, health, stress levels, etc.  

Thriving can mean different things to different people. That is why it is important to create your own definition of what thriving means to you.

Here are 5 steps to help you to get started with that:

Step 1: Create your own definition of what thriving means to you.

Base it on what matters most to you, your values, and what your want your life, work, or business to be like.  

Step 2: Differentiate between external factors and internal factors in your definition of thriving.

Often, we focus mostly on external factors when we think of thriving. For example, earning X amount of money, having X number of holidays a year, time spent with loved ones, physical environment, time for hobbies, etc.

All of those sorts of external factors are absolutely valid as part of a definition of thriving.

However, external factors are not the only thing that matters when it comes to thriving.

Truly thriving is a state of being. A feeling. An emotion. It isn’t just external factors in isolation. It is also internal factors that we feel at our core.

Make sure your definition of thriving includes and integrates both external factors and internal factors like emotions and feelings.

How do you want to feel? What does it feel like when you are thriving?

External and internal factors heavily overlap. But for the purposes of this exercise, we are intentionally focusing on identifying them as separate parts of defining thriving.

Step 3: Using what came up for you in step 1 and 2, ask yourself this question:

What needs to change in order to turn my definition of thriving into reality?”

Step 4: Take the external factors you identified and turn them into an action plan.

Put your plan into a priority order. Start implementing your plan in priority order, breaking each task into small, manageable steps. 

Step 5: Assess the internal factors you identified.

• What needs to happen so that you feel that you are thriving?
• What changes would make the most difference right now?
• What is driving your current internal factors and resulting in your current emotions and feelings? What can you do to improve those things?
• Once you have fully assessed the internal factors, identify the first few steps you could take that would make the most difference to feeling like you are thriving. Implement them.

The bottom line:

Thriving doesn’t happen by chance. It happens by design. Proceed accordingly.