Thrive or Survive

I have come to understand that there is a big valley between what I FEEL and what I DO. Often I DO what I don’t FEEL like doing. I guess it is what DR LAURA says on her show… “Now, go out and DO the RIGHT thing”. Sometimes doing the “right thing” is difficult and I am not sure if DOING may just be “blindly” following or “stepping” off the edge of some cliff...

I guess it all comes down to not the “what” but the “how” and not the “if” but the “when”. If all is filtered, the WHEN is best served “fresh” and that is NOW. And just because I make a “committed decision” doesn’t mean I don’t have an opinion. And maybe doing the “right thing” is just the beginning and has little to do with what or how you “Feel”.

Boy, Is that a mouth full? Does it make any type of sense? Well, maybe it does.

I was told the other day that there appears to be a theme running through most of these writings. That theme is one of survival. When I was first told this I thought, “That’s not bad”. Then I began to realize that survival was not enough. What I wanted was to “THRIVE”. If I wanted that, then maybe others did as well.

What does it mean to thrive? For me, that word is FULL of responsibility and accountability. It means talking it to the next level. It means turning it up a notch. It means you are getting somewhere. You are not JUST SURVIVING. You are LIVING. You are GROWING. You are BUILDING. YOU are fully ENGAGGED.

Why does that happen you might ask? The answer, BECAUSE; because you are engaged in the HOW. How do I make a better life for my children? How do I survive the loss of the person I thought I loved? How do I pay next weeks rent/mortgage? How do I gain a better career? How do I gain better understanding of those I care about and who care about me? How do I maintain stability when all about me is in crises and chaos? How do I become a better father, son, daughter, wife, mother, lover, boss or employee?

The How’s are endless and the methods are varied. If the How is really served FRESH, it means you are involved today. You are involved RIGHT NOW. You are putting nothing off until tomorrow. Even if it is frightening, even if you do not KNOW the outcome; you do what you can today. You do what you can NOW.

Thrive is an action verb. It is not a destination. It is not a verb of past tense. It is not something someone else does. It is something you DO. Thrive is not a perception. It is total immersion.

Do you want to SURVIVE or do you want to THRIVE. The question is yours and the Answer? Well, that’s yours too. I’ve chosen mine. Now as the good Dr. Laura would say, go out and “do the right thing”.

“. . . Nothing under heaven can arrest the progress of the human soul on its long pilgrimage from darkness to light, from the unreal to the real, from death to immortality, and from ignorance to wisdom.”

--Alice A. Bailey

“Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.”

-- Dalai Lama