What Are the Habits to Become Thriving?
Becoming thriving is a process that can be sustained and improved with the right habits. It is a change of lifestyle for most that does require strong goals and the discipline to stay steady on the course.
Thriving can begin with the vision of being better. Improvement is a key characteristic of creating happiness and stimulating all the happiness hormones and neurotransmitters Nature has gifted us to become better adapted. She wants us to learn, create, contribute, care, protect, and exercise. Each of these acts stimulates happiness.
Thriving Starts with Managing the Time in Each Day
A day can be full of growth activities with the right time management. Discipline is needed to start weeding out the wasteful habits and recognize the habits that would make your career and personal life better. Secondly, you want to time the most advantageous growth habits with your highest energy periods.
I like to write in the mornings and then exercise. These are the two activities that need the most energy. Creativity needs a refreshed nervous system which should be easy after a night’s sleep. Exercise needs good motivation which for some people is first thing in the morning. The most difficult problems should also be tackled when you are freshest and will have the most resilience to obstacles.
All the to-do-lists of unimportant tasks should be saved to the lowest energy periods which for many is in the afternoons. Look for the second highest energy period to once again tackle the problems or tasks needing creativity. I find a short nap in the afternoon levels my nervous system once again and leaves me open to being creative.
Managing Our Personal Time is Important
We can also schedule time for the other important activities for our life to be meaningful. They may include family time or meeting friends. We may have hobbies or recreation that we love. It is important at the end of the day to summarize with “that was a good day.”
Three things that turbo charge thriving are challenge, risk, and flow. The brain comes alive with challenge. Since early man, challenge has fueled our progress. Risk means the challenge is important and meaningful. Pushing through challenge and taking risks supercharges our will and is the path to purpose and learning who we are.
Flow is Our Peak State of Achievement and Bliss
Flow is the ultimate bliss from engaging in something in which we have capability and pushing the envelope at least 4% (according to Stephen Kotler, flow expert) to reach a new level of understanding who we are. Flow shuts down the judgemental prefrontal cortex and allows us to express ourselves to the max. In the process all the happiness brain chemicals are charging and we feel bliss. We attain peak performance.
If you want to thrive you have to recognize your passions, challenges, and risks. They must be a part of every day. You can have challenges in creativity, work, health, relationships, caring and protecting, and physical fitness. So many opportunities to challenge and achieve.
Your life can flow by creating time blocks in which you engage in the most important activities for your thriving. We often have to deal with overwhelm and fear. We may need support of others to reduce the overwhelm and grant us time to engage in what is important to our own development.
If employers are going to support our thriving, they must work with us in understanding what we need to reach peak performances. They may feel risk as well that their agenda won’t be met. This is where discussions are necessary to get alignment.
We need to sift through all the problems in the world to focus on our own self-actualization. Our own self-actualization is the best offense and defense for us to make the biggest contributions. Us being in line with our purpose and on the path to discovering who we are with great challenges and risks will be the solution to us thriving and making the biggest contributions to those who will give us enough space.
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As a Thriving Worker Consultant, I can engage in conversations with employers on how to begin the process of helping workers thrive and reach peak performance. It begins with a conversation to see how far an organization is willing to go with the advantages and disadvantages of not getting engaged.
Great practices for daily living can be learned with the Markap Series of Books. If your organization would like live presentations or Zoom meetings, they can be arranged for small to large groups.
The Markap Books:
Self-Leadership, Gratitude, Happiness, and Start Now
See Books on the Home Page
Contact me at Mark@markap1.com
Call for a Free 20 minute Consultation 442-288-3364
