Workers today want to do more than survive. They want to Create a Thriving Life. Surviving tends to focus a life on making enough money to pay bills. Or maybe the income is plentiful but the stress or time demands are so great it seems there is little time for anything else that is important.
Too much stress, overwhelming demand, or lack of free time can lead to burn out and then loss of income. Work life balance has been a hot topic mostly focused on getting enough free time to feel in control of the work process. In fact, surveys have shown workers placed free time above promotions and children.
People who have passion for their work rarely complain about work life balance because their work is their play and their life. Nonetheless, a life with only work and an ambition to rise to the top can still lead to burn out. One can look at Elon Musk and marvel at his achievement but wonder if he isn’t coming apart at the seams.
One of the issues about having a life consumed by a passion for achievement is the other aspects that may suffer including family, health, friends, and freedom. Too much of a good thing, can also create stress from the lack of balance.
Some of the aspects of thriving may include more balance but also a focus on the behaviors that create happiness. After all, at the end of the day isn’t happiness the summary of a life well lived? How about gratitude? Do we feel gratified everyday from something happening in our lives?
Health had better be a priority or the level of productivity could suffer. And we don’t want the headlines to read that John rose to the top and died at 58 years old today. Health is a combination of diet, fitness, rest, spirituality, a calm nervous system, and maybe occasional solitude.
The conditions for happiness are built into our DNA and are seductions gifted us by Nature to survive and thrive. Happiness brain chemicals induce us to follow certain behaviors that will help us thrive. We can get dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins from engaging in behaviors that stimulate each in the brain.
What are some of the top behaviors? Learning, Creativity, Contributing, Caring, Protecting, and Exercising. Each of these will stimulate happiness brain chemicals. There are two more elements that supercharge the happiness effect: Challenge and Risk.
There is a final element that blends everything into the perfect cocktail: Flow. Flow has been defined by many but is engaging in a challenging activity in which the participant knows the mechanics and entering into a hormone and neurotransmitter charged state leading to peak performance.
Flow is well characterized by Stephen Kotler in the Rise of Superman describing how and why extreme athletes engage in life threatening feats for the feelings they experience. As Kotler would say, no one thrives greater than extreme athletes and he adds that the happiest people on earth have flow in their lives.
In our daily lives we can enjoy flow without mortal danger. Many people enjoy flow in their daily lives such as athletes, writers, artists, teachers, surgeons, researchers, and entrepreneurs. Flow only needs about 4% greater challenge than our current capabilities, says Kotler, to reach a state where the prefrontal cortex, our center of judgment and criticism, shuts down and allows our brain, subconscious, intuition, and body to operate at peak states .
We can have a life that flows. We can enjoy flow in many activities during the day. We have to start evaluating the activities that consume our day that are non productive, self-destructive, or boring to eliminate so we can make room for challenging activities. The other way around, we have to start including blocks of time with activities that will help us thrive.
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