My quest

My quest is to conquer my life and become a thriver.  While blogging my journey, I will explore a few questions: What does it mean to thrive?  How do I become a thriver?  How will I maintain thriver-hood?

What does it mean to thrive?
Thrive by definition is to flourish, grow quickly, succeed, prosper, be fortunate, develop vigorously, advance, get ahead, to do well, to grasp for oneself.  How will you thrive?  Is thriving to have wealth, friends, social life, skills, a bountiful garden, advancing at work?  Being the top of your class?  Raising well behaved children?  Having a healthy and happy marriage?  Maybe it's having the big house, fancy car and the perfect spouse?  Or maybe being a hermit sounds like that optimal place to thrive?  However you define it for yourself, honor where you are at now. 

My definition of thriving is pretty basic.  I will feel like I'm thriving when my house is in order and stays in order.  When I have had a full nights rest for an extended period of time.  My body is feeling healthy and strong.  My mind is sharp and alert.  I'm spiritually feeling in tune with the Lord.  The majority of my time is filled with quality time with those I love (i.e. husband, children, family, friends).  Living within our means.  Helping my oldest child learn to read.  Figuring out how to help my son process his feelings in a healthy way. Helping my third child be potty trained.  Continuing to love that sweet baby of mine.  Pretty basic, huh?  Some areas I'm already there, but I still have lots of room to grow.

How do I become a thriver?
I'm sure this question is subject for debate.  Just like an egg can be scrambled many ways (I like using my blender), there are many roads to thriving.  My brain naturally arranges in an systematic order of what I need to do to achieve a task or goal.  I believe in order to build a strong house, we have to start with a solid foundation. 

Step 1: A solid foundation to thriving in life is to have health;  physical, spiritual, mental and emotional health.  I'm not suggesting that you need to have a perfect body and/or mind to thrive.  Not at all.  Just be healthy and do what is healthful. 



Story Time: Year: 1984, I'm the little girl in the red overalls.  I'm the youngest of 6 kids.  See the little boy holding a purple pony?  That is my brother and that is MY Pony I got for Christmas.  I was so upset that my brother wouldn't let me hold it for the picture that I decided that the only reasonable thing  to do was shove my fingers in my mouth. 
So I did.

My Aunt is an example of a thriver (pictured above) who worked with what she had.  She had severe birth injuries to her brain that left her with cerebral palsy and a quadriplegic.  Society told my Grandma to stick her in an institution because she'd amount to nothing.  Grandma believed differently.  She saw intelligence in her baby's beautiful blue eyes.  Like any other child, my Aunt was raised with love and discipline.  She went to school and received an education.  Eventually, my Aunt when to UC Berkley.  The process was incredibly slow but she knew her potential and never gave up. She loved and was loved.  Her life blessed my family in innumerable ways.  

Step 2: My current vantage point doesn't provide me any perspective on what life will be like once my foundation is complete.  All I really want is to have a solid foundation to thrive from.  When I am standing on that foundation, I'm sure the new perspective of life will offer me many viewpoints to explore the next level of thriving.  So, I'll get back to you on this step...

How do I maintain thriver-hood?
I don't know.  We'll have to explore that question after we knock out the first two. :)