Six Key Ways to Avoid Thriving
Did you learn how to thrive through anything when you were growing up? If so, you are a rare individual! Most of us picked up plenty of habits that serve well to keep unhappiness in place, to keep us in a roller coaster of emotions, and to keep us a victim to what occurs in our lives. Here are six key behavior and thinking habits that are guaranteed to keep you far away from thriving.
Trigger Happy
When even the smallest things happen that you don’t like, get triggered. Be angry about the fact that they happened, and see who and how many things you can blame. After all, if you were God, they wouldn’t have happened, right? So you have the right to be angry about them.
Busy Busy Busy
There’s too much to do! Always! So keep yourself on the treadmill, don’t stop because if you do you won’t get everything done and then the world will fall apart. Be as busy and as overwhelmed as you can possibly be. You can sleep when you’re dead. No rest for the weary.
Stressed Out
Allow numbers 1 and 2 to keep you highly stressed. Your system can totally handle it without any repercussions. Don’t try to “manage” your stress. It’s probably not going to help anyway.
Reactive, Not Proactive
React to everything that’s happening, and do not take any time to think ahead, connect with your purpose/meaning, or anticipate what might happen and think through it. You don’t have time for all of that anyway, you need to keep getting things done. And, most likely, you’re not going to think of the things that will actually happen, so what’s the point.
Self-Care Is Selfish
Definitely don’t take care of yourself. Others will see you as selfish if you do, and at this point, it would take six months off and 24/7 self-care to recover anyway, so why bother with it. You have good enough habits, and are ignoring all the not-so-good habits so you can keep believing they’re good enough, and that will have to do for now.
Disconnected
You’re already disconnected from yourself, and connecting at this point would just bring up everything you’d need to change, so don’t go there. And while you’re at it, don’t connect with your friends, family, social networks, or whatever you believe in that is bigger than you. Definitely don’t ask for help, everyone else is just as overwhelmed as you are.
Tongue-in-cheekiness aside, where did you recognize your own thinking and behavior patterns in the above? What else do you use to avoid thriving? Learning how to get through challenges with more ease—managing any stress and finding ways to grow—is a process. It is possible, with practice, to shift any places within you where you would like to respond to events instead of reacting and have better control over your internal state.
If you’d like to learn more about how to build resilience so you can meet challenges with grace, and maybe even a little joy, check out this masterclass on Thriving Through Anything.