Survive or thrive… this year, which will it be?
Whilst we all wish each other the best of everything at this time… we do not have any crystal balls. Will it be a dreamy, blissful ‘sail-through-a-la-Disney-film’ year or a ‘grit-your-teeth-and-just-get-through-it’ kind of year? Whether we achieve the goals we all set in the next few days, or bail out on them – one thing is for sure – life will still be life, with ups and downs, and challenges and celebrations, utter delight and heart ache… and that we cannot change. However, maybe we can get better prepared.
Maybe we would be well equipped for this year (and if it helps this year, then maybe try it on for life?) by being clear on exactly what makes us come alive. I’m not talking oxygen, water and food… I’m talking about each of us having absolute clarity on part of our uniqueness: the things we are doing; the places we are; the people we are with when we feel most alive…
Is this a question you already know the answer to? Have you heard your closest friends and relations answer it? What answers do your children give?
“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs.
Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that.
Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
Dr. Howard Thurman
When we know the answer, how often do we ‘go do that?’ Maybe if we were to incorporate this into our everyday, or at least everyweek… then we would have a secret weapon when life goes into ‘onslaught mode’. Maybe if we incorporated more personal aliveness into our work then we would feel more purposeful about it? Maybe if the children around us saw us choosing to make time to do things that bring us alive they would be inspired that adulthood isn’t all drugery, sacrifice and struggle and realise how important it is to learn to thrive? Maybe if our children knew they had our support to really pursue what makes them come alive then they would feel more understood and known…and blessed to be succesful?
Maybe it is not survival of the fittest after all…but thrival of the alivest!?!
“I believe God made me for a purpose,
but He also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.”
Eric Liddell, Chariots of Fire, 1981
