Purpose
Knowing what matters most to you, or what your purpose for living is, is the cornerstone to thriving. It is what anchors you when you are experiencing highs or lows. It is also something that can change and should be revisited periodically.
Leadership
Knowing that you are the leader of you is empowering. It is the source of the power you use to make bold choices or move forward. According to Ann Frees, when you are acting as a natural leader, you refuse to get stuck in fears, limitations, and toxic negative thinking. Instead, you are able to pivot your own thinking forward, letting go of the unnecessary and appreciating those ideas that add value in a new context.
Focus
Having focus on something enables you to connect with it and take action as appropriate. Whether you want to focus on career advancement, or moving ahead after a setback of some kind, having focus enables you to define a goal to strive for, and create an action plan to achieve it.
Persistence
How many of us start something and then drop it? The key to achieving goals or moving through tough circumstances requires your ability to stick with it. There are so many reasons to not stick with things and at the same time, there are even more strategies to keep pursuing them. As Dr. Stephanie Burns says, “Setting goals is easy, achieving them is hard.”
Wellbeing
A lifestyle of thriving is wholistic. It calls for you to thrive in your body, mind and emotions, all at the same time. It’s challenging to stay focused, stick with goals or overcome hurdles if you are physically out of shape or if you are mentally drained and exhausted. Thriving means thinking with clarity so keeping your mind grounded and centered is a foundational quality of thriving.
Vision
This is the ability to think with clarity about, and plan the future with imagination or wisdom. Although in practice you start by having a vision of what inspires you, when learning about thriving, the other 5 qualities are prerequisites to enabling you to define a vision that is meaningful to you, and that you are excited about fulfilling.