Survive or Thrive

Every morning you wake up you've got a choice to make. You choose whether to survive or thrive. You have to realize that a great life doesn’t happen accidentally or magically, it happens intentionally. If you don’t start your day by deciding how that day will end, then you’re allowing circumstance and feeling to determine the quality of your day for you.

Surviving is all about making it to the end of the day, about paying the bills, and about going through the day on cruise control. The end result is laying your head on your pillow at the end of the day filled with regret and despair because inside you there’s a voice telling you that you’re capable of so much more.

Thriving, on the other hand, is all about the destination. It’s taking the time to set a goal big enough for yourself that it scares and excites you, one that pushes you and your team to become and do more than you’ve ever done before. You need to realize that life doesn’t owe you a thing, it’s an empty vessel and YOU determine how full it gets. You’ve got to demand more in order to get more. There’s a really great poem written by Jessie B. Rittenhouse around 1913 called “My Wage” that I want to share with you because it’s as true today as when it was written.

My Wage

I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted by scanty store;

For Life is a just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.

I worked for a menial’s hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life, 
Life would have paid.

Now is not the time to think SMALL! Think thriving instead of surviving. Once you realize that the quality of your life is determined 100% by your beliefs, your destination, and your actions, you’re on your way to showing the world just how AMAZING you are! Dream BIG and do BIG today!