The Thriveology Podcast For Thrive Nation

Summer has flown by!  Here we are, already at Labor Day in the States.  That kind of marks the end of summer for many.  Most schools are back in session and schedules start to be a wee bit more important.  Structure returns. And parenting may be ratcheted up just a bit. It's a great time to be thinking some about your hopes and goals of your parenting.  I'm guessing that your hope is NOT to be the...

If you are a parent, you know that hope/fear.  You hope to raise a wonderful human being, and you fear making a mistake on the way. This week, we begin a series on raising thriving children. During this series, we will look at the goals of parenting, the limits of parenting, and what a parent can do to help a child learn to thrive.  Thriving is not an innate skill.  It is learned. But it can also...

Confidence.  We all want to feel it.  We are in a culture dedicated to the importance of strong self-confidence.  And yet, it always seems out of grasp. Why is that? Because we want confidence to be "there," already present.  We want it to be a preset of living.  You know, just an innate part of you. But it isn't. If you have self-confidence that you can do something -- regardless of preparation,...

It's a hot topic these days:  Mindfulness. It has been touted as a stress reliever.  But it is far more than that (although it does relieve stress).  Mindfulness is really an awareness your experience.  In other words, instead of lost in thought or distracted, you are experiencing the world and you in it. When you are mindful, you are more engaged with others.  You taste the food you are eating.  ...

Goals are great.  Except they give you no path to get there.  And goals can interfere with your happiness.  If you can't get there, you feel frustrated.  Once you do get there, you can feel let down, not sure what to do next. But you need goals, right? Well, they are a starting point. But what if you put "systems" in place to move you toward your goal? Some people believe they need habits that mov...

It happens automatically.  You don't even think about it.  Unless you choose to notice it -- or even change it.  And it's a good thing it happens automatically.  Otherwise, you would not last long. Breathing. Even if you don't ever think about it, your breathing will keep oxygen coming into your body and carbon dioxide going out of your body. In and out.  All day long. No big deal, right? Wrong. H...

Your brain is really only capable of being in one of two modes:  fear/threat or love/appreciation. Unfortunately, the fear/threat mode is pretty much the default and automatic. Fortunately, changing to manual and shifting to love/appreciation is not complicated. More than that, there is plenty of research to point to the specific benefits of that shift: Better emotional health, Higher pain toleran...

Do you find yourself chasing after all of those "urgent" tasks, only to discover that they really don't matter? President Dwight Eisenhower said, "I have to kinds of problems.  The urgent and the important.  The urgent are not important and the important are never urgent." Sometimes, the urgent things ARE important.  They probably get done right then and there.  But then the urgent (but not import...

Wouldn't it be nice if you had a built-in detector that let you know when something is important?  Kind of like a treasure detector to point out when to pay attention and dig in? Guess what? You do! But you probably aren't using it the way it was designed.  Most people aren't.  In fact, most people use this indicator as an Avoidance Indicator -- using it to AVOID things, even important things. Use...

As I ran through the woods, I could only see the trees and path right in front of me.  I had no idea how far up the mountain I had climbed.  I had no idea about the turns in the trail ahead.  And I couldn't even see very far back, given all the twists.  My vision was only the few yards ahead. Sometimes, life is like that.  We are so close to something, we lose perspective.  We can only see the nex...

E + R = O It's one of my favorite formulas.  And it isn't even math! Well, it kinda is.  It is the Responsibility Formula Dr. Robert Resnick developed, and Jack Canfield popularized. And it is powerful. Like most formulas, all the parts must be present. Many times, people assume that what happens around them determines what happens to them.  They miss a piece of the formula. Sometimes, people assu...

Isn't it interesting how much time people spend trying to control what they can't control, and how little time we spend trying to control what we can control? Imagine what would happen if we could flip that.  What if we spent our time trying to control what we CAN control.  And what if we released the rest? There are really only 3 things that you can truly control.  After that, you are wasting you...

The human mind is amazing.  It is capable of so much.  Thoughts that lead to great works of art, inventions, beautiful buildings, great literature, and everyday life.  Thoughts can also lead to destruction, pain, hurt, and anguish.  All from the same mind. Your mind and my mind does one thing all day long:  it creates thoughts.  Some are helpful.  Others, not so much. The fact that the mind create...

Having the right tool can make ALL the difference.  Ever tried to drive a screw with a hammer?  I have.  It didn't go so well. A few years back, I was changing out some faucets.  After stripping the skin off my knuckles and muttering a few choice words, I decided there HAD to be a tool that would help me get those faucets loose. Turns out there was!  Once I had the tool, everything was easier. The...

In my latest book, Thrive Principles, one of my strategies is Accepting What Is.  Which has caused some readers to wonder how that fits into my ideas about constantly growing and changing. They are not mutually opposed.  Accepting What Is creates a beginning point, a starting line.  From there, you can move toward who you want to be.  You can build a life of meaning and purpose. Many people strugg...

Wouldn't it make sense if we just made things easy, direct, and effective? We don't.  We tend to complicate things.  Repeatedly. Life is already a challenge many days.  So why do we make it harder on ourselves?  Sometimes, it is mental blocks.  Sometimes, it is reaction.  Sometimes, we let our emotions run the show. This week, I discuss 3 ways you likely complicate your life.  I know, because I fa...

I was madly taking notes at a conference a couple of months back.  This guy beside me was taking no notes.  I was impressed with someone who could remember all the details needed.  The conference was about setting up social media, blogs, and other technical elements of launching a program. At the break, I turned to him and chatted.  I asked him what he did, and what he was hoping to get out of the...

We all get them.  Sometimes there is a reason.  Sometimes, they just catch you for no real reason.  Down days.  Those days that seem to be energy-less, lacking in passion, and kinda blue. I was having a down day, so I went to my "Down Day Toolbox" to make it through and make it better.  And I thought, why not share my toolbox?  I bet you have a toolbox, too. Down Days are normal.  Too many down da...

Over the last few weeks, we've focused on habits as a path to your thriving life.  If you missed any of the weeks, the links are noted below. Today, we wrap up the series by noting the difference between two types of habits:  revolutionary habits and evolutionary habits. Let's say you are currently not exercising, but decide to start.  You decide to take up jogging.  That is revolutionary.  You ar...

For the last few weeks, we've been talking habits.  What they are, how they form who you are, how you make them stick, how to turn your goals into habits, and finding your "linchpin habits." This week, I want to draw your attention to your thoughts.  Really, I want to draw attention to the fact that your thinking is also habitual.  Not all of your thoughts.  But how you think and many of the thoug...

A single habit can be tough, either to make or break.  But what if you could make one habit and it multiplied into other habits?  What if there is a linchpin habit for you that sets others in motion? The fact is, we all have linchpin habits.  The question is whether they are working for or against you.  Many people have bad linchpin habits.  The habit of watching the game with the guys that leads...

We like to make goals.  Most of us start the year with a set of goals.  And most goals, certainly most resolutions, never quite make it.  Goals are "out there," some deadline in the future. Resolutions may start now, but rarely do they make it into habit. Think about goals as an end result of your systems and habits.  If you just set goals, they will always be "out there."  But if you create syste...

Last week, we started a series on habits.  Your life is, in many ways, built on a series of habits.  Some are good.  Some get in your way. It always seems to me that we form bad habits so much easier than good habits!  And these aren't the habits we want to "stick." Which raises the question of how to make those good habits stick.  How do you start a habit and keep it going? If you are a "New Year...

For a long time, habits seemed to be a useless topic to me.  Got a bad habit?  Change it.  Need a good habit?  Build it. But the more I reflect, the more I realize how much of life is really about habits.  More than that, I have noticed how hard those bad habits are to break.  And how hard those good habits are to build. So I started paying more attention to my habits.  I started studying habits....

Today is a big day for me.  It is the release date for my new book, Thrive Principles.  This book is near and dear to my heart.  I have lived with it for years, collecting and developing the strategies throughout my career. The fifteen strategies can help you build a thriving life, regardless of what is going on in your life.  Tough times or easy times, we can all thrive throughout life. Please ch...