How to go from Surviving to Thriving

Do you wake up in the morning excited for the day ahead or are you filled with dread? Are you thriving in your days or are you just surviving your days?

Have you ever found yourself thinking, “There must be more to life than this.”

There was a time in my life that I realized I was just surviving in life. Even though I had everything I ever wanted, I wasn’t happy or fulfilled or at peace in my life.

I coach many women who have the same experience, so in this episode of the podcast, I will share with you 3 tips to start feeling like you are thriving in life.

If you need more inspiration for self-care in motherhood, you can download my Ultimate Guide to Guilt-Free Self-Care HERE! It’s a Guide to help you take care of yourself in mind, body and spirit so you can feel like your best self every day. 

And join us in the Life Designed Community on Facebook! 

TRANSCRIPT 
 
Welcome to A Life Designed.
 
My name is Tina Haisman. I teach busy moms how to get everything done and still have time and energy for themselves. My passion is for helping women create more heart-to-heart connection with their husband and children so they can feel deeply fulfilled in those most important relationships.
 
The topic of today’s podcast is How to Go from Surviving to Thriving
 
But before we get started I want to let you know I have created a free download call the Ultimate Guide to Guilt-Free Self-Care. I’m really proud of this guide. It’s a Guide to help you take care of yourself in mind, body and spirit so you can feel like your best self every day. And that topic goes just perfectly with our theme today! Visit my website tinahaisman.com to download it.
 
Also, I have a FREE private group on Facebook where you can come to get inspiration for your life. It’s called A Life Designed. It’s actually a happy place on Facebook. I hope you’ll join us!
 
Now let’s Dive IN and talk about How to Go from Surviving to Thriving
 
Let’s start with a couple of questions today. Do you love your life? Are you living your best life?
 
Do you wake up in the morning excited for the day ahead or are you filled with dread? Are you thriving in your days or are you just surviving your days? Are you living your best life or are you feeling a bit uninspired as a mother and a wife?
 
Are you thinking there must be more to life than this.
 
There was a time in my life that I realized I wasn’t living my best life. I’ve shared a many of my stories here on the podcast before.
 
Even though I had everything I ever wanted, I wasn’t happy or fulfilled or at peace in my life. I didn’t fully realize it either, until it smacked me in the face one day.
 
My response when I realized I was living in survival mode was a prayer for help. God sent me help, but not in the way I would have imagined.
 
Instead of sending me some help with the housework or maybe a sitter for the kids or an assistant for my business or even on a lavish vacation, he sent me a writing assignment.
 
Work. Can you believe that guy?
 
But, of course, he knows best. So, I took the writing assignment. And it changed the trajectory of my life.
 
I was asked to write an article for a parenting magazine about how moms can get everything done that they need to, but still have time and energy for themselves.
 
As I wrote that article, I interviewed some life coaches for answers.
 
Needless to say, I loved what the life coaches had to say, so I hired one!
And that is how I learned to go from surviving to thriving in life.
 
I learned that I am in charge of my own happiness. And that I have to take responsibility for it. And go after it. That happiness isn’t just going to come to me.
 
I learned 3 steps to take to really start living my life. 1. I learned that I had to get to know myself better. 2. I had to make room in my life for the things I loved. 3. And I needed to be intentional each and every day with both my personal and professional life.
 
Here’s a little peak of what each of those areas looked like.
 
Getting to know myself better meant exploring what my God-given gifts are and how I could apply them to motherhood, marriage and my career.
 
I was able to gain so much love for myself by focusing on what my gifts are, instead of what my shortcomings are. I find that so often in life we are focusing on what is wrong with us. What needs fixing. This is a stressful, unhappy place to live. But focusing on what our gifts are and how we can use them in our lives shifts our energy and brings us peace and joy.
 
Speaking of joy, I also took some time to discover what I enjoy doing. As moms we often put all of this on the back burner while we take care of our families, but this leads to burnout, exhaustion and unhappiness. We need to ask ourselves, what do I like? What makes me feel good? And incorporating more of that into our lives. For me, this led to much more happiness in life and eventually a rewarding, soul-filling career change.
 
And so this is something I work on with my clients now. You’d be surprised how much better this can help you feel.
 
The second phase of going from surviving to thriving was learning how to identify and let go of toxic activities and relationships that were draining my energy. This consisted of looking at my daily and weekly activities and the people I interacted with and identifying situations that left me feeling depleted, instead of energized. I learned that I needed to let go of those things. And that it was OK. We all have things in our lives that we hold onto, because we believe we need to for some reason.
 
A careful, prayerful analysis can show us what we no longer need to hold on to and allow us to lovingly release it so we can make space for what would actually make us happy.
 
We tell ourselves stories about why we can’t walk away from things, but they are just that. Stories. Examine them.
 
And then in the wise words of Elsa the snow queen, let it go!
 
The third phase of growth was learning how to design my days the way I wanted them to be.
 
So many of us let life happen to us, instead of letting us happen to our lives. We think we are at the effect of whatever comes our way. But that’s not the truth.
 
One of the things I did was come up with a list of things that I love to do. That make me happy. This list contained the things that I would love to do every day. It included things like journaling, praying, meditating, exercising, resting, spending one-on-one time with my children and connecting with at least one friend or family member each day.
 
You see, I was stuck in the mindset of work first, play later. And this was not working, because all I ever did was work. I didn’t leave much time for things I actually enjoyed doing. I would wake up in the morning without a real sense of being excited about the day ahead. In fact, I was burnt out. Learning to prioritize fun and enjoyment was transformational in all areas of my life.
 
We want to intentionally build pleasure and fun into our days so we have fun and enjoyment. Put your creativity hat on today. Where can you have some fun?
 
For me, doing this made me happier in my marriage, in motherhood and my career. I was better and happier in all 3 areas. In fact, during this time I took on an adventurous little PR project, got written up in an international marketing and PR book and even won a prestigious PR award. All the while working on my happiness. Can you believe it?!
 
This impact of this type of work can’t be understated. What is your life worth? What is your happiness worth?
 
If you really want to be the best mother and wife possible, you’ve got to start with being the best YOU possible! Love yourself! Give yourself time!
 
 
If you could use a little help with this, reach out to me. I can help you.
 
In the meantime. Remember! I have created a free Ultimate Guide to Guilt Free Self Care for you.
 
Don’t forget to join the Life Designed Community on Facebook!
 
Thank you! See you next week!