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Tuesday Feb. 19, 2019

In my view life has three gears.

Maybe four.

Getting by/surviving, thriving, excelling and The End.

Whether that fourth one is a gear or not is debatable. There might be subsets of these but however you slice it I believe there is only way to feel alive and excited – that’s our thriving gear.

Sure, we all slip back into getting-by mode temporarily but not for long.

I don’t know that with scientific certainty.

I just assume it. Maybe I’m wrong – there might be a majority of people in getting-by mode. True, it gets us from month to month, morning to night, paycheque to paycheque – season to season. But what good is a getting by strategy if not for something we are waiting for, building for, getting excited for?

Thriving is a pretty good gear. It’s use implies succeeding but I think a better descriptor is ‘mattering’. Mattering to someone, to something, to some cause or some advancement of an idea, craft, purpose, profession or business. Thriving is good.

Excelling. What exactly is that? Is it a momentary ‘off the charts’ event, or consistent behavior of the exceptionally talented? Or is excelling just someone who is both thriving and accelerating?

What gear are you in?

Reader feedback:

GETTING PUMPED

The bottom line is we control our day by our reactions to it, but I’ve had days that started well spoiled and vice-versa, LH, Lethbridge, AB


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