We’re all chasing something—whether it’s success, fulfillment, or just a healthier, longer life. But the mistake many of us make is chasing them separately. Thrivespan is built on the understanding that these three elements—purpose, success, and longevity—are not separate. They are threads of the same braid, woven together into the fabric of our lives. When we strengthen one, we strengthen them all.
The Three Threads of Thrivespan
Purpose – Finding meaning in what we do, aligning our actions with what truly matters.
Success – Achieving personal and professional growth, without burning out.
Longevity – Living a sustainable, healthy life that fuels everything else.
The key is to recognize that all three threads are continually interwoven, rather than focusing on just one. Our careers impact our health. Our purpose fuels our drive. Our longevity provides us time to build something meaningful.
The Power of the Braid
All too often, we approach life like a checklist: First, we build success. Then, perhaps, we find meaning. And health? That often comes later, if at all. This compartmentalized approach doesn’t work. It creates an imbalance, a cognitive dissonance that something is amiss. To truly thrive in life, we must braid these elements together from the start and continually through life.
Comparison is the Thief of Joy
One of the biggest breakthroughs in Thrivespan is realizing that comparison is impossible—no two fabrics, no two lives, will ever be the same. Your path, your experiences, your strengths—they’re uniquely woven. And that’s the point.
The beauty of Thrivespan is that there is no perfect weave. Your individual threads will shift, tighten, and loosen. Some days will feel solid, while others may feel unraveled. But when you understand how to keep weaving them together, you create a long life of resilience and meaning. Sometimes our health is out of whack, creating a frail and fragile thread. If our meaning and drive are both intact, those threads provide the necessary strength. Maybe we rely more on the meaning of life in that moment or know we have the drive to make and achieve goals.
Other times, we are at the top of our careers as we achieve material success, but we know our internal connection with ourselves or relationships with others is faltering. We are out of balance and know we need to work on and attend to our meaning and health to bring things into balance and harmony.
Just as a rope with frayed threads shouldn’t be trusted to hold the bridge or rope swing, so do we need to attend to the threads of our lives. However, just as a blanket or sweater might be a bit worn in one spot, the abundance of woven thread keeps one small hole from tearing apart the entire thing. And, yes, often we need to go back and patch things up a bit.
Live in the Now, Learn from the Future
The key to evaluating exactly where we are, and how strong our fabric is, is to get in the habit of periodically doing a thrive check. At this moment, how do I feel about my health and fitness? At this exact time, how is my internal peace? My bliss? Am I living with purpose? And how is my motivation and drive? Am I setting goals and pursuing them? As I achieve them, am I setting even higher ones? Or am I feeling stagnant and in need of a push? In that case, we might need encouragement to prevent the perfect from becoming the enemy of the good, and just go for it. We have a lifetime for accomplishment but just this moment to start.
The Thrivespan mindset isn’t just about today—it’s about looking at life with a long-term perspective. Imagine yourself at 90 years old, looking back—what truly mattered? What fears turned out to be meaningless? What cringe moments became the foundation of growth? What do you wish you had started earlier and stuck with to the end?
A peacock is a powerful representation of not overthinking and just doing. A peacock doesn’t do “bird things” well at all. The songbird would ridicule the peacock’s cat-like screech, and the falcon and hummingbird would mock its cumbersome, lumbering flight. Yet, the peacock doesn’t care—it spreads its awkward, oversized, ridiculous feathers and somehow convinces the world it’s the most majestic bird. And it is—because it owns its uniqueness.
That’s the heart of Thrivespan. We don’t need perfection. We just need to keep weaving.
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