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What is Thrive?  This is a word defined as, “...to prosper, to be successful, develop or grow vigorously, to flourish…,” with origins based on a concept of “grasp” as in an individual’s grasp of something such as life or a skill. When I think of “Thrive” applied to our lives, it seems like an ideal to which every human can and would want to aspire. I know and speak to very few people who aspire to have an unsuccessful, dull or unfulfilled life. Most will even agree that this

Why do some people do all the right things but don't achieve success while others do? This was a question from one of my social media followers. I have four thoughts: 1. we need to be careful about defining success and comparing to others. We only see the surface of others " success ". And everyone puts their best image forward. 2. We should distinguish between goals such as earning a degree, job, money, etc vs. purposeful success. Goals help get there but the sense of succes

We are now into the holiday season and for those of us who are fighting, or have fought, are are thinking about fighting to be non-drinkers, we have a whole set of challenges. So I wanted to share some thoughts and tips for overcoming - even using - these challenges as a non-drinker. First, I am the first to admit that I do not have all the answers. I just have what I have studied, experienced myself and what others have shared with me. Second, I want to reiterate the physic

Do you awaken each day the same? Feeling like shit, lacking any motivation and just do what you need to do to get through your day? Do you tell yourself, "I am not drinking today." But then, around your usual time you just want to feel normal. So you decide, "one more day." And another, and another. Do you question whether your body is starting to suffer consequence's of the alcohol? Do you have a fatty liver enroute to Cirrhosis? Tingling or neuropathic pain in your toes or

The 7th element to www.thegethappinessplan.com is gratifying work. And in some cases either its time to make a decision that working for someone else is no longer tolerable. Or, perhaps due to today's economic times, it isn't possible. In reality, some of the most successful businesses were created during tough economic times such as Amazon, Airbnb, Disney, Uber and many many more small but successful businesses . Why not be among them? One thing that often prevents people

I recently listened to a social media post from an influencer who is on his 69th day of sobriety. His message was refreshingly honest; basically, he is bored, unhappy and disappointed that this is what he has found to be how he feels so far.  Personally I believe each person who finally quits alcohol uses whatever process or method works for them and, because I had several false starts and know how hard the process is, I applaud each person who takes it on and finds a way to

Why is meditation beneficial in the process of finding purpose, happiness and expressing gratitude Step 1: When we want things in our life to change, to be different, we must be different. Meditation, or some use prayer, provides a window into ourselves. We have a chance to pause. Gratitude is among the seven key elements to happiness and purpose . Meditation is a perfect time to focus on being grateful. Meditation also allows things from your subconscious to surface that ma

Change your life today! Follow my 7 step F-DAPPER System for Success. Steps 1 & 2 , find your emotional fuel, and 2. Make a small, but profound, decision. Visit www.thegethappinessplan.com for a free exercise to find your fuel. This is critical as our thoughts are dictated by our subconscious. In order to change our subconscious we need to use emotion, strong emotion. Find it. Take inventory. What have you sacrificed, what are the real costs of staying where you are at? Once

Our brain is focused on maintenance and survival. It wants to avoid taking things perceived to be risky today. It is not so worried about how we will feel at life's end as to whether the risk would have been worth it. That is why you need to tap into your emotion. Find Your Fuel in your emotion to move yourself into Decision - Action - Plan. Free Find Your Feel worksheet at www.thegethappinessplan.com .

The minute you just spent is a minute you will never get to live again. Was it how you would want to have lived that minute? How about the last hour, the last day? Get present and be accountable to your self for how you are using the minutes and hours and days of your life as you will NEVER get to live them again. Do this for the rest of your lifetime and you will feel you have lived your life time well. Find your purpose and focus your time on what matters most to you. My se

The three things we have the ability to change right now are: #1 our setting and perspective. #2 is our thoughts and #3 is our actions. This is video is about #1 changing our setting. What I mean by that is everything you see around you as your setting that creates your daily perspective: your schedule and routine, fix your space for work, change where you live, who you are spending time with, your clothing. When I was getting off alcohol this was one of the most critical thi

I am not a certified dietician or nutritionist. I am a student like most of you. I have read, listened to and observed others. And, I have experimented as I believe diet and exercise routines are very personal. As always, if you can get professional advice, great! If you are like me, you will consider various things and then adapt them to yourself until you find what works. For me there are two keys (actually 3 but 3rd is obvious) to a successful diet. First, it has to be sus

Research shows that in order to reduce "unhappiness" you need to cover your basic needs, food, shelter, etc. But "unhappiness" is not the opposite of "happiness" In fact, these two emotions originate from opposite sides of the brain. Once your basics are covered, there is a real diminishing return on what happiness more money can help create. And, each time we get more, your expectation and "need" gets readjusted and soon we find that we want now need more. Success does not e

One of the important things about getting sober is to talk to and listen to others. This can help overcome our own internal chatter that constantly counters our own concerns with justifications that alcohol is not the problem or even a problem at all. But be aware that alcohol abuse is typically a symptom of other problems. Once one moves past alcohol other things will be waiting to be dealt with. That's where my www.thegethappinessplan.com comes in to play. In my case, I fo

Have you gone through a life transition? Quit alcohol, divorce, change in career, dealing with depression, or just stuck without purpose watching life pass bye? To deal with my own life transition: quit alcohol then depression, I had to find a way out. In the process I was able to find out how to do it. And after, found that there is a lot of science behind my process. So, I distilled it all down to the real 7 key elements to happiness, organized them into a fill-in-the-blank

When we have completed our 7 steps for success and the Get Happiness Plan course we start out forcefully. However, sometimes Life Happens. We get side tracked by things the come up that are not aligned with our plan nor our goals. So, out of instinct, sometimes necessity, we put our progress on pause. And before we know it, we are back in the place where we started. There are two points here: 1. this problem can and should be anticipated and built into your life plan. Know th

Going through the process of quitting alcohol is difficult and requires 100% focus and commitment. For that reason, it is not unusual to finally get to the point of being a sober, non-drinker and then ask, "what now?". You see, one cannot simply continue with the same exact life as before, just without out alcohol; at least it is very difficult and I believe a recipe for failure. The new post-alcohol life of sobriety must be accepted and embraced. That requires proactive effo

What is your dream and how are you spending your precious life's moments today? Achieving your dreams are within reach but it depends 100% in what actions you take today and each day. The tools and process exists, support exists, but you need to be clear if six months from now you are going to be in the same place as today or if in six months you are going to be living your dreams. If I can help with my personalized development plan and my 1 on l online coaching, visit my we

When we are in creation mode, each day we tend to have a list of tasks. That is a good thing. And, if you are like me, each day you will go over the list and prioritize the order in which you will knock them off. It is not uncommon to want to complete the easy things first. I am suggesting the opposite: when you have optimal energy, are fresh and ready, start with the hardest task. I often find that the task was much harder in my mind than it was once I actually take it on. S

Author Jonathan Rauch wrote a book entitled, The Happiness Curve. In it he describes that as a society the level of happiness we experience throughout our lives tends to decline shortly after birth. At the age of about 38 our happiness is near its lowest level and it plateaus at that level for about 20 years beginning to reascend at about 58 years old. Researcher David Blanchflower later validated that this trend applies across cultures and geographies. Some possible explanat