To thrive means to grow strong, prosper, and succeed rather than just survive. [
Ref]
Thrive is the state of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing that results from being nurtured and nourished sufficiently across the spectrum of requirements for health.
It is believed that the highest chance of thriving can be achieved by a relatively consistent practice of pursuing and maintaining a sense of balance between all of the
Healthy Lifestyle Principles.
Making more choices that support thriving will theoretically result in a better life, but at the same time it is also normal and natural to consciously make choices which do not appear to align with thriving. Such choices may work against thriving in the short term, instead offering long term benefits.
For example, some choices may achieve valued outcomes that could not be achieved without short term health compromising practices that may include sacrificing:
- sleep for work
- relaxation for social time
- recreation for acts of service
- freedom for financial security
- creativity for knowledge
Such choices are not wrong simply because they don’t directly support thriving, but they will typically have undesirable consequences, at least in the short term, that are hopefully considered before making such choices.