The 5 Critical Components of a Thriving Life

The new book, Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements, by Tom Rath and Jim Harter was just released and it reveals the five components to a thriving life.  These five components are no surprise but the distinctions that have come from Gallup’s 50 years of research on a life well-lived are important to note.

The five components are:

• Career Wellbeing: how you devote your time to something you like to do
• Social Wellbeing: strong relationships and love as a part of your life
• Financial Wellbeing: a strong financial approach to life
• Physical Wellbeing: good health and high energy to engage in your life
• Community Wellbeing: the sense of connection you have with networks of people around you

The distinctions that come from the Gallup research and this new book is the difference between how people who have a thriving wellbeing look at and approach these components versus those who struggle with their wellbeing.  Contrasting the two categories on wellbeing is very similar to what Jim Collins has done with businesses when he contracted great companies with good or failing companies.  As he said at the Gazelles Growth Summit in October 2009, “We do not study success, we study contrast between success and average or unsuccessful companies.”

Those with thriving wellbeing:

• Understand how important career wellbeing is to the total package of wellbeing.  It’s more about interest and purpose and whether people have a chance to use their strengths regularly than it is about something they have to do for money.  Unfortunately, most people think of work as a chore, not something that benefits their wellbeing.
• Know that the socializing they do through their work and in their personal life impacts their overall wellbeing.  In fact, the data showed that a person needs to spend six hours a day socializing to have a good day.  Even introverts, like myself, have more happy moments and fewer stressful moments when they spend at least five hours a day socializing with others.  You can easily get that as an introvert or extravert if you approach career wellbeing in the right way.  People who are downers can dramatically decrease your social wellbeing.
• Capitalize on the marginal changes to keep and elevate wellbeing.  The marginal effect of adding just 1 friend or 30 minutes of socialization, exercise, or sleep is a huge in wellbeing!!!  You need to find your leverage points, invest a little in them, and maximize the energy and impact of that small change.

The major challenge around elevating your wellbeing is the same challenge around any change.  99% of the people in this world have a very ineffective process for making changes.  They make it much harder through their timid and tentative approaches.  Thus, they give inertia and resistance the advantage!

When you wholeheartedly embrace the 95 % to 98% of your current wellbeing and give 110% commitment to a leveraged breakthrough around the 2% to 5% of your beliefs and habits, you make it easy and exhilarating!

© Copyright 2010 Jon L. Iveson, Ph.D.