Step Up Your Life with Thriving from A to Z
By Lynn Schmidt, Ph.D.
Photography Kimberlee Miller
Knowing how to step up your life can be complicated when it should be easy. When knowing is easy, you can focus your time and effort on the tricky part – the doing – then implement actions to create the life you deserve.
As an avid reader, researcher, and writer, I find the massive amount of information on how to improve our lives overwhelming. In this day and age of shorter attention spans, you don’t want to read a long list of books to get a nugget of information. When reading an article, you don’t want to scroll far on your phone to learn what to do.
I wrote my fifth book, Thriving from A to Z: Best Practices to Increase Resilience, Satisfaction, and Success, to make it easy for anyone to implement actions to thrive. This award-winning book provides 26 best practices proven to help you succeed. Each essential best practice is condensed into bite-size pieces and includes an engaging overview, actionable tips, valuable reflection activities, and space for journaling. With this structure, you can take action quickly.
One book reviewer, Laurie Buchanan, Ph.D., stated, “This book is designed to help you learn, grow, and transform; to build resiliency, and to help you bridge the gap between surviving and thriving.” Another reviewer, Steven Howard said, “Thriving is an intentional choice, and Schmidt provides a clear pathway that you can follow to thrive in all aspects of your life for greater satisfaction and success. This book is meant to inspire you daily.”
With over 20 years of experience as a leadership coach, I have worked with many individuals making significant life changes. Implementing change is difficult, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Thriving requires getting out of your comfort zone, and it’s often easier to be comfortable and unhappy rather than face your fears to create a more satisfying life.
I often struggle with a willingness to get uncomfortable to make essential changes. In the end, though, the benefits I know I’ll experience outweigh the discomfort. It’s acceptable to be afraid; acknowledge your fears and address them. Getting out of your comfort zone is how you learn and grow. Building resilience and deciding to thrive is an intentional choice that won’t happen by accident.
Personally, and professionally, women face many challenges that require resilience to overcome. I wrote my fourth book, the award-winning Shift Into Thrive: Six Strategies for Women to Unlock the Power of Resiliency, to provide women with powerful strategies, practical action steps, and inspiring stories from women around the world to address those challenges. I am passionate about helping women and men create lives accompanied by growth and success.
You can unconsciously overcomplicate the process of creating a more satisfying life. If the process appears too complicated, you have an excuse to not get uncomfortable and take action. When you have access to actionable and straightforward information, however, there is no reason for excuses.
What’s next for me? I’m currently working on two books – one about women and self-limiting beliefs, and another to help teenage girls build resilience. I’ll be writing more articles about the book scene in Boise for Greenbelt Magazine. So, stay tuned, there’s more to come.
Thriving from A to Z and Shift Into Thrive are available wherever books are sold, including Rediscovered Books in Boise, and Amazon.
To learn more, visit Schmidtleadership.com.
