Imagine you have a rose bush in your backyard. It blooms every year but isn’t really doing much of anything else. It looks okay, but certainly could do a lot better with some proper care.

Now imagine yourself joyfully attending to the rose bush. Feel the texture of the soil in your hands. Relish in the love you have for life.

That is the difference between surviving and thriving!

Does this describe your life?

Can you imagine you joyfully attending to you? Loving you? Feeling passionate about yourself?

Some people are content just surviving because they cannot see their lives any differently then it is today. That does not describe you, or else you would not be reading this. Up until now you have been allowing life to work you instead of you working life. All that is about to change.

And, trust me, when I say “working life” I do not mean hard core manual labor. I mean you sitting in the driver’s seat of your life and making it go in the direction you want.

Huge difference… can you even fathom how satisfied you would feel if you were in complete control? You are closer then you think.

So what things do you need to do differently to go from surviving to thriving? Try these confidence boosters:

Do something just for you

Go buy something – it doesn’t have to be expensive, but it as to make you feel fabulous.

Grab a fantastic pair of underwear. Women in particular ooze confidence when they are wearing something sexy even if it’s under an old ripped sweat shirt. Several years ago when I was working for a large multinational corporation in Manhattan, my boss told me his wife goes out and gets herself a hot set of matching bra and panties whenever she had a major presentation to give, just because it gave her a huge boost of confidence.

Clean Out Your Closets

Funny thing about life… when we get rid of that which does not serve us, that space is filled with something else. Nature abhors a vacuum. When you remove things, people, feelings that do not help you with the intention of filling that new space with something better, that is exactly what happens.

Go through your closet and remove anything that does not fit, anything that does not reflect “you”, anything that you have not worn in 2 years. Give it all away, as that will also help you to feel abundant.

Surround yourself with fabulous people

We all need a circle of friends and contacts that support us in our goal towards Thriving in life. I suggest that you include an accountant and a lawyer in that circle, as in your thriving life you will most likely end up starting your own business or creating an income stream for yourself that will require them. Plus, in all honesty, it gives you one less thing to think about. You have enough to do, let someone else crunch the numbers.

Most importantly, surround yourself with people who truly believe in you. It is no secret that when your husband, wife, life-partner, parent or sibling does not believe in your goals, you tend to falter in achieving them. Why does this happen? When someone close to you does not believe that you are capable of more, capable of stepping outside the box and succeeding and thriving in life, you begin to lose faith in yourself. You assume that their opinion of you is more accurate then your opinion of yourself. Now, I am not recommending you get a divorce, but to offset that, or simply to boost yourself up – you need to surround yourself with people who DO know you can thrive, and have the faith and the belief in you that Thriving is your destiny. Like brings in like. Surround yourself with those who are like minded and you will all thrive!

The bottom line is that you want to Thrive and have the people around you thrive as well. Now… pay attention here, as this is VERY important…

Allow yourself to thrive and imagine that those around you are thriving as well. Do not be critical of yourself when they are not thriving. Ultimately, the people around you are responsible for their own thriving – but you can lead by example.