I admit it, I really do wake up each and every day and do what 'I Want To Do'. Some may think this is a selfish approach to life and others may think it is a fairy tale, but it is my life. But how is it that I can do this? The answer is very simple, ' I just decided to'.

Okay, so I hear the eyes rolling and the laughs and the moaning 'yeah right'. But it is very true. Did I realize it at the time I made the decision that 4 years later, I would be starting each and every day on my own terms and living my life only as I choose? No, but in hindsight, I now know the power of the decision to take control of my life.

Let's go back a few years so you can see the transition a bit. I worked for an airline for 28 years and suddenly lost that job. At the time I was devastated, so close to retirement and being let go with nothing to show for the 28 years. I went right to work for another company, a Pharmaceutical company, building and running their customer service call center. At the time, I felt so lucky to have a job that paid even more than I made with the airline (which I thought was excellent pay), and they let me have autonomy, which simply meant I worked 80 hours a week, because I did everything that needed to be done to get my assignment completed. Then one day, my husband and I realized that we hated our lives. In our 50's and although we lived very comfortably, we had no 'life'. We never saw each other, we lived paycheck to paycheck, we were tired all of the time and life in general became a real drudgery.

We were just surviving at life. So I started exploring options and very quickly got started in a home business that I knew I would love. Now here is the amazing part, within 3 months, my husband and I had both quit our jobs. Sounds great, huh?

Well it was, but we learned very quickly that we were not emotionally prepared for having complete control of our lives. We worried about our business, we worried about what others thought of us, we worried about our family obligations and on and on and on.

Within a few months, we put ourselves right back into a very stressful situation, even though we no longer worked for someone else. It was a situation that we created. There was almost a need to be stressed since we had lived in stress for so many years. It directly affected our income, simply because we were limiting the amount of our income based on our limited thinking.

We had gone back into the SURVIVAL mode without realizing it. We needed an Epiphany, we needed an awakening. One day, an associate in our company wrote an email to me and said 'Wanda, when did you mentally go back to your days of working for someone else and give control of your life back to others? What made you stop thinking big and go back to thinking so small?'

That was all it took for me to realize that after all those years of being under the control of others, I was not allowing myself to be in control of me! I stopped thinking big and started thinking survival. My husband and I were both totally wrapped up in survival and forgot that the reason we chose to be self employed and quit our jobs, was to LIVE! We had denied ourselves of our deepest desires, simply because we gave up the control.

Today, I pinch myself every day. I wake up when I want (and yes, I still get up early by choice), I walk on the beach every morning, sometimes for miles. I read, write, sleep and whatever I feel is best for me at the time. Then I work my business for a couple of hours and Jerry and I spend the rest of the day together. Sometimes doing our volunteer and community work and sometimes just fishing or boating.

But the point is, we are living. So what took me/us from surviving to thriving? Again, it was a clear decision. Surviving is not a good thing. It is what you do in the work world. You survive in the masses which sometimes leads you to surviving in your own life.

But thriving is rich! It is being in total control. It is thinking big, it is rejoicing and being absolutely grateful, it is juicy, it is delicious. It is just very special. Thriving is living your life on your own terms, touching other people's lives everyday and living life to the fullest.

When you thrive, everything else just works out, even the money. The mindset of thriving takes you to unbelievable levels of success. Getting to this point sometimes takes a slap in the face. Sometimes people get a slap and do not realize it. They miss the opportunity to wake up. These little slaps, or bumps in the road will then set you back in your growth, instead of moving you forward to unimaginable levels of growth.

We were very fortunate that it moved us forward. We clearly received the message of thriving versus surviving. My message to you today is to go forward in your life and thrive. Life is an amazing experience and it is meant to be exciting, delicious, juicy and fun. It is meant to give you great peace and great joy as well as providing these same things to others.

Thriving gives you the life you desire, but you must make the clear and conscious choice to thrive, to live your life by your own terms, the way it was meant to be. The difference in surviving and thriving are as simple as a decision. Make the decision today to THRIVE! To your success...