Survive? Thrive.

I had a conversation this summer with a friend (who happens to be employed at CHS) about her epic summer adventure. One of the things she said she learned on her trip was that she could survive anywhere. I thought about her comment along with the parts of her trip she had already shared, and corrected her. “No,” I said, “you learned you could thrive anywhere.”

Thus, the “thrive” concept was born.

Students at campuses across the country often struggle to survive – to keep their sanity with all the stressors of college life. I could list those stressors here, but you probably already know college student stressors. That’s not what we want to focus on anyway. We are shifting from avoiding negative outcomes towards attaining positive outcomes.

Motivation that comes from trying to avoid (stressors or weight gain or illness) cannot be as strong as motivation that arises from trying to gain. That’s because if someone is successful at avoiding, they don’t get anything. They can’t see their success because their goal was the absence of something. If I stay healthy because I don’t want to get cancer – and I’m successful – how will I know? I won’t have cancer – but my success will really be seen in all the positive benefits of being healthy. So why not focus on that from the beginning?

Focus on gaining something. Focus on a tangible benefit. Focus on thriving.

For those of you who write S.M.A.R.T. goals, “thrive” isn’t going to help you much. It doesn’t say what thriving looks like, nor how to get there.

That’s where we become partners in your success. You know what you want and need to change in your life. We know a lot about what’s been proven to help college students thrive. We’re going to share that info with you in new and innovative ways. Then you can pick and choose what of those topics fits with your needs and goals.

We’ll be posting articles on this blog, on our website, facebook page, and twitter that are all targeted towards helping you thrive.

Topics range from financial management to sustaining the environment to staying physically active. Everything that CHS offers this year – services, marketing materials, health information, and more –will be centered around the goal of helping you thrive.

Move beyond surviving the rest of this semester – the rest of this year. Thrive instead. Make this year the year where you…

Save.

Love.