A few years ago when I was a student, I was stranded in my dormitory with no money or food to eat. It was just past mid-month and I was supposed to conserve my money till the end of the month when I would be given another feeding and pocket money.
I was a fourth-year medical student. So I decided I was not going to call my parents this time. I was determined to gradually start becoming independent because even if I called home at that time of the month, I wouldn’t get enough money that I wanted.
I needed to survive through the time. So, I kicked into the survival mode. In survival mode, I cut down my expenses, and my daily food consumption, and I spent less than I normally would. I just wanted to survive the times.
While the survival mode is temporary for most people, it can get abnormally prolonged for others. This is often due to two reasons.
- The hardship does not seem to leave and they are conditioned to keep surviving only.
- They are not determined to change things to exit the survival mode.
In the first instance, anyone who does not have a source of income or benefactor could stay stranded for a longer period of time in the survival mode.
However, if one is determined to leave the survival mode, one can find ways to dump the survival mode mindset and embrace a more progressive mindset. People who do this always achieve results in becoming more financially independent.
What is the survival mode mindset?
The survival mode mindset is wrapped in the simple phrase “man must survive”. He does everything possible just to live past the current day.
The survival mode mindset is important for survival through hard times. It is a positive mindset that makes you think of ways to survive and value your life above anything else. However, deliberate actions need to be taken to rise above the survival mode into a more preferred mode, the growth mode or the growth mindset.
Resilience.org has narrated some of the interesting traits of the survival mindset including tenacity, adaptability, work ethic, creativity, positivity, acceptance, humor, bravery, and motivation. These traits come in handy in navigating through out world full of turbulence and harsh times.
Many of these traits are needed to achieve success at all times. The problem with the survival mode is that its only goal is to do all that is possible to live or just to survive yet another day. There is no long-term plan in place.
However, the survival mode is and should remain short-term. Once prolonged, an individual in the survival mode mindset will continue to remain in mediocrity and never rise beyond the struggle.
How To Know You Are Stuck In Survival Mode
It is not so hard to know when one is stuck in the survival mode. Asking yourself a few simple questions can help you answer them.
Staying too long in survival mode can make some people remain perpetually unable to think of the way forward beyond today. Here are some signs that you may be stuck in the survival mode.
- You only seem to think about today with no plans for tomorrow or the future.
- You feel hopeless about your dreams.
- You can do anything to survive including fraudulent things.
- You feel selfish and unable to help anyone else.
- It makes you ungrateful and unsatisfied about life itself.
If you have any of those signs above, you might be stuck in survival mode, which means you feel conquered with no plans for the future. People who allow life’s harsh treatments to keep them in survival mode can become hopeless in the dreams they once held firmly on.
The Thrival Mode: How to Get Out of The Survival Mode
Some opposite terminologies to the survival mode include prosperity, comfort, security, abundance, and well-being. That is to say that the survival mode is a state of complete instability with a need to adapt and survive the difficulty.
The “Thrival mode”, on the other hand, does not necessarily mean that things are rosy and stable yet but the “thrival mode” denotes a more positive and proactive orientation towards growth, success, and fulfillment.
In other words, switching from the survival mode into the “thrival mode” sets you up for long-term success instead of allowing you to live through the day.
1. Take bold steps
Exiting the survival mode into the thrival mode requires one to take very bold steps. You have to be willing to get up and make a move in the right direction instead of folding your hands to wallow in sorrow and worries.
Suffice it to say that tough times have their own lesson to teach as well. When you are operating in the thrival mode, you see challenges as opportunities instead of just looking for a way to just escape the problems.
For example, back in school, from the story I narrated briefly at the beginning of this post, I lay on my bed one night and started thinking about what I could do to get above the situation permanently. I thought about several business options and I started working on them immediately, even on an empty stomach.
Today, I am enjoying the benefits of some of those ventures I started a long time ago. And I still have some of them uncompleted yet. The thrival mode sets you up for success in the midst of many challenges.
2. Aways think and plan for your dreams
I can no longer count the number of people who have had to give up on their dreams because it seems life does not want them to succeed. People give up easily in the face of challenges but the few people who achieved success did so by maintaining their calm and pushing forward in the face of very fierce challenges.
Never give up on your dreams. Those are your passions and drive for success. No matter how big and unrealistic they are gradually becoming, you can achieve all you put your mind to.
One way to keep up with your dreams is to always think about them and project yourself to the time when you have achieved them successfully. Seeing the reward at the end can give you some energy boost towards achieving them.
3. Be grateful and keep your joy always
Happiness is what you feel on the outside when things are working out for you. Joy is what you feel on the inside even when things are not going as desired. Keeping your inner happiness is important in exiting the survival mode permanently.
Being joyful gives you the energy to forge ahead. And if you allow the present circumstances to thwart your happiness, you might end up getting stuck in the survival mode indefinitely.
The major reason why that is so is that losing one’s joy makes one hopeless without a desire to take any step in the positive direction. And when you start making some steps forward, appreciate your small wins and achievements no matter how small they might look.
4. Consider the long-term effects of your decisions
Every decision you take has consequences–both immediate and long-term consequences.
People stuck in survival mode focus only on the immediate rewards of something without considering the potential problems that may be associated with it in the long run or ignore a potentially rewarding opportunity simply because it does not bring immediate gains.
To get out of the survival mode into the thrival mode, you must always ask yourself about what you stand to gain or lose. Sometimes, the long-term risks may outweigh the immediate benefits and you may need to withhold taking certain decisions for that reason.
5. Focus on solutions
In other to rise above the survival mode, you need to dissociate yourself from the problems. Focusing too much on the problems can cloud your judgment and obstruct your vision for tomorrow.
When you focus more on solutions, you become more receptive to the opportunities that may come your way. It may look difficult to ignore problems and focus on solutions when you need to survive first, but when you focus on what you stand to gain in the long run, you will be motivated to carry on.
If you are so pained by what you are going through, ask yourself what way in which you can provide solutions to the problems you are currently facing, instead of wallowing in sorrow, lamentation, or worrying about what you or someone did or didn’t do.
6. Think about helping others
Being stuck in the survival mode makes you think only about yourself and no one else. You simply want to survive no matter the cost.
But when you help other people, it can get you out of survival mode in ways you cannot imagine. Helping people can give you a sense of satisfaction when you see the happiness on their faces, thus building your hopefulness about life and success.
When you think more about helping other people, you are also more solution-oriented. That kind of mindset is what you need to identify and tap into opportunities quickly and effectively.
Lastly, helping people can make other people help you in return. They might not have seen you doing so, but simply helping someone else has a mystical way of making help come your way too.
What Lies Beyond The Thrival Mode?
Beyond the thrival mode is a pathway to achieving great success. Getting out of survival mode can turn your hardship story into a highly motivational story for other people in the future. That is why it is very important to highlight ways to activate the thrival mode as soon as possible.
People in the thrival mode think about starting up a business(es) from the small they have, even if they have nothing. They think about what to do to not only earn a livelihood but also earn a sustainable means of income.
Don’t let the survival mode force you to leave below your potential. You are capable of becoming the best of yourself no matter what circumstances life brings your way.
Final words
The survival mode is an instinctive adaptive behavior in times of financial or physical hardship but it focuses only on short-term survival. The thrival mode, on the other hand, is a more sustainable and efficient way to survive through hard times and also rise to greatness and success in the process.
To get out of the survival mode into the thrival mode, there are some things you need to do. These include keeping your happiness and joy, helping other people, focusing on solutions, and others.
While the survival mode puts one on a self-destruct protocol, the thrival mode activates the individual’s potential to achieve success, such that it is easy to say that many people have acquired and developed some of life’s greatest skills for success when they were in hardship.
