Stop Surviving and Start Living Before Summer Passes You By (Summer Shift Week 1)

To stop living in survival mode and to start living like, well, you're supposed to be, thriving in life, enjoying life.

And the reason I bring this up is because, well, if you're listening to today's episode, when it is released, we just celebrated Memorial Day.

We had the big long three-day weekend.

The unofficial start to summer just occurred.

And here's what I want to propose is if we're diving into the summer season, why don't we make the most of it?

What if we can make this summer not just another blurry season, not just another thing that happens in life?

But what if we really lived out the next three months with intention?

If we work together to not only get a suntan, but to maybe work on ourselves, to be sure that we start treating life like it's meant to be: living, loving, enjoying life again, not just living in survival mode.

And so, my friend, if you are thinking to yourself that this sounds appealing, well, awesome.

Because today we are kicking off week number one of what I'm calling the summer shift.

It is the summer series here on Grit Grace and Inspiration, all starting with today's episode, episode 447, where we are switching from survival mode into thriving in life.

Now, in case you are new here, well, first and foremost, welcome to the podcast.

I am your host, Kevin Lowe.

And this, of course, is Grit Grace and Inspiration, the podcast that is always here to give you a fresh perspective on life coming to you with this whole hope of just inspiring you to get out there and love life again.

So today is week number one.

And yes, I did say this is a 12-week series.

So over the next three months, I'm gonna make it my point to show up here every week.

I know it's summer, there's a lot going on, but you know what?

I feel like I need you to hold me to it.

Hold my feet to the fire, keep me showing up every week here with you.

I've got the next 12 weeks all planned out, content all designed to help you move the needle forward in your life.

These are going to be quick episodes, solo episodes, just me speaking to just you, where we can spend the summer together growing, becoming bigger, better versions of us.

That is what I'm here to do this summer, to be sure that me and you both make the most out of this summer season.

So, in diving into today's topic, this idea of switching from surviving to thriving, we have to first understand the difference between the two.

Basically, the way I like to think of it, survival mode, it's basically you asking yourself the question, how do I make it through?

How do I get through the day?

Whereas thriving, well, you get to ask yourself, what do I get to do with this day?

Not how do I make it through, but what do I get to do with today?

What am I gonna make out of the time that I have in this day?

Me and you both know we only have 24 hours in a day.

The way that we make it last a little longer is by being sure that we live it with intention, that we choose to live it out the way that we want to live it.

Instead of allowing life to dictate how we live our life, we can choose how we live our life.

Now, when we talk about survival mode, I feel like so many of us, we just get stuck in this idea of living out life.

Now, I'm calling it survival mode.

Maybe it's also just kind of known as the normal day-to-day monotony of life.

You go through the motions, you do the routine, you don't think about anything.

You're basically living on autopilot.

Day after day, week after week, season after season, they just come and they go.

And what are we left to do at the end of the year?

Ask ourselves that same question.

Where did the year go?

Why has time gone so fast?

It's because we've not been living with intention.

We've been living on autopilot.

We've not been paying attention to anything that we've been doing.

So, what I want to do in this summer season is to draw your focus back to life again.

Instead of you putting the car on cruise control, I want you to think of this as you're back old school, manual transmission.

You've got to make the intention on which gear you're selecting, shifting from first to second, second to third, slaying the gears, making it go.

You are in the driver's seat of life, and this is your choice.

So, what this looks like in the summer months, it's you beginning to pay attention to the little things.

It's the beautiful sunsets that we only get in the summer months.

It's the beautiful sunrise on your way to work.

Something that typically you might just think of as an annoyance because it's the sunlight shining in and you put your little visor down, put on your sunglasses, try to block it out.

Instead, I want you to focus on it.

I want you to pay attention to it.

I want you to turn up the radio in your car.

I want you to roll the windows down.

Yeah.

When is the last time that you drove through town with the radio blasting and the windows down?

Yes, my friend.

Now, hey, listen, you can still have the AC on.

There is nothing wrong with that.

But roll those windows down.

You got a sunroof, open that baby up.

Let yourself be alive, feel alive, embrace this time of year.

Basically, we're gonna switch from this idea of watching life happen to instead remembering that we're in it and we're not watching a movie, we're not watching life happen for everyone else.

We get to choose to make life happen for us.

When we start to notice these little things, when we start to pay attention, we can begin to switch from surviving to thriving.

Now, the fact is true is that in life, survival mode is something that has become so normal.

It's almost a rite of passage.

We all almost tried to bond over the idea of survival mode, the monotony of life.

It's like we wear it like a um badge of honor.

This idea that, oh yeah, just another week, just another dollar.

How many times do you hear people say that?

When you ask them, hey, how's it going?

Uh, it's just the same old thing.

We all do it, but we got to stop doing it.

And that is what today is about is about inspiring you to stop doing it and to start living, start thriving, to stop moving out of boring survival and into living again.

And here's the serious note.

You can accidentally survive your entire life without ever actually living it.

And I think for right now, the start of summer, it's our time, it's our choice to change it.

And here's the reason why.

There's something about summer that slows things down, whether you intentionally do it or not, life just starts to move at a little bit slower pace.

It literally just has this way, summer does, of waking you up.

Now, maybe it's because the air is a little bit thicker.

You open the door and you get hit with that humidity, the heat.

And I get it, I'm not a big fan of the heat and humidity, not at all.

But I've been trying to focus on embracing it.

Heck, I live here in Florida.

We've already been in summer for months.

The rest of you in the rest of the country and world, y'all are just playing catch up.

But what I've been trying to do is to not open the door and immediately dread what I feel and think to myself, my gosh, I just want summer over.

And instead to realize, hey, you know what?

Learn to love it for what it is.

We only get this season once a year.

Might as well figure out a way to enjoy it.

So if it's sunny out, well, put on a hat.

Give yourself a little bit of shade.

Wear something cool.

Get out those clothes that have the certain material that is a little bit cooler than the thick cotton.

Do what you can to let yourself enjoy the season that we're in.

And here's the powerful thing about this time of year.

You're gonna have opportunities to get out of the house and get to do things.

I want you to do those things.

I want you to step out of what is routine, what is comfortable, what is normal.

And I want you to just go for it to try it.

Instead of scrolling through Facebook and looking at what everybody else is doing, I want you to just get out there and do it.

Plan a trip to the park, to the springs.

Now I get it.

It's summer, it's hot.

So water is a necessity.

And no, I'm not talking about water you drink.

I'm talking about water that you swim in, you play in.

It's a water park, it's a spring, it's an ocean, it's a swimming pool.

Wherever you go, you gotta embrace the water, my friend.

That is what makes living in the summer fun and enjoyable.

Embrace that inner fish that you've been hiding away.

And every step that you do this, every time that you say yes, when normally you'd say no, you start getting to thrive again in life.

You get to start taking control of life.

Instead of allowing life to just pass by, instead, you're embracing it.

You're living it, you're loving it.

And in this idea of thriving, switching from survival mode to thriving in life, I want you to understand that I'm not talking about thinking that everything is gonna be perfect and easy.

And I don't want you to think that I'm acting like we're all on some massive summer vacation.

No, I get it.

Even over the next three months, the hardest summer, we all got to just do normal life.

You got to go to work, you gotta pay bills, you gotta go to the grocery store.

And I get that.

But instead, what I'm saying is that we can all make a choice to start living with intention, to start choosing to focus on the little things.

The little things become the big things.

And when you start doing this, you start protecting your energy, you start protecting your personality, you get to start remembering who you are and why you love life.

My friend, if you don't love life, then you gotta figure out a way to make some changes in your life.

Because life is short.

Every one of us, we only get so many days in a life.

And you know, you want to really get serious for you who maybe you have children, you only get 18 summers with your kids before they're gone and out of the house.

18 summers.

Think of it like that that if you're a parent or you're a grandparent and you have kids, 18 summers, that's it.

After 18 summers, they're off to college, they're off living life.

So, my friend, right now is your wake-up call to be sure that you're making the most out of this moment right now.

Now, I want to give you a couple of little examples, some ideas, because I get it.

Sometimes we think of this and we think, well, that's great, but I have life.

I have normal schedules that I have to contend with.

We have all the normal stuff of life that gets in the way.

Typically, a lot of people get to do a summer vacation, but that's maybe one week out of the summer.

What do you do the rest of the time to embrace this idea of thriving?

Well, here's a few ideas for you.

First idea, I don't know if you have publics where you live, but here in Florida, Publix is a big deal.

And everybody knows that there's nothing more iconic than a Publix sub.

Some people call them a pub sub.

I've never gotten into that trend.

I just stick with Publix sub.

So my first idea, it's summer.

Instead of rushing home and doing your normal thing for dinner, why not maybe once a week, once every couple of weeks?

Say, hey, you know what?

We're gonna just pick up some public subs for dinner and we're gonna go eat at the park.

We're just gonna go chill out, hang out.

If you're lucky enough to live near a beach, maybe just grab the sub for dinner and go grab a picnic table by the beach and do dinner that way.

It's not a big thing.

It doesn't take planning.

It's basically the idea for when you haven't planned out your dinner, you don't know what you're doing.

Just go grab a public sub and go to the park.

The weekend, I want you to find a friend with a swimming pool.

Pitch the idea of doing a pool party.

Or maybe you have a swimming pool, but you never use it.

Well, my friend, it is time to use it.

Spend the week being sure that it's looking good.

You've gone out, you've got the necessary pool supplies, you've got the chlorine, you got it sparkling come Saturday morning.

Invite some friends over and have a pool party.

Hang out, cook out, do some burgers and hot dogs while everybody gets to swim in the pool.

Another idea for you?

Embrace the season.

When you go grocery shopping, pick up a big juicy watermelon.

Not the pre-cut up kind.

I know.

We all just default to the easy.

I'm talking about going old school, my friend.

I want you to grab the big whole watermelon, the one that requires you to come home.

You gotta chill it down, you put it in the cooler, packed in ice, get it super cold, and then perfect opportunity.

It's Saturday, Sunday, you're all out by the pool, everybody's hot.

Well, baby, you want to be the MVP of the day?

You bust out some watermelon, get that icy cold watermelon out of the cooler and cut that thing open.

Man, that is summer right there.

It's the little things.

It doesn't have to be big.

It doesn't have to cost a lot of money.

It's just little ways of intentionally embracing the season.

I said it earlier.

The idea of turning up the music, riding with the windows down.

My friend, that is summer right there.

You have a little Kenny Chestney blaring on the radio, bumping them speakers, windows down, sunroof open, sunglasses on.

Man, that right there is embracing life.

That is forgetting about all the crap that you're dealing with, all the struggles, the worries, the anxieties, and just living in the moment.

And something powerful happens when we all begin to do this.

Time slows down, the days last a little longer.

The memories stick, the memories are made.

Because we haven't just let another season waste away, but instead we began to embrace it, to love it.

And that, my friend, is what I want for you.

So today was just basically me wanting to inspire you to think differently, to do differently, to step out of what is comfortable, what is routine, and to do something fun.

Yes, my friend, it is the season of fun.

So I want you to have a little bit of fun.

Now, listen, if you are game for more content like this, well, my friend, keep tuning in.

If you have not already subscribed or followed the podcast on Apple Podcasts Spotify, you can also now find the podcast even on YouTube.

But do not get excited.

There is no video.

It is just still audio, but it's just another place that you can find the podcast.

So please be sure that you hit the follow button or the subscribe button.

Because as I said earlier, I'm going to be here with you throughout the summer, doing what I can to bring you content designed to help you make the most of this season.

So, with that said, my friend, this is week number one of our 12-week series called The Summer Shift.

So, you keep showing up, I'll keep showing up.

And in the meantime, hey, get out there and work on that suntan and be sure that you don't forget a little bit of sunscreen because nobody wants a sunburn.

Until next time, I'm your host, Kevin Lowe, and this was Grit Grace and Inspiration.