THE FUNDAMENTALS TO THRIVE
A 30 Day Program in Feeling Great & Optimal Performance
Soon after we begin living, we become aware of the confines of our prison. It takes us thirty years at the most to recognize the limits within which our possibilities will move. We take stock of reality, which is like measuring the length of the chain which binds our feet. Then we say: “Is this life?” Nothing more than this? A closed cycle which is repeated, always identical?” This is a dangerous hour for every man.
Jose Ortega y Gasset
Truth Bomb
The quotation above isn't sizzling copy meant to take you from your "pain point to your heaven." It was penned by Jose Ortega y Gasset as he examined the life of the character Don Quixote. That was in 1914.
Is it just me?
Or are those some eerie words, given the times we currently live.
Perhaps it’s not the cabin fever or stir craziness of a quarantine that’s causing things to feel a bit off.
Maybe it’s not the tv that makes you feel like your mind is cluttered with bat guano.
Maybe homeschooling the kids isn’t the reason your once firey passionate heart now pumps room temperature blood through your veins.
Maybe that “cabin” you feel restricted to is not an actual house at all.
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
Henry David Thoreau
Prisoners of quiet desperation
If it's not the quarantine trapping us...
it’s the towers we put up to keep us “safe” or the walls that restrict our belief in ourselves that cause us to either…
settle for a life less than what we know it could be
Or bust our asses to achieve someone else’s expectations of us.
And just because there’s an absence of mental illness, it does NOT automatically imply the presence of mental wellbeing.
When it comes to mental health, it’s not ok to just be ok, all the time.
It’s not enough to just get by.
Those who approach life like a child playing a game, moving and pushing pieces, possess the power of kings.
Heraclitus
WHEN YOU WERE A KID, did you aspire to live a half-assed life?
I didn’t.
I wanted to be an astronaut and a hockey player and a rockstar all at the same time!
I still do.
But somewhere along the lines, I was conditioned to play it safe.
Though I experienced fleeting moments of happiness, I was often more frustrated, angry, people-pleasing, confused with my place in the world, and even worse, numb.
As a kid, I didn’t want to live a half-assed life?
So why would I want to leave this world not having “played all out” and living free of regrets?
A man’s maturity is to have regained the innocence of a child at play.
Nietzsche
IT's not your fault...
you feel stuck!
None of this is your fault.
Society is skewed towards bringing people from trauma to feeling just ok and just getting by. It doesn’t provide as many validated tools to thrive. Much of public sentiment perceive happiness as a commodity for the privileged or dismiss it fields like positive psychology altogether.
- First off, happiness isn’t a privilege; it’s your birthright.
- Second, feeling happy 24/7 isn’t what positive psychologists promote. Feeling happy 24/7 is dangerous, is a mental illness, and is a form of toxic positivity.
None of these things is your fault. But while it’s not your fault, it IS your responsibility for growing and flourishing.
A study by my former colleague Corey M. Keyes in 2002 found that 18.1% of Americans are flourishing. And the benefits of flourishing are vast.
- You’re feeling good and functioning well.
- You have greater satisfaction with work, relationships, and your autonomy.
- You are more productive and in the zone.
- You are more likely to be living out your passion, and having a positive impact on the society around you.
Of course, a lot has changed since 2002. And in the age of social distancing, a recent US News & World Report article has health officials predicting the rates of mental illness to skyrocket.
The most proactive way to prevent this: flourishing and thriving.
THE FUNDAMENTALS TO THRIVE
30 Days Towards Feeling Great & Performing Optimally
With close just over 24 years of academic and professional experience in neuroscience, public health, and human development models and ten years of implementing positive psychology interventions for college students, entrepreneurs, coaches, and more.
I curated and distilled out the essence of the very best tools for feeling good and performing optimally. And no stone was left unturned as we put together positive psychology, philosophy, ecology…and mixed them with short stories and pop culture references to make them even more relevant.
I made you a veritable mix-tape of tools for thriving.
Thriving will take work on your end and my end, but I made this course as easy as possible for you to be successful. Over a month, I’ll send you 16 modules. They are short, digestible candy-coated nuggets of wisdom called Tiny Little Classes. TLC get it.
You will then have 15 minutes or less to answer three short prompts that will take you from theory to practice, or praxis.
Tiny Little Classes will inform you.
Engaging in praxis will transform you.
It’s my intention that the work feels like play, and the praxis will feel like living as an art.
When work is life play,
And living is an art.
You’ll experience true freedom, liberation and elevation from that “cabin fever.”
…there is not a single true work of art that has not in the end added to the inner freedom of each person who has known and loved it. Yes, that freedom I am extolling, and it is what helps me through life.
Albert Camus
what's in store in 30 Days
THE FUNDAMENTALS TO THRIVE
Week 01: The "Big 5" Concepts
Welcome to the Fundamentals to Thrive. The first week of the curriculum is all about connecting with your new community, familiarizing yourself with the course platform, and putting into practice what I call “The Big Five” of feeling great and functioning optimally.
From Japanese principles to mental strategies used to make your financial portfolio beyond resilient and anti-fragile, I’ll translate these into creating habits where the tiniest changes add up to exponential gains!
Check out everything around you from YouTube unboxing videos to fast food happiness commercials. Society indoctrinates us to chase happiness. In this module, you’ll learn the research of a Yale professor who shows two ways you can hop off that Happiness Hamster Wheel of Doom.
A few decades ago, the pendulum started towards a strength-based model and away from a deficit-based model. Before you take another strengths quiz, check out this module to identify your TRUE strengths.
One of the most covered topics by coaches, positive psychologists, and students of the school of common sense is practicing gratitude. This module gives you the structure, mindset, and a tad of research to show just how powerful this concept is.
Week 02: When Two or MORE...
This is your intro to positive social psychology. As social creatures, we influence and are influenced by the people around us. This week, we’ll look into how your thriving (or lack thereof) impacts others.
We start week two with the last of the “Big Five” concepts, Dr. C’s idea of flow. Do you know that feeling where you feel elevated, lose track of time, and entirely in the zone productively? Cool. We’ll look at how to create conditions to create flow in your life.
Rom-Com lovers, this TLC won’t hurt much because we all know that those movies are all about the chase. We’ll look at the work of research from North Carolina to see the latest and greatest on the shared emotion of happiness: Love.
One of my favorites. We look at Aristotle’s classic work on virtuous friends from his masterpiece Nichomathean Ethics to create more authentic, real relationships.
So many people have become interested in human emotions and their ability to light up and bring down entire communities that a whole field of study on social contagion has emerged. Let’s look at how to use this concept as a leadership tool in positive social change!
WEEK 03: A JOY & SUCCESS MINDSET
Last week we spiraled out into influencing others through positive social psychology. This week we spiral back in through cultivating a mindset focused on joy and performance. It’s time to identify and practice disrupting old patterns this week.
Whether it be Michael Jordan or elementary school students, a Stanford researcher found the aspects of mindset that you can use to grow in any area. In this module, you’ll fine tune that mindset.
Game theorists will love this one because you can use concepts from the most popular video games to understand how you can acquire positive emotions and strengthen them to create a powerful mindset that rides on a tidal wave of positive emotions.
Simply put, the way we see our inner world shapes the way we see our outer world. Self-talk is so powerful that I was compelled to deliver a TEDx talk on it. We’ll explore breakthroughs from the University of Michigan to the Netherlands, and distill them into tools you can use to shape your inner and outer world now.
So that TEDx on self-talk that I mentioned in TLC 11. I didn’t score it through wishing that it would miraculously appear. I got it and executed it with a little help from my friends and a lot of hope theory. Hope theory is so powerful that leaders like JFK would use it to increase both excitement and productivity. Let’s use hope theory to create executable, ecstatic plans in your life.
WEEK 04: THRIVING ECOSYSTEMS
We’re integrating all the smaller parts of yourself (or domains) and putting them together in a working ecosystem. From there, we’ll develop positive, resilient systems of people working in an environment (also an ecosystem) to change history for the better.
From researchers at UPenn & Harvard, you’ll integrate your domains of well-being (spiritual, psychological, intellectual, relational, emotional, etc.), to assess your growth areas and to build a dashboard to maintain your well-being.
I’ll review the work of a nurse who observed and recorded the last weeks of terminal patients. We’ll use this work as the activation energy for you to take action now on relationships, self-care, work, and more.
Some people have bad days because of the weather. Some don’t. Some people had bad days because of being in a concentration camp. At least, one didn’t. Thanks to that person’s writing, you’ll examine your power of choice and making meaning in the seemingly darkest times.
A fitting end to the thriving program. You’ll look at an ecological model that demonstrates that EVERYTHING from the smallest organism to galaxies goes through ups, downs, and all arounds. You’ll end this course with a boost of resilience and a penchant for savoring life for one extra micro-moment.
meet your instructor
Get to know the mastermind behind The Fundamentals to Thrive.
Marc
core instructor
Marc Cordon, MPH, is a positive psychology coach, co-founder of The Joy Revolution™, and author of the book Beyond Resilient: The Coach’s Guide to Ecstatic Growth. He specializes in transitions, leadership, performance, and well-being, helping people break through to the next level to find greater enjoyment and purpose in their lives. With a focus on misfit entrepreneurs and leaders who march to the beat of their own drum, Marc’s coaching empowers people to claim their own joy as they make a difference for others. He has appeared on national television and radio shows and has delivered two TEDx talks on positive psychology and social justice.
Marc served as the Associate Director of Health Promotion and of Multicultural Programs & Services at Emory University where he developed programs and curriculum on social justice, positive psychology, and community change. He has received a BS in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology and a Masters in Public Health in Policy & Management from Emory University, as well as coaching accolades from the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching and a Certificate in Positive Psychology from the WholeBeing Institute.
Not only are you learning how to use and apply positive psychology as a catalyst to change other’s lives . . . you’re doing it for your own life.
Kris Valeriano
Storyteller / creativity coach
let's play!
THE FUNDAMENTALS TO THRIVE
$300
4 Weeks of Core Curriculum & Praxis
Custom Feedback from Marc during the program
Private Facebook Group Community
Lifetime Access to Future
Fundamentals to Thrive Curriculum Iterations
Note: All sales are final.
MAY IS MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS MONTH
And we’re giving 50% off our course The Fundamentals to Thrive through May 31.