Welcome to the Thriver Challenge

Honor all you’ve survived by writing a letter to your past self during the hardest time of your life.

I see you, dear human.

I see you’ve overcome some intense, stressful, scary, hopeless times in your life. You were a seed amidst soil with very little nutrients, water, or sunlight, but you still managed to sprout that ornery leaf and those beautiful petals anyway.

You are a survivor. And I hope you flaunt that badge with pride.

But I also hope you know there comes a time when we must collect more badges to be proud of, sprout more leaves, and commit to growing as tall and as big as we possibly can.

There comes a time when we must transition from a survivor to a thriver.

I think you’re ready.

Welcome to The Thriver Challenge

The purpose of The Thriver Challenge is to honor all you’ve survived by writing a letter to your past self during the hardest part of your life.

This letter serves as an oferenda, an immortal honoring of the part of you who will always be a survivor. This letter also serves as your commitment to take all you’ve learned as a survivor and transition into a thriver.

So, how do you do it?

1. Reflect upon the hardest time in your life. Unfortunately, you may have more than one hard time. I’ll let you choose how to handle it — write multiple letters, choose the most recent one or the one that stands out most, or combine them all in some creative way ;) If your hardest time is right now — then write a letter to yourself right now! (And hang in there, love).
2. Write a letter to your past self during this hard time, honoring all they’ve gone through and have yet to overcome. You might encourage them to keep it up, let them know good things are coming, shower them with compassion and empathy, or you might impart the wisdom you wish you would have known back then. (Read my letter in the next section as an example, but don’t be afraid to get creative with it.)
3. Challenge 5 (or more!) other Medium.com writers to participate in The Thriver Challenge by tagging them at the end of your letter. And don’t forget to tag the person who challenged you to thank them for thinking of you!
4. Link back to this article so those you’ve challenged know what’s up & what to do.
5. Hit publish! NOTE: These letters can get highly charged— if you don’t feel comfortable sharing, then definitely do not share. The point of this challenge is to honor all you’ve been through so you can transition into thriving, you do not need to share your letter publicly to accomplish this. Be kind to yourself.

My Thriver Challenge Letter

Hello, sweetie.

I climbed a giant rock at the beach and thought of you. My heart was pumping, my breath was heavy, and I was beaming, just like you used to when you climbed all those trees. I reached the cliff on the other side of the rock and marveled at the waves crashing far below. You would have loved it.

At first it was serene but I grew increasingly distracted and anxious, wondering if a bad person was going to come down the path and push me off the cliff.

It occurred to me this was a familiar feeling, sweetheart. One you grew up with. The only one you really got to know. You were always afraid to let yourself be too vulnerable, too happy, to oblivious to your surroundings, because the next thing you know, a bad person would come along and push you off the cliff. Sometimes this person was the very one who was supposed to protect you.

It took great strength and bravery to survive a childhood like that, sweetie. But you did it. You really did it.

It was hard and there were times you weren’t sure you were going to make it out alive and sane.

But you did. You survived. I am so proud of you.

My hope for you, dear one, is for you to keep surviving — keep searching — for the great height you can look out upon and fully surrender to all it’s glory, all your glory, without second guessing if it is safe enough to do so.

Do not stop reaching for this moment.

Do not settle for anything less.

You are a survivor, darling. But you must keep surviving until you are thriving.

Mark my words, love: good things are coming. Including the childhood you never had. You only must keep reaching. Soon enough you will have it.

Love,

Your future self

Your turn!

To kick this off right, I challenge Christine E Goodner, Nicole Akers, Danielle Bernock, Jewel Eliese, Frank McKinley, Nicol Valentin, Anne Peterson, Caroline DePalatis, Karin H, Steve Austin, Maya Spikes, Deirdre Bennett Kovalcik, Rachel Ellyn, J Cleveland Payne, Stefani Vader, Quantrilla Ard, Buhari Umar, Angela Willis-Fuller, Jack Heimbigner, Carol Del Guidice, Bill DuBay Jr. ⚡️, Shelly McIntosh, Traverse Davies, Marilyn Regan, Lisa Fredriksen, Jenna Hatfield, Jennifer Sartore Hulst, Michelle Warner, Clarissa Wilson, Rhea Anglesey, Nicole Bedford, Sam H Arnold, Laura Fox, Agnes Louis, Sydel Brown, Sylvia Clare MSc. Psychol, Bebe Nicholson, Oren Cohen, Christopher Oldcorn, @asUchange, Kristi Keller, Raquel, R. Nash, Elle Fredine, and Brittany C. to honor all they’ve survived by writing a letter to their past self during the hardest time of their life.

Make sure you tag me in your Thriver Challenge responses so I can read all your lovely letters to your past selves!

And don’t forget to tag 5 new people to participate in the challenge!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment. I’ll be checking back in frequently.

Can’t wait to see what ya’ll come up with!

Jordin

P.S. You’ll notice Medium underlines “thriver” in red — no matter. It’s in the Scrabble dictionary so we’re all set ;)