Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder

“Being connected in a shallow way to the entire world can prevent us from being deeply connected to those closest to us—including ourselves.”

Using antithesis, Huffington presents a sharp contrast between being connected to the entire world and being deeply connected to those closest to oneself. This contrast emphasizes the trade-off between the two and the importance of balance in the modern digital world. It serves as a reminder to invest time in self-reflection and in building and maintaining authentic relationships with our loved ones.

“Our eulogies are always about the other stuff: what we gave, how we connected, how much we meant to our family and friends, small kindnesses, lifelong passions, and the things that made us laugh. So why do we spend so much of our limited time on this earth focusing on all the things our eulogy will never cover?”

Huffington uses a rhetorical question to prompt deeper thought about the definition of success. By turning to eulogies, which are composed upon one’s death, Huffington introduces a hint of dramatic irony: People spend their lives pursuing money and power, but what others love and remember them for are small moments of kindness and connection.

“The architecture of how we live our lives is badly in need of renovation and repair. What we really value is out of sync with how we live our lives. And the need is urgent for some new blueprints to reconcile the two.”

In her first subsection of well-being, Huffington presents architecture as a metaphor for existence, suggesting that lives, like buildings, are built according to certain plans and principles. The quote draws attention to a fundamental problem of misalignment, which underscores her central theme that people often prioritize external measures of success like wealth and power at the expense of their own well-being and fulfillment. The use of the word “urgent” emphasizes the critical nature of this misalignment. Therefore, new “blueprints”—that is, strategies for living—are needed to bring values and actions into harmony. Situated at the beginning of Thrive, this is Huffington’s first call to action.

“What produces stress in our bodies is deeply subjective. It’s as if stress is always floating around looking for something—or someone—to land on. And it often lands on completely trivial and insignificant things. We only realize how trivial and insignificant they are—and unworthy of our attention, let alone our stress over them—when something truly significant intrudes upon our routine: the loss of a loved one, sickness, a health scare.”

In this quotation, Huffington animates stress as a mobile entity that operates separately from individuals. By describing stress as a force of its own, Huffington gives stress further power over its victims. Recipients of stress only realize that they let stress impact their well-being in the wrong circumstances when a question of mortality arises in one’s life. Huffington employs a tricolon to highlight the variety of circumstances that may be serious enough to make everyday stresses appear trivial in comparison. All these circumstances also hint at the paradox of life itself: Life’s value is most clear in moments where death—the end of life—is a threat.

“Mindfulness is not just about our minds but our whole beings. When we are all mind, things can get rigid. When we are all heart, things can get chaotic. Both lead to stress. But when they work together, the heart leading through empathy, the mind guiding us with focus and attention, we become a harmonious human being.”

Huffington uses anaphora (the repetition of words at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences) to draw attention first to states of being that preclude mindfulness and inner harmony. The third use of “when” also establishes a tricolon crescens (the use of three examples, with the third being the longest or most elaborate). The complexity of the final condition underscores the importance of Huffington’s overall point that mindfulness requires a careful internal balance.

“A friend pointed out one day that we don’t ‘do’ meditation; meditation ‘does’ us. That opened the door for me. The only thing to ‘do’ in meditation is nothing.”

Huffington uses a chiastic structure, in which the order of terms in the first half of the sentence is reversed in the second half, to describe meditation. This sentence structure emphasizes the transformational shift in her understanding of meditation as a practice. Huffington also contrasts action and inaction in her description of meditation, highlighting the simplicity of meditation because the only action that is required is nothing. Huffington’s implication is that presence in the moment will lead to increased well-being.

“My screensaver is a picture of gazelles: They are my role models. They run and flee when there is a danger—a leopard or a lion approaching—but as soon as the danger passes, they stop and go back to grazing peacefully without a care in the world. But human beings cannot distinguish between real dangers and imagined ones. As Mark Williams explains, ‘The brain’s alarm signals start to be triggered not only by the current scare, but by past threats and future worries…So when we humans bring to mind other threats and losses, as well as the current scenario, our bodies’ fight-or-flight systems do not switch off when the danger is past. Unlike the gazelles, we don’t stop running.’”

In this excerpt, Huffington presents gazelles as a metaphor for the qualities and behaviors that she believes individuals should adopt to achieve a truly successful existence. Gazelles are known for their grace and agility in the wild, readily adapting to circumstances. They also balance strength and grace, which Huffington suggests is necessary to maintain well-being in a world rife with pressures and distractions. Like gazelles, people should be both alert and at ease amid the stresses of daily life.

“When we reexamine what we really want, we realize that everything that happens in our lives—every misfortune, every slight, every loss, and also every joy, every surprise, every happy accident—is a teacher, and life is a giant classroom.”

In this quotation, Huffington metaphorically frames life as a classroom to underscore the importance of learning from experience. Huffington presents the circumstances that can inspire learning moments as antithetical: a tricolon first of circumstances that cause grief or frustration, followed by a tricolon of circumstances that spark happiness. Here, the sharp contrast creates a balanced and structured effect, drawing attention to how positive and negative experiences alike can be catalysts for personal growth.

“I find that I’m not only grateful for all the blessings in my life, I’m also grateful for all that hasn’t happened—for all those close shaves with ‘disaster’ of some kind or another, all the bad things that almost happened but didn’t. The distance between them happening and not happening is grace.”

This quote reflects Huffington’s contemplation of gratitude and grace using antithesis, irony, and a metaphor. Huffington is grateful for contrasting circumstances (“what happened” vs “all that hasn’t happened”), which she underscores with antithesis. There is subtle irony at work here, since gratitude is typically associated with positive experiences and blessings in life. Finally, in describing the space between potential and reality as “grace,” Huffington wields a metaphor to define an abstract concept in a concrete and accessible way.

“Like airlines, we routinely overbook ourselves, fearful of any unused capacity, confident that we can fit everything in. We fear that if we don’t cram as much as possible into our day, we might miss out on something fabulous, important, special, or career advancing. But there are no rollover minutes in life. We don’t get to keep all that time we “save.” It’s actually a very costly way to live.”

In a simile, Huffington likens human behavior to an airline and takes a cautionary tone, warning her readers that by overcommitting themselves, they risk missing out on more meaningful, spontaneous experiences. The way Huffington’s use of asyndeton, or lack of conjunctions between clauses, conveys the frenetic pace of life when we take on too many commitments. Huffington’s use of the first-person plural perspective, including the reader in “we,” suggests that overscheduling is a universal experience. Huffington concludes by contrasting the ideas of savings and cost, underscoring that time is a precious resource not to be wasted; instead, Huffington implies, readers should reconsider their approach to time and live mindfully.

“I have spent many years trying to evict my obnoxious roommate and have now managed to relegate her to only occasional guest appearances in my head. What makes our liberation from these voices harder is that so much of the news and information directed at women these days seems determined to reinforce our obnoxious roommates and make us feel that our lives are somehow lacking. We are constantly made to feel that we should be prettier, thinner, sexier, more successful, make more money, be better moms, better wives, better lovers, et cetera.”

In this quote, Huffington uses an obnoxious roommate as a metaphor for the social pressure to conform to certain standards. Huffington laments that there are myriad pressures put on women especially in the modern world, opening the conversation to gender inequities. Huffington’s use of eight comparatives underscores her point that women fall short of the standards that society imposes upon them and her own belief that the standards are unrealistic and unattainable.

“I’ve always been fascinated by the story of Ariadne, Theseus, and the Minotaur, not just because Ariadne is my given name but because of the role of the thread in mythology and in our everyday lives. Theseus could be saved and be free to return to Athens only if he entered the labyrinth and slew the Minotaur. All who had gone before him had perished, but Theseus, guided by the thread Ariadne had given him, was able to make his way into the labyrinth and come out of it alive and victorious. Ariadne’s thread is our way in and our way out. It connects this world with the other, the outer with the inner, mortality with eternity. As we are liberating ourselves, building new habits, and slaying our old habits—our own Minotaurs—it is critical to find the thread that works for us. When we do, no matter what life throws our way we can use the thread to help us navigate the labyrinth of daily life and come back to our center.”

This quote begins with an allusion, introducing Ariadne’s thread as a metaphor for guidance in life. Ariadne’s thread represents wisdom as a means to navigate life’s labyrinthine challenges. This metaphorical use of the thread underscores its symbolic importance in helping individuals find their way and maintain their inner balance. The labyrinth is a symbol of life’s complexities and challenges. Theseus’s journey through the labyrinth, guided by Ariadne’s thread, symbolizes the human quest to overcome obstacles, conquer inner “Minotaurs” (representing personal challenges or negative habits), and find the way back to a centered and harmonious life.

“We forget we’re mostly water till the rain falls and every atom in our body starts to go home.”

Albert Huffstickler’s poem employs a metaphor comparing human beings to water, highlighting our fundamental connection to nature. The alliterative repetition of the “w” sound in “we forget we’re mostly water till the rain falls” creates a pleasing auditory effect and draws attention to the main theme of the poem: an awakening or remembering of the true self, which is connected to everything else in the world.

“When we disconnect from our inner selves and identify exclusively with our ego, that’s when we lose our connection with life’s meaning and purpose and are left facing a void that we try to fill with more money, more sex, more power, more fame.”

In this quote, Huffington distinguishes the inner self from the ego, which she defines as the aspect of human nature that is driven by materialistic desires, external validation, and societal definitions of success like money and power. In this context, ego prevents inner fulfillment and well-being. Huffington employs anaphora, repeating the word “more” to emphasize the insatiable nature of these pursuits and the futility of using them to find purpose in life.

“We’re all on a journey, a voyage, a quest to slay the monster, free the princess, and return home. But too often the goals we seek—those that the conventional notions of success tell us we should be seeking—take us down dead ends, searching for the meaning of our lives in all the wrong places. Mindfulness helps us become aware of our own story.”

Huffington uses the metaphor of a journey or quest, common in literature and mythology, to make her idea of how to find meaning in life more accessible to her audience. The imagery of “slay[ing] the monster [and] free[ing] the princess” brings the journey to life for her readers by likening it to the challenges in myths and epics. Huffington’s tone is critical of those who subscribe to misguided notions of success, particularly when she frames them as “dead ends” on the journey to find fulfillment and meaning.

“And the closer death comes, the deeper we bury it, desperately putting machines and tubes and alarms and railings between us and the person stepping over to the other side of the mortality line. The medical machinery has the effect of making the person—the patient—seem less human, and therefore his or her fate less relevant to us, the lucky and alive. It allows us to not think about it, to put it off endlessly like something on our to-do lists we never quite get to, like changing our wireless calling plans or thinning out the contents of our closets. Rationally, we know we’ll get to it—or run smack into it—eventually. But we figure we don’t need to deal with it until we really have to. Thinking about death is like shopping for a new water heater before the current one breaks down. Why do it now? How would it change things? What good would it do us?”

In this quote, Huffington offers social commentary on western society’s avoidance of death. Through this metaphorical lens, individuals become less human as machines take over, and Huffington implies that medical interventions unintentionally desensitize individuals to mortality. There is irony at work in this quote because however much one may try to avoid death, it is inevitable. The comparison to shopping for a new water heater before the current one breaks down underscores this irony. Huffington’s use of rhetorical questions also reveals her tone; Huffington challenges her readers and critiques those who procrastinate because they are not valuing their time.

“Without ‘dead’ there is no ‘alive.’ Death is the sine qua non of life. As soon as we’re born, we’re also dying. The fact that our time is limited is what makes it so precious. We can spend our lives feverishly accumulating money and power as some sort of irrational, subconscious hedge against the inevitable. But that money and power will be no more permanent than we are.”

This quote discusses the relationship between life and death and emphasizes the preciousness of life using the Latin phrase “sine qua non,” which means “not without which”—in other words, an essential condition. By using this phrase, Huffington underscores the inseparability of life and death as intertwined aspects of the human experience. The interconnection of birth and death are also presented as a paradox here; mortality is inevitable from the moment life begins. This finite description of life also aligns with Stoicism, which offers the view that one should make the most of one’s life because it is finite. Finally, the repetition of money and power in successive sentences emphasizes their impermanence and inability to provide lasting security.

“But it’s getting harder and harder to change the subject, harder and harder to believe in the splendor of the naked emperor’s clothes as the price we’re paying for the way we define a successful life rises higher and becomes more painful.”

In this quote, Huffington uses allusion when referencing the story of “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” where the emperor is deceived into believing he was wearing magnificent clothes that were, in reality, nonexistent. This metaphor suggests that our societal definition of success may not hold up under scrutiny. The anaphora, or repetition of the phrase “harder and harder,” reinforces the idea that it is becoming harder to accept societal definitions of success as the cost of those definitions becomes harder to bear. Her tone is critical, especially evident with her use of comparative adjectives throughout.

“And every place is full of openings to make a real difference in the life of another human being. There are millions of small missed opportunities at home, in our offices, on the subway, on the street where we live, in the grocery store—what David Foster Wallace called ‘being able truly to care about other people…over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways, every day.’”

In this quote, Huffington emphasizes the ubiquity of opportunities to serve through hyperbole when she numbers them in the “millions.” As a result, her tone is encouragingly sincere as she strives to emphasize the omnipresent nature of opportunities with her own use of “every” (place) and Wallace’s “every day,” which give cohesion by starting and ending with myriad opportunities. This ring composition further emphasizes Huffington’s point that anyone can serve, anywhere, at any time.

“Giving sends a message to the universe that we have all we need. We become virtuous by the practice of virtue, responsible by the practice of responsibility, generous by the practice of generosity, compassionate by the practice of compassion. And we become abundant by giving to others.”

Huffington presents giving as a means to become one’s best self. In a repeated construction, she emphasizes that we are what we do. The use of asyndeton, or lack of conjunctions, creates a quick rhythm within this sentence and underscores the importance of these ideals; a pause by way of conjunction would distract the reader. When Huffington defines giving at the end, she differentiates it from the previously defined ideals by introducing it with a conjunction and not relying on a circular definition. Thus, contextually and stylistically, Huffington underscores giving as the most important of all the aforementioned ideals.

“Imagine how our culture, how our lives, will change when we begin valuing go-givers as much as we value go-getters.”

Huffington envisions a transformative cultural shift away from praise given to those who pursue success at the expense of well-being and balance (go-getters). Huffington challenges this norm by introducing the concept of “go-givers,” hoping for a future where kindness, compassion, and generosity hold as much prestige as ambition and achievement. Rhetorically, the quote employs anaphora (repetition of the phrase “how our culture, how our lives”) to emphasize the call to action, urging readers to contemplate the potential positive consequences of this cultural shift. It aligns with the book’s overarching message, asking readers to reevaluate their priorities and finding a more balanced, fulfilling way to live.

“It’s never too late to transcend our childhoods.”

In this quote, Huffington delivers a universal message through the word “never” while conveying a positive message; she does so through use of litotes, a rhetorical device in which an affirmative statement is made by negating its opposite. In this case, “never too late” negates the idea that time to act is limited, so Huffington effectively conveys that there are endless opportunities to change and to begin a journey of self-improvement. Her choice of the word “transcend” empowers everyone to have agency over their own lives; the ability to change is innate and accessible for all.

“We mostly focus on the good giving does for others—the good it does for our community. But just as profound is what it does for us. Because it is really true that while we grow physically by what we get, we grow spiritually by what we give.”

By describing the dual nature of giving as beneficial to the recipient and the giver, Huffington highlights the interconnectedness of individuals in a community and the reciprocal nature of giving and receiving. Huffington repeats the phrase “we grow” to emphasize the contrast between physical and spiritual growth, which sets up antithesis. The contrast between these two types of growth creates a balance in the sentence, reinforcing Huffington’s overall message that giving offers a deeper opportunity for personal growth because it occurs on multiple levels.