Thriving isn’t a finish line we cross, it’s something we move toward and through, again and again.

I believe that our lives and our work aren’t lived on a straight line. They ebb and flow. We move through seasons that shift our priorities, stretch our capacity, and challenge us to keep showing up. And while no season is perfect, each one offers something to learn, something to carry forward. When we embrace the season we’re in, with all its imperfections and opportunities, we create space to grow — and maybe even thrive.

This week, I got to reconnect with my very first friend in life. Our parents were pregnant at the same time, and we’ve known each other since birth. We met up to celebrate her recent promotion in a leadership role outside of education. Somewhere between laughter and catching up, the conversation turned more serious. She shared that she was feeling overwhelmed, carrying the weight of others and unsure of how to keep it all going.

I listened, and then offered something I’ve learned again and again in my own seasons of life and leading:

It’s okay to help, but it’s also okay to connect others to the right people. You don’t have to carry it all alone.

Shine a light, share the load.

That sentiment runs through everything I believe about leadership. And it’s why the book Big Potential by Shawn Achor keeps finding its way back to me. One line that resonates is this:

“Society teaches that it’s better to be the only bright light than being a forest of bright lights.”

But that’s not what I’ve seen…not in classrooms, not in teams, not in schools. Like fireflies, we shine brighter when we’re together. It’s not faster alone, it’s better together.

That belief is at the heart of my book The Leader Inside, where I wrote:

“Gifts live within exceptional educators, waiting to be unwrapped at the right place, at the right time, with the right people.”

And I believe that. Every word.

In education, it’s easy to fall into the “arrival fallacy”—the idea that fulfillment lives at some future destination. But as Sahil Bloom reminds us in his best-selling book, The 5 Types of Wealth, maybe we’ve already been standing in the middle of enough.

The best discoveries don’t come from having all the answers. They come from asking better questions. So here’s the one I’m carrying into this week:

How do you help the people around you shine?

Because when you do, you don’t lose your light, you multiply it.

And the more we shine a light and share the load, the more sustainable and joyful our work becomes.

Maybe the goal isn’t to finally “arrive.”

Maybe the goal is to keep showing up. To embrace the season you’re in.

To keep growing, keep giving, and keep moving toward a life where thriving isn’t the end… but the way.