This week Arianna Huffington and Mika Brzezinski of Morning Joe hosted a two day conference for women to come together and talk about leading fuller and more-impactful lives. The Thrive Conference, as it is known, is based on Huffington’s book released this year.
The website for the conference hosted in New York City on April 24th and 25th invites viewers to “Join the conversation with thought leaders from entertainment, fashion, politics, health care, and technology to hear how they discovered a Third Metric to measuring their achievements beyond money and power.” Huffington claims that too many people measure success on how much money they make and how much power they have. Thrive is supposed to help people find happiness in wisdom, well-being, wonder and giving.
The problem here is that much of what is being discussed is something that most people can’t afford to do. As Arianna and Mika sit on a lush bed on stage that is draped in beautiful, expensive linens and pillows, they preach about how one must get back to the basics. And they talk about eating clean, when it simply isn’t affordable for many to do that.
Not all of us can afford the luxuries in which they don’t even realize they are taking part in.
The lineup includes a fancy lunch each day, musical entertainment by string instrumentalists, and discussions led by celebrities like Alanis Morissette. They sit on a stage containing the best of the best when it comes to floral arrangements and furnishings. And they continue to preach about how all we need is the simple things in life.
Of course it’s easy for them to tell all of us that we don’t need to measure success based on how much we make or how much power we have…because they have plenty of both! It must be easy to eat healthy and remain in good shape when you can hire personal chefs and trainers to help with your well-being. Most of us can’t afford those luxuries and we spend little time and money picking up food at the drive through, which is not always healthy.
All I am saying, is that it is a lot easier to preach than practice what you preach. Perhaps Arianna and Mika need to be a bit more grounded when trying to convince people they can relate.