Retirement Stats, Studies and Stuff
According to the Well-Being Theory there are five measurable elements that can help us create a deeply satisfying retirement, and a satisfying life. The five elements are as follows:
1. Positive emotion
2. Engagement
3. Relationships
4. Meaning and purpose
5. Accomplishment
We increase our well-being by increasing all five of these elements.
Well-being is not just in your head
Positive psychologist Martin Seligman states in his book Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being: “The upshot of this is that well-being cannot exist just in your own head: well-being is a combination of feeling good as well as actually having meaning, good relationships and accomplishment. The way we choose our course in life is to maximize all five of these elements.”
Remember the acronym PERMA
A helpful way to remember the five elements is to use the acronym PERMA:
P – Positive Emotion
We naturally seek positive emotions such as pleasure, love, hope, gratitude, peace, etc. In fact, the desire to feel good motivates many of our actions. Recent research shows that we can perform particular daily activities to create more positive emotions in our lives.
E – Engagement
Engagement is when our entire being is stretched in the full functioning of body and mind, creating a sense of flow, like being carried along on a current. We enter this state of flow when we choose to immerse ourselves in an activity in which our abilities are stretched but not overwhelmed. Our concentration is high, we are completely focused, and we are using our skills. We may forget our everyday life and time may slow or speed. We become part of the activity, completely absorbed in solving a problem, meeting a challenge, or learning something new. The result is an exhilarating feeling of being fully alive. You may have experienced flow, for example, when skiing, painting, learning, meditating or running. (See Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s video called Flow, the Secret to Happiness.)
R – Positive Relationships
We are pack animals by nature so it makes sense that we flourish when we have positive relationships in our lives. Not only do good relationships improve our mental health, studies show that if we have positive relationships in our lives we are likely to live longer:
“…individuals with adequate social relationships have a 50% greater likelihood of survival compared to those with poor or insufficient social relationships. The magnitude of
this effect is comparable with quitting smoking and it exceeds many well-known risk factors for mortality (e.g., obesity, physical inactivity).”
M – Meaning and purpose
Meaning and purpose refer to contributing to something larger than ourselves, even if only in a small way. “Inquiry into the Meaningful Life, or ‘life of affiliation’, questions how individuals derive a positive sense of well-being, belonging, meaning, and purpose from being part of and contributing back to something larger and more permanent than themselves (eg nature, social groups, organizations, movements, traditions, belief systems).” See Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfilment for more information by Martin Seligman.
Here are a couple of other ways to describe purpose:
Aristotle said: “One’s purpose is merely a matter of knowing where one’s talents and the needs of the world intersect.”
Frederick Buechner, American writer and theologian, said it perhaps more eloquently: “Purpose is the place where your deep
gladness meets the world’s needs.”
A – Accomplishment
Accomplishment means to have achieved something, to have fulfilled an aim. Satisfaction comes from knowing we persevered and overcame obstacles. The act of achievement can create a powerful positive emotion.
According to Seligman, however, no single element is enough. Seeking happiness alone is not enough. We need all five factors in our lives. He suggests that we can improve all five elements of well-being by using our greatest strengths and virtues to meet our greatest challenges.
Self-Coaching Questions
Relative to the five PERMA elements, where do you think you excel?
What other elements do you consider essential to a deeply satisfying life?
Which one of these elements needs more attention in your life right now?
What one, immediate step can you take to make an improvement in this area?
Mariella,
Thank you for that list of five elements. I’ll have to look into Seligman’s book for my own PhD research. PERMA is a good framework for doing some self-coaching and to, then, work with a qualified coach like yourself!