Check your wellbeing across five areas that research ties to flourishing.
Length: 1:25
Voice: Marston York
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The words to read
PERMA is a wellbeing check across five dimensions. Ten short statements, rated zero to ten.
P is for Positive emotion, how you actually feel day to day. E is Engagement, how often you're absorbed in something. R is for Relationships, whether you have people you can rely on. M, Meaning, whether you are part of something beyond yourself. And A is Accomplishment, whether you're getting anywhere.
It comes from Martin Seligman, who founded positive psychology as a field and set PERMA out in his book Flourish in 2011. It replaced his earlier model, which had been built around happiness, after he decided happiness was too thin a target. People pursue engagement and meaning even when neither makes them feel good, and a model of wellbeing has to account for that.
The five are measured separately on purpose. A score can look strong overall and hide a two. Most people already know which of their five is low, and have been avoiding looking at it for a while.
Engagement and Meaning are the two that tend to get starved by a busy period, because neither is urgent and neither complains.
Retake it every few months. Work on one dimension at a time, and Relationships usually pays back fastest for the effort involved.