In our last article, we introduced Martin Seligman's groundbreaking model of happiness. We learned that "feeling good" (The Pleasant Life) is only a small, and often unreliable, part of the equation. The key to a more durable form of well-being is The Good Life—a life of engagement, "flow," and "gratification."
This is a life where you are so absorbed in your work, hobbies, and relationships that you lose track of time. It's the antidote to the "Sunday Scaries" and that "meh" feeling of disengagement. But this leaves us with a billion-dollar question: How do you get this "Good Life"?
Seligman’s answer is brilliantly simple and profoundly actionable. The secret to creating flow and gratification is to identify your unique Signature Strengths and use them every single day.
The "Anti-DSM": What Are Signature Strengths?
For most of its history, psychology had a diagnostic manual of illnesses (the DSM), which cataloged everything that could go wrong with a person. Seligman and his colleagues set out to create the "anti-DSM," a manual of virtues. They studied texts from many religions, philosophies, and cultures across thousands of years to find what human beings, at their best, have in common.
They found that 24 "Character Strengths" are universally valued. These include things like:
Curiosity
Fairness
Kindness
Leadership
Humor
Creativity
Bravery
See the rest here.
Your Signature Strengths are your top 5-6 strengths from this list. They are the ones that feel most essential to who you are. They are not skills (which you can learn but might hate) but strengths (which feel energizing, authentic, and easy to use).
You can discover your own strengths by taking the free, 15-minute VIA Survey (just search for it online). This tool, created by Seligman's colleagues, is one of the most valuable, practical, and validated tools in modern psychology.
The Coach’s View: The "Job, Career, Calling" Framework
As a coach, I believe this is the single most powerful concept for anyone in a career transition. Seligman’s research found that people view their work in one of three ways:
A Job: This is a paycheck. You do it for the money. Your main goal is to go home. You watch the clock.
A Career: This is a path of advancement. You're focused on the next rung of the ladder—the promotion, the better title, the bigger office.
A Calling: This is work that is an end in itself. You find it deeply fulfilling. You would probably do it for free. You do it not for the paycheck or the promotion, but because it’s an expression of who you are.
We often believe that to have a "Calling," you must be a doctor, an artist, or a non-profit leader. Seligman’s research found this is completely false. He found janitors who saw their work as a "job" (just sweeping) and janitors who saw their work as a "calling" (creating a clean, safe, and beautiful environment for the people in the building).
The difference was not the work. The difference was strengths-crafting. People with a "calling" had intuitively figured out how to re-craft their daily tasks to use their Signature Strengths.
Actionable Insight: How to Re-Craft Your Job into a Calling
You do not need to quit your job to find "The Good Life." You can start by re-crafting the one you have. This is an exercise I do with many clients:
Step 1: Identify Your Top 5 Strengths
Take the VIA survey. Let's say your strengths are: Creativity, Love of Learning, Kindness, Humor, and Judgment.
Step 2: Analyze Your Current Role
Look at your daily and weekly tasks. Where do you already use these strengths? Where are the gaps?
"My job is 80% spreadsheets. It doesn't use my Creativity or Humor at all. This is why I'm bored."
Step 3: Re-Craft
This is a creative exercise. How could you, without asking for permission, intentionally inject your strengths into your existing work?
Creativity: "I will re-design the team's boring, ugly spreadsheet template. I will make our monthly report not just informative, but visually engaging."
Love of Learning: "I will spend 30 minutes every Friday researching a new trend in my industry and share a one-paragraph summary with my team."
Kindness: "I will make a point to check in on the new intern, not just about work, but about how they are really doing."
Humor: "I will start the weekly team meeting with a funny (and appropriate) ice-breaker to lighten the mood."
Judgment: "I will offer to review my colleague's proposal and give them constructive, critical feedback before it goes to the boss."
Suddenly, your boring job has become a playground for your strengths. You are not waiting for your boss to "make" you happy. You are actively building your own "Good Life." You are generating "gratifications" instead of just "pleasures." This is how you start to feel authentic self-esteem, which isn't the "rah rah" of positive affirmations, but the deep, quiet knowledge that you are a capable person using your talents well.
This is the key. The Good Life is not about what you do, but about how you do it. It’s about bringing your full, authentic self to the table.
Living a life of engagement by using your strengths is a massive step toward well-being. But Seligman argues there's one final, crucial piece to the puzzle: using those strengths for something bigger than yourself. This is the "Meaningful Life," and we will cover it in our final article.
If any of these concepts resonate, I strongly encourage you to read Authentic Happiness by Martin Seligman for a richer understanding. Tailoring the concepts for you and supplementing them with personalized strategies and tools is where a coach comes in.
