Martin Seligman on Well-Being and Happiness

Recently as part of a fabulous weekend in Sydney I went along to the Opera House to see Martin Seligman talk On Well-being and Happiness. An event at the Opera House is always fun, and they have an interesting series of talks called Ideas at the House.

It was a beautiful Sydney day

I saw Michael Pollan speak at one of these last year, and would love to go see Pamela Druckerman speak in April (although just searching for a link, I think her appearance is in doubt, which is good in a way because I can't go).

Professor Seligman starts with a rather big question. What is the most you can hope for in life?

He feels that we used to not be able to measure happiness, but now through a concept of PERMA we can measure Well-Being.

Positive Emotion
Engagement
(Positive) Relationships
Meaning (or purpose in life)
Accomplishment/achievement/mastery

The nice folks at Ideas at the House have put a video of Martin Seligman's talk online, so you can watch it for yourself if you're interested. Martin Seligman has his own website AuthenticHappiness.org.