Audit your life against PERMA
Check well-being across all five pillars — emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, accomplishment.
Key takeaways
- What it is: Check well-being across all five pillars — emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, accomplishment.
- Why it works: Well-being is multidimensional, so optimizing one pillar (say, accomplishment) while starving another (relationships) leaves you flourishing on paper but flat in practice. Auditing across all five of PERMA surfaces the neglected pillar, which is usually where the highest-leverage change lives. The model’s value is diagnostic: it stops you over-investing where you’re already strong.
- Evidence: Backed by observational / correlational evidence.
- Avoid: Doubling down on the pillar you already score highest in (often accomplishment) because it’s comfortable, while ignoring the weak pillar that’s actually dragging well-being down.
Why it works
Well-being is multidimensional, so optimizing one pillar (say, accomplishment) while starving another (relationships) leaves you flourishing on paper but flat in practice. Auditing across all five of PERMA surfaces the neglected pillar, which is usually where the highest-leverage change lives. The model’s value is diagnostic: it stops you over-investing where you’re already strong.
How to do it
- 1Rate each PERMA pillar honestly: Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, Accomplishment.
- 2Find the lowest pillar — that’s your leverage point, not the one you’re already good at.
- 3Choose one concrete action that strengthens the weakest pillar this week.
What the evidence says
ObservationalPERMA is a well-being framework backed by Seligman’s theoretical work and supported by questionnaire research showing its components relate to flourishing; it is a model, not itself a single tested intervention.
Honest caveat: PERMA is a useful organizing framework; debate continues over whether its five elements are truly distinct, and the audit itself is not an RCT-tested exercise.
Common mistake
Doubling down on the pillar you already score highest in (often accomplishment) because it’s comfortable, while ignoring the weak pillar that’s actually dragging well-being down.
IX Coach walks you through a PERMA self-rating, identifies your weakest pillar, and helps you pick one concrete action to strengthen it.
Practice this with IX Coach →