Coaching practices for How to Flourish
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How to Flourish, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- My life is comfortable and on paper I’m fine, but it feels hollow and I can’t figure out why
- Something about my life feels off and I genuinely can’t name what
- On paper my life looks successful
- I already know what I’m good at, but I only ever use those strengths in the same few familiar places
- When something good happens I downplay it so I don’t seem like I’m bragging
Practices that may help
- Measure flourishing, not just happiness
Regularly ask: am I flourishing as a human being — using my capacities well — or just feeling okay?
Virtue Ethics, Made Practical - Run a PERMA audit of your current well-being
Rate each of the five PERMA pillars to find which is currently limiting your overall flourishing.
Seligman’s PERMA Model, Made Practical - Audit your life against PERMA
Check well-being across all five pillars — emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, accomplishment.
Positive Psychology, Made Practical - Aristotelian Eudaimonia: Flourishing Through Virtue
Eudaimonia — often translated as "flourishing" or "the good life" — is Aristotle’s answer to what we ultimately aim at in living. It is not a feeling of pleasure but an active exercise of the soul in accordance with virtue over a complete life. The Nicomachean Ethics offers a precise system: character virtues are the mean between extremes, developed by practice, and exercised in genuinely social life. Most of Aristotle’s specific prescriptions align with contemporary wellbeing research on character, relationships, and meaningful activity. - Embracing Discomfort: Turning Resistance Into Growth
Embracing discomfort means deliberately moving toward difficult feelings and challenging situations rather than away from them — not because suffering is good, but because avoidance is the primary mechanism that keeps people stuck. Graded approaches, reappraisal, and acceptance-based methods all show meaningful effects; the key is distinguishing productive discomfort from unsustainable strain. - Use a signature strength in a new way each day for one week
Apply one of your top character strengths to a context or relationship where you don’t normally use it.
VIA Character Strengths, Made Practical - Sharing good news (capitalizing)
Tell someone about a good thing — and savor it together — to amplify it.
Savoring: Getting More From the Good - Building Positive Emotions, Made Practical
Positive emotions can be cultivated deliberately through practices that vary what triggers them: gratitude, savoring, meaningful engagement, kindness, and awe are the most studied routes. Barbara Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory proposes that positive emotions expand thinking and build psychological resources over time — supported by observational research, though some specific claims (like the 3:1 ratio) have not replicated. The individual practices have varying but mostly real evidence bases. - Savoring the Moment, Made Practical
Savoring — deliberately amplifying and prolonging positive experiences through focused attention and appreciative reflection — is one of the more reliable tools for increasing positive affect and life satisfaction. Bryant and Veroff’s research finds it works through several distinct mechanisms, each requiring active engagement rather than passive enjoyment. - Growth-Edge Training: Practicing at the Edge of Your Ability
Growth-edge training means consistently working just beyond your current comfort zone — where challenge slightly exceeds current ability. Research on skill acquisition and deliberate practice supports this as the most efficient zone for learning, though finding and staying at the edge requires honest self-assessment and structured feedback.
Related concerns
- Eudaimonia Audit
Periodically evaluate your life against the conditions Aristotle thought were necessary for genuine flourishing — not just your feelings about it.
Periodic eudaimonia audit: are you actually flourishing?
- Flourishing Model
Arthur Aron’s self-expansion model proposes that people are motivated to grow — to expand their sense of self by incorporating new perspectives, skills, and resources — and that relationships are so motivating early on because they represent rapid self-expansion. The well-studied practical implication is that doing novel, challenging activities with a partner or close friend restores the expansion experience and revitalises closeness. The model has a substantial empirical base, primarily in romantic relationships.
- Positive Psychology At Work
Martin Seligman’s positive psychology studies what makes life worth living, organized around the PERMA model — Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment. Several of its signature interventions, including three good things, the gratitude visit, and using signature strengths, have genuine randomized-trial support for raising well-being and lowering depressive symptoms.
- Positive Psychology In A New Job
Martin Seligman’s positive psychology studies what makes life worth living, organized around the PERMA model — Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment. Several of its signature interventions, including three good things, the gratitude visit, and using signature strengths, have genuine randomized-trial support for raising well-being and lowering depressive symptoms.
- Positive Psychology Perma
Martin Seligman’s positive psychology studies what makes life worth living, organized around the PERMA model — Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment. Several of its signature interventions, including three good things, the gratitude visit, and using signature strengths, have genuine randomized-trial support for raising well-being and lowering depressive symptoms.
- When Virtue Ethics Eudaimonia Check
Regularly ask: am I flourishing as a human being — using my capacities well — or just feeling okay?
Measure flourishing, not just happiness
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.