Analysis Of The Good Life By Martin Seligman

Martin Seligman shares how people can become happier by discussing three different life styles in which individuals are happy. After sharing how happy people differ from the average person, — they are more social— he goes on to describe the pleasant life, the good life, and the meaningful life. In the pleasant life, individuals seek what makes them happy and surround their life around those items. The good life consists of individuals finding what their strengths are and integrating those strengths into their work, love, and play. People who exemplify the good life are able to flow, which is being so happily involved in what they do that time stops for them. Finally, the meaningful life also has individuals find their strengths but then those strengths are used to belong to or serve something larger than themselves. …show more content…
The good life, or pursuit of engagement, is also influential like the meaningful life; however, the pursuit of pleasure is only beneficial if you also have pursued meaning and engagement. Having all three lives together is referred to as the full life, which is the most satisfying, while having none is the empty life. Seligman also found that these principles can have lasting impressions on people lives by testing them using methods such as placebos and long-term studies. In addition, they believe technology may be able to help facilitate happiness as it can alleviate misery. In conclusion, people are able to control their happiness to an extent depending on what they center their life