Human Flourishing

Human flourishing
noun - 1. an effort to achieve self-actualization and fulfillment within the context of a larger community of individuals, each with the right to pursue his or her own such efforts.

We often hear from people, “Helping to advance human flourishing is a noble but large undertaking. It’s not specific enough and never-ending.”

That is all true, but it doesn’t stop us. Our Better Selves believes that to advance human flourishing, we must activate our values, build a thriving community, and empower more effective change agents.

Activate Values
This is simply how we understand and intentionally live our values through forethought, learning, and testing. It is critical, in this process, that we consider broad principles of human flourishing, including evidence from fields such as positive psychology, to help steer values activation towards outcomes that allow us all to thrive. Additionally, this evidence around human flourishing considers broader macro norms that help people live together - that thriving through activating your values does not come at the expense of others, but rather everyone is better off. This is why Values Activation is best facilitated in thriving communities.

Build a Thriving Community
Communities are critical components of how we promote human flourishing. The evidence continues to build on how a community is critical to promote belonging, forge identity, and provide other support which is vital to human flourishing. We have had communities in various forms since our very earliest days as humans. However, not enough work has been done to create intentionally thriving communities that avoid “us vs them” and instead create an “aspirational us” such that the “them” is defined but never completely out of reach. While Thriving Communities tend to mitigate or solve a number of problems of human flourishing, we still need individual catalysts who tackle problems head-on; we call them Change Agents.

Empower Change Agents
Change Agents are vital in our quest to solve important human flourishing problems. Too many change agents are languishing in situations where they do not have opportunities, support, or resources to activate their values and begin to tackle real human challenges. From finances and time constraints, knowledge and skills, and a clear sense as to their mission and values, Change Agents require deeper support than a mere one-off workshop or online course. Our Better Selves knows that it takes a comprehensive support approach to help Change Agents activate their values and begin to solve real problems. That is why we are creating a vibrant ecosystem that serves their needs.