I was a cheerleader in college. The leap in skill level from high school to college was difficult, and while my teammates seemed to be mastering advanced skills, I was stuck on the basics. I couldn’t help but feel frustrated with where I was at. After one of my practices, I expressed these frustrations to one of the coaches. I was hoping that he would challenge me with some new skills but to my dismay, he told me to focus on the basics.
The basics. Tutorials, trainings, instructions. Something to be rushed over, sped through, or even ignored. Useful merely as a means to a more significant end. At least this is often how they are viewed. With each new chapter of life, it seems as though there are new basics to learn and old basics to remember. I’m coming to realize that the basics never cease to matter, especially the basics of life.
What I mean when I write about the basics of life are the simple ingredients fundamental to fulfillment and happiness. It is important to note that basic does not mean easy, for we would all be fulfilled if this were so. Consider, for example, something as basic as taking out the trash or getting to sleep on time. Though these tasks may be basic, they are not often easy, or at least I can say that this is the case for myself. So what are these “basics of life”? Let’s look to an expert.
Known as “the father of positive psychology,” Dr. Martin Seligman has dedicated his career and research to finding the answers to such questions. His research has focused on happiness, depression, helplessness, strengths of character, and other similar topics. In 2011, Seligman published Flourish: A visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being, in which he provides the PERMA model, outlining five core concepts essential to fulfillment and happiness, in other words, five basics of life. These include positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment.
Positive Emotions
Examples of positive emotions include joy, happiness, gratitude, compassion, and hope. These emotions can be past tense in the form of feelings of thankfulness or forgiveness, present tense in the form of being present and engaging with the positives of life, or future tense in the form of hope and excitement. While we are all capable of these emotions, we each have different ranges in which we experience them. Of the five fundamentals of well-being and fulfillment, this is perhaps the most volatile and prone to fluctuations.
Engagement
Have you ever been exercising, cleaning dishes, having a good conversation, or reading and found yourself in a flow? This “flow” is how we can think of engagement. Essentially, engagement is the act of using our skills and talents to accomplish a challenging task. While the outcome of the challenge may be beneficial, engagement is the absorption we experience when partaking in such an activity. A state where the distractions and busyness that so often consume our attention fall by the wayside.
Relationships
Think of some of your happiest moments. There is a decent chance that many of these include a loved one. Similarly, consider how you have made it through some of the harder moments. These moments also often include loved ones. Positive relationships are often an anchor for the difficulties we face and the exclamation point for our triumphs and happy times. Relationships can help to remind us of what matters in this life. In addition, acts of service for those we love is highly associated with well-being.
Meaning
We can think of meaning as the big picture. Meaning helps us to venture past what is merely best for us as individuals and challenges us to consider something grander. Meaning can be found through religion, close relationships, learning, our jobs, volunteering, politics, and social initiatives, to name a few. When we participate in the parts of life that are meaningful to us, we cannot help but feel an increased sense of fulfillment.
Accomplishment
Accomplishment is the pursuits we venture towards as humans across areas such as sports, academics, work, and hobbies. Accomplishment does not always lead to positive emotion (e.g., neglecting other important areas of our lives in the pursuit of accomplishment). However, accomplishment can motivate us toward positive outcomes. To bring this post full circle, I ended up taking my coach's advice. I worked on the basics of cheer for the majority of my first two years on the team. I still felt frustrated from time to time, but I decided that I would work to become the best I could at the basics, trusting that the rest would come. And so it did. In my last two years on the team, in large part because of my mastery of the basics, I made the varsity team and competed as one of the elite stunt groups at nationals. We placed 4th in the country in my last year. I don’t write of this as a boast, but rather as an encouragement and a reminder that sometimes going back to the basics isn’t such a bad thing.
