• Engagement—a state of well-being where you lose yourself in an activity, like a hobby (similar to the concept of “flow.”)
• Relationships—with family, friends and community.
• Meaning—finding meaning with the way you're spending your time and the way you're spending your money.
• Accomplishment—feeling like you are moving closer to and accomplishing life goals, such as progressing in your career.
Dr. Seligman has developed a PERMA Meter that advisors can use to start a dialogue with clients about where they are in life, and where they’d like to be. My company has also created an advisor-specific tool called The ROL Index to measure a client’s well-being related to 10 aspects of life.
Even if you don’t want to use the tools of positive psychology, Dr. Seay also recommends using the PERMA concept as a way of reframing more traditional discovery questions.
“Instead of looking at a budget as purely expenditures, you can look at those as investments in different areas of your well-being capital, and that'll provide a lens to communicate through to a client,” he says. In other words, you can use positive psychology concepts to help your clients attach more emotion to their plan and increase the likelihood they will follow through on the plan’s recommendations.
Knowing Your Limits
“But Steve … I don’t want to be a therapist. I’m a financial planner.”
Picture a spectrum where therapist is on the far left and financial planner is on the far right. Applying a more positive approach to planning simply means you’re moving a little more to the left. And the degree to which you move is a function of your training, comfort level and the desire of your client.