Thursday 3 April 2025
Job Done
There is nothing like a sense of accomplishment. Whether it be finishing a work project, baking a successful pavlova, sitting down with a beer after mowing the lawn or even marking a final exam paper.
A sense of a job well done is one significant part of what positive psychologists call PERMA - the factors contributing to well-being: P – Positive Emotion, E – Engagement, R – Relationships, M – Meaning, A – Accomplishment.
The logical conclusion is that if you have lived a life full of accomplishments you will be able to look back on it all and be satisfied. Psychologist Erik Erikson might call it having a feeling of integrity built on generativity - living a life of meaningful social contribution. Of course, this is founded on quality relationships, founded on trust in our fellow humans.
To have a real sense of accomplishment, we need to be connected. Like a child rushing home to share the good news of passing a test at school, the approbation and acknowledgement of success is entwined with the accomplishment itself. We don’t always need the compliments of others, but, it certainly adds to the sense of achievement. Even supporting your favourite sports team from the side line - cheering players you may never meet in person - all adds to the cumulative sense of accomplishment and the underlying connection we feel. Their success is our success.
And feelings are indeed the key here. No matter what we actually celebrate - a parent’s joy in their child’s first steps, through to an astronaut’s successful rocket launch, it’s the way we see ourselves as contributing to the world - and our connection to it - that makes it all feel worthwhile.
Wellbeing is not an introspective, isolating pursuit. Too much naval-gazing can lead to ‘woe-is-me’ thinking, dissatisfaction, mistrust and despair. Mindfulness does have its place, but social connection must become the central tenet of our lives. Schools thrive on it, societies too. The best social connections can lead to us feeling joy in the accomplishments of others and ourselves.
"Thought is free" said Stephano in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest. Positive Psychology would interpret this as our thoughts are not fixed or deterministic. We have the capacity to cultivate positive and adaptive thinking patterns to enhance wellbeing. We can change our minds. And if we can begin to take control of our thinking, so we can with our feelings too. But we can’t do it alone. Accomplishment is social.
In writing this final Go Well article - nearly six years and forty-five thousand words later, I certainly feel a sense of fulfilment - but also gratitude to my wife for advice, Jess, Ria and the Marketing team for their editing and publication. And to the readers who took the time to give consideration to some of our well-being approaches at King’s.
Together we are making a difference - and what an accomplishment that is!
Grant McKibbin - Teacher i/c Mentoring