I'm Rufus Griscombe and this is the next big idea. Today, the surprising power of widening your gaze. I'm What does it mean to flourish?

I don't know exactly, but I like the sound of it.

It evokes growth, health, possibility.

I also associate it with the positive psychology movement,

started by McCell McSatmi-high and Martin Seligman some 30 years ago. What's positive psychology?

It's just applying the tools of science to help people live the best lives they can, rather than just

manage mental illness. Why did it take the field of psychology

so long to do this? I've always wondered this, but it's a field that's given rise to decades

of research and writing that has inspired millions. You could say that it's a continuation of a

distinctly American tradition. Just a couple of weeks ago, Walter Isaacson and I talked about how Ben Franklin was in some

sense the father of the self-help genre.

Though intellectuals have looked down their noses at self-help for centuries, I think it contains

within it some of the best of the American sensibility.

When you think about it, implicit in the term self-help is the idea that

we can, through our own efforts at collective learning, improve ourselves. We can help each other

better navigate the world. But there's one problem at the core of this enterprise. It's lonely.

Optimize your habits, hack your morning routine, find your why. It's you versus yourself.

One of my favorite writers and thinkers has a new book coming out in February. He says the only

kind of flourishing is collective flourishing. There's no such thing as doing it yourself.

Like there aren't any flourishing hermits, right? They might be doing some really interesting thinking, but they're probably not like growing

in this joyful, meaningful way.

We require other people for that.

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