On Being Optimizers: Are We Health Promotion Professionals Living up to Our Potential?

Abstract

How do we judge whether our profession is meeting its potential when, according to time honored definitions of health promotion, we consider health to be a byproduct of culture and we deem some aspects of culture to be prerequisites to health? If our profession falls short, is it because we are not doing enough to change the world? This editorial previews a new model for health promotion called "collective well-being." Collective well-being is less about how I cope with society to reach my potential and more about how we cocreate a society that enables us all to thrive. Some argue that cultural relativism means that we should not stand in judgment of cultures but can we do this without diminishing the prime role of culture in the pursuit of happiness or our innate desire to achieve optimal experience? A professional challenge for the health promotion field is to forge routes to an optimal life where personal goals and societal aspirations are one and the same.