By Rosie von Lila

Co-author, The Practical Flourishing Assessment

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The Practical Flourishing Assessment did not begin in a classroom or an office. There was no intent to conduct formal research. There was no plan to touch the lives of people across continents. There was no inkling that this work would engage law enforcement, military, and global executives, or that it would support medical doctors, nurse practitioners, psychiatrists, city planners, civil engineers, musicians, artists, and performers. No…This flourishing tool was solely created out of necessity for two people who were curious about their own flourishing.

 

I came to the field of flourishing unconventionally during an unconventional time. The Pandemic Quarantine of 2020 was in full swing; nearly everyone was home, and no one had worn shoes (or pants!) for months. Except the hospital workers (Remember city dwellers applauding for exhausted essential workers every day at sunset?) and the grocery delivery workers (Remember wiping everything down with rubbing alcohol out of fear of catching Coronavirus?). 

 

On a Zoom call one day during that time, I told a friend, Daniel Levin, that I had three ideas for a book. It is said that every person has at least one book in them, and I could sense it was my time. I respected Danny’s opinion greatly, especially when it came to publishing — Danny had been head of Business Development for a decade at Hay House, long before it was acquired by Penguin Random House. Danny’s dynamism and forward-thinking spirit helped lead the company from $3M in sales per year to $100M in annual revenue. But when I shared with Danny my three book ideas, something strange happened. Seemingly out of nowhere, I finished my share with something I had never said, or even thought, before: “I have these three ideas, Danny...but what connects them all is human flourishing.” 

 

It is said that if you pay close enough attention, you will know when Providence intervenes. 

 

When I finished my sentence, Danny didn’t skip a beat. Lightning had struck, and he yelled at me through Zoom, “THAT’S WHAT YOUR BOOK IS ABOUT!!!” 

 

Stunned, yet interminably practical…the next words out of my mouth were, “How do I write that?” 

 

Danny replied gently, “You have to ask Human Flourishing what it wants to say.” 

 

Thirty minutes later, I opened a blank document and my world was never the same. I typed out, “Human flourishing, what would you like to say?” I did that every day. For five months. Soon enough I had written 30,000 words about human flourishing. 

 

I didn’t come to the field of flourishing through academia. I came to it through performing arts, creative community building, non-profit fundraising, for-profit fundraising, finance, business advocacy, policy advocacy, and through my willingness to heed the call. On that Zoom meeting with Danny, I happened to be sitting by the phone when God called that day. I answered. 

 

In late 2021, I started exploring the academic measures that were specifically related to human flourishing. I completed many respected assessments, scales, and measures. They were all very good at giving me a number. Some tools gave me a composite score, some gave me an average. Some placed me on a normal distribution curve. But none of this gave me clarity on how to increase my flourishing. 

 

My partner, David, and I thus began developing a tool to use with each other — a way to look at our life, at our recent experience, and compare it to our aspirations. At the time, we called it our “Family Flourishing Sesh” (short for Session). We used it monthly for a year. I literally hand-drew the Compass Chart and the columns of Aspects every month. We still have the large art tablet with our assessments from that time. I remember thinking, “This is getting burdensome.” And then saying, “David, it’s your turn to draw it.” I also thought about how it would be useful to design it as a PDF that we could print out. 

 

Within a year, we told friends what we were doing, and they wanted to try it. So we led some workshops for our friends. We gave it a new name: The Practical Flourishing Assessment, “TPFA.” Next thing you know, it’s 2023 and I’m leading a workshop at NYPD headquarters in New York City. Then I led a public workshop in the Bay Area for 50 people. By this time, the tool was a two-page print out, albeit with way-too-small text. Anyone who was over age 45 at that workshop couldn’t read the papers under the moody nighttime lighting of the venue! I edited the design the very next day — bigger font… check! I kept iterating the design and creative direction of the tool based on feedback and experience. 

 

In January 2024, we had the opportunity to engage with the Defense Logistics Agency, a particular organization distinctly led by the US Army and Navy. We worked through a series of meetings with leadership, with the feedback, “This looks like it would be useful for building resilience, but we need to see data to prove that it works.” 

 

Just two weeks later, (if you pay close enough attention, you will know when Providence intervenes) I met with the New York University Stern Business School Initiative on Purpose and Flourishing (IPF).

 

The IPF supported us. I led the charge on organizing a research study. The IPF agreed to collect the data and assess the program outcomes. David and I organized to get the word out. As registrations rolled in, we were amazed that we attracted 140 registrants across 22 U.S. states and 8 countries. Due to time-constrained logistics challenges, we ended up with participation in three countries and more than half of US states. Not bad! 

 

When the first research cohort finished in November 2025, many participants asked us, “What’s next? What now?” They wanted a way to keep practicing their flourishing and continue benefiting from being around other people doing the same.  So we designed FLORIS — “The adventure club for people who are into flourishing” — as a place to continue the monthly rhythm of having a place for people to look at and work on their own flourishing, with the easy-to-use TPFA tool. 

 

Engagement with TPFA continues to grow every month. We’ve had the opportunity to share the work with law enforcement agencies, non-profit foundations, companies, and people all over the world. In my early days of sharing about human flourishing, most people I talked with about the subject often told me that they hadn’t heard this term before. Many people have told me they thought I made it up. To my great delight, people associate me with human flourishing, which I love. But I can’t take credit for the subject or term.  

 

Human flourishing has been studied for thousands of years. Its aspects are known by many names: purpose, meaning, character, health, belonging, faith. TPFA is not a movement itself, but rather part of a global movement of human flourishing, one that spans all ages for as long as humans have asked the questions, “Why do I exist? What is my life for?” Human flourishing is the seemingly simple answer to those deep, timeless questions. That simple answer is an invitation to the adventure of your lifetime, to discover what flourishing personally means for you. 

 

As a living being, you exist to flourish before you perish. It is your choice to opt-in to your flourishing, to step into the adventure of discovering what flourishing is for you. 

 

The Practical Flourishing Assessment and FLORIS represent one wonderful, vibrant thread of the global human flourishing movement. Our tools and community exist explicitly for the practice and discovery of human flourishing. We are neither alpha or omega, but rather a continuation of consciousness unfolding through human creation. What a marvelous place to be. 

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March 5, 2026

​Copyright Rosie von Lila 2026