In observance of having worked for going on five decades in the health promotion profession, this editorial shares fifty observations about the state of our field. In part one, I offer these first twenty five observations that focus on societal trends that have shifted how we frame our work and the movement from wellness to well-being. I reflect on why the wellness term fell out of favor, the roots of the well-being term and attendant definitions of health promotion. Seminal professional text books, popular readership books and key studies that have informed the health promotion discipline are reviewed. I summarize several conundrums that need solving for and conclude with calls to action for health promotion professionals.
Keywords: behavior change; determinants of health; health promotion; innovation; interventions; leadership.