In this article we provide an analytical framework for a collective effort that we label "the well-being transition" away from growth and GDP towards human well-being and offer some insights as to what is needed to accelerate this dynamic, insisting on the need for a new positive narrative and institutional reforms. We first present the achievements and challenges of the well-being transition first by outlying why and how we can go beyond growth and GDP not just to see the world differently but to change it. We then spell out a possible narrative able to engage citizens and transform these new visions into social realities, linking sustainability and justice in a social-ecological approach of 21st century challenges. We finally propose specific institutional reforms to ground the well-being transition in public policy.