Life is more positive and fulfilling when you can find ways to use your strengths both personally and professionally.
In our busy lives, how do you identify our strengths. Do you recognise any of these following signs?
Which activities make you feel effective and in control?
Before you do the activity are you really looking forward to it, and can’t wait to do it?
While you are doing the activity, do you feel inquisitive and focused. Do you lose track of time?
After you’ve completed the activity, even if you’re tired, do you feel fulfilled?
This is also known as “flow” – being actively involved in activities that are challenging and are well suited to our strengths and skills. If you want to know more about being in a positive state of flow, look up Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – the founder of “flow”.
3 Reasons Why Knowing Your Strengths Is Important:
1. Know and accept yourself
Some of us don’t recognize that our unique qualities can be our strengths. We take these characteristics for granted and even down play them with statements such as, “I’ve always been that way!”. Strengths come in lots of different forms, they are the part of you that feel like second nature. Your contribution is unique. Strengths awareness helps you to recognize and embrace who you are at your core.
2. Stay motivated and energized
When you are doing, what comes naturally to you, you may find that the hours pass but it just feels like minutes. You are fulfilled on a deeper level. You are in alignment with your purpose and values when you use your strengths. This gives you motivation and even though you may be tied after completing your tasks, you feel energized. On the opposite side, you may have low energy or procrastinate when you do tasks that don’t come naturally to you. When you know your strengths, this will help you to recognise these behaviours and act. Can you re-frame the task by using your strengths, partner with some-one who has the passion for that task, or outsource it?
3. Boosts your self-confidence and allows you to grow further
When you have identified your personal and professional strengths it will give your self-confidence a boost. It will make you stronger if you focus on them. If you also focus on the people’s strengths around you, it will make them stronger too – boosting their self-confidence. It also boots your self-confidence as adding value to others is very rewarding. It will also help you to identify what you may not be as naturally drawn to and put plans in place to cover these areas. Once again supporting your self-confidence. By writing down what your strengths are you will continue to build on these attributes and excel further. You can achieve so much more that you thought you could!
Here is a great little organisation that I was exposed to through the 7 effect during our goals club. It helped me to work out my character strengths. They are called VIA organisation.
Who are VIA?
“Established as non-profit organization in 2001, the VIA Institute on Character is a global leader in the science and practice of character. We are proud to offer the VIA Survey, the only free, online, scientifically validated survey of character strengths.”
What is the VIA character strength survey?
“The VIA Survey is a psychometrically validated personality test that measures an individual’s character strengths. Character strengths are viewed as our positive personality in that they are our core capacities for thinking, feeling, and behaving in ways that can bring benefit to us and others.”
I love this entertaining video, “The Science of Character“, that is on their website, explaining character strengths. https://youtu.be/U3nT2KDAGOc
My key take outs from the video are:
Instead of focusing on all the things that could go wrong, lets focus on what could go right!
If we focus on our strengths, we have a lasting effect on our happiness and wellbeing.
The key to building relationships is to appreciate the character strengths of others.
The difference between a fixed mindset and growth mindset to develop these character mindsets. For example with a fixed mindset failure means I am a failure and growth mindset understands failure happens to everyone, it is something to learn from and improve upon. We can all develop a growth mindset, it just takes practice and it takes encouragement from the people around us and it can be learnt.
Is what I am about to do a reflection of who I am and what I want to be?
Character matters – character strengths can be learnt, cultivated and practiced. As you focus on becoming the best version of yourself this encourages others to do the same. This can lead to important changes throughout the world.
If you can be a better version of yourself how do you want to be?
With the above 3 reasons in mind, I encourage you to take the VIA character strengths survey? Maybe you have already gone through the exercise of finding your strengths, and you have benefited from it. If so, please share your experience and any survey you have taken with us here! Enjoy the process!!
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