Research has shown that people who know what their strengths are and who use these strengths on a regular basis are happier, more confident, have better relationships, solve problems better and experience less stress. Find your character strength here.
What is Character Strength?
Personal strengths are our natural abilities to think, feel and behave in a certain way. Though some people may reveal some personal strength at a young age, strength of character can be developed over time. Conscious and deliberate use of our character strengths in daily situation or in new scenario can help us to overcome challenges in life.
There are 6 main virtues of positive psychology including Wisdom, Courage, Humanity, Justice, Temperance ( moderation and self-restraint) and Trancendence ( Going beyond the visible). Each virtue has it’s own core strength and together there are 24 Character Strengths.
Everyone has all 24 Character Strengths, but some strengths are more obvious than others. The important thing is to know what are our core strengths and learn to use these core strengths in what we do so that we can have a more fulfilling life.
Research has shown that people who use their character strengths are
- More motivated to do the things they need to do
- Better able to achieve set goals
- Happier with life
Understanding Character strengths can help us with
(1) Self-awareness
When you spend time reflecting on your strengths, you will become aware of areas that you can do well in and that plays to your strengths. You can also learn how to use your strengths to overcome difficult situation or relationships.
(2) Understand others better
Knowing what Character Strengths are and how to identify them can help you to understand other people’s core strength and weakness. This helps you to build emotional intelligence so that you can relate with others and build better relationships.
(3) Identify areas of improvement
Exploring personal weaknesses will help us to know our own limitations in different situations and know what to improve.
(4) Be more positive
Writing down your core strengths on a daily basis can help you to appreciate yourself more and develop a more positive self-esteem.
(5) Become who you want to be
Core strengths can be developed if we keep working on behaving in a certain way. First, we need to decide what kind of person we want to be, the strengths that we want to be recognised for, and work towards becoming that person by building those strengths.
How to discover your core strength
To use your strengths, you need to discover your strengths.
- Think about how you react or normally behave, to identify the core strengths that guide you in different situations.
- Ask a close friend who knows you well to pick out 3 to 5 core strengths that you have
- Or, decide what strengths you want others to say you have.
Use this chart with 24 Character Strengths to identify your core personal strength
Each day, practice using one of these strengths in at least one activity. Use your signature strength in a new way each day. Here are some examples of how you can use Shadee.Care to polish your strengths.
For example, you discovered that your core-strengths are Wisdom, Kindness and Humor. Do the following activities to use and build up these strengths.
Wisdom ( Perspective)
- Look at the quotes listed under ‘Good Vibes’ and think of how you can live up to it.
- Post a wise thought in Shadee.Care so that some else can learn from your insights.
Kindness
- Find a post in Shadee.Care that would brighten someone’s day and send it to them to encourage them.
- Consider a social cause that you care about and post stories about the plight of these people.
Humor
- Create funny memes and gifs in Shadee.Care
- Post funny gifs and memes in ‘Good Vibes’ to your friends to cheer them up.
The strength approach is an effective way when making decisions about your future. Use your strength everyday and especially in situations that you are unfamiliar with like meeting a new person. Use your strengths to help yourself feel confident and at ease as you interact with others. But remember using your strengths is not to put other people down or to boast about yourself. Rather focusing on your strength to do most things in life can help to give you more self-confidence, make more friends and enjoy what you have to do.
Now that you have found your strengths, help your friends with theirs.
