What if the key to greater happiness isn't fixing your weaknesses, but leveraging your strengths? Research in positive psychology suggests that identifying and using your signature strengths daily leads to increased well-being, engagement, and life satisfaction.
What Are Signature Strengths?
Signature strengths are the character strengths that are most central to who you are. They feel authentic, energizing, and natural to use. When you use your signature strengths, you feel like your best self.
The concept comes from positive psychology, pioneered by Dr. Martin Seligman and Dr. Christopher Peterson. Their research identified 24 universal character strengths organized under six virtues.
"Focus on your strengths, not your weaknesses. Focus on your character, not your reputation. Focus on your blessings, not your misfortune"
The 24 Character Strengths
Wisdom
- Creativity: Thinking of novel ways to do things
- Curiosity: Taking an interest in ongoing experience
- Judgment: Thinking things through and examining from all sides
- Love of Learning: Mastering new skills, topics, and bodies of knowledge
- Perspective: Being able to provide wise counsel to others
Courage
- Bravery: Not shrinking from threat, challenge, difficulty, or pain
- Perseverance: Finishing what one starts
- Honesty: Speaking the truth and presenting oneself genuinely
- Zest: Approaching life with excitement and energy
Humanity
- Love: Valuing close relations with others
- Kindness: Doing favors and good deeds for others
- Social Intelligence: Being aware of the motives and feelings of others
Justice
- Teamwork: Working well as a member of a group
- Fairness: Treating all people fairly and justly
- Leadership: Organizing group activities and seeing they happen
Temperance
- Forgiveness: Forgiving those who have done wrong
- Humility: Letting accomplishments speak for themselves
- Prudence: Being careful about choices; not taking undue risks
- Self-Regulation: Regulating what one feels and does
Transcendence
- Appreciation of Beauty: Noticing and appreciating beauty in all domains
- Gratitude: Being aware of and thankful for good things
- Hope: Expecting the best and working to achieve it
- Humor: Liking to laugh and bring smiles to others
- Spirituality: Having coherent beliefs about higher purpose and meaning
How to Discover Your Signature Strengths
- Take the VIA Survey: The free VIA Character Strengths Survey at viacharacter.org provides a scientifically validated assessment of your 24 strengths ranked in order.
- Identify your top 5: Your signature strengths are typically your top 5 from the assessment.
- Reflect on these questions:
- Does using this strength feel authentic and natural?
- Do you feel energized when using it?
- Would you feel lost without this strength?
- Do you seek opportunities to use it?
Using Your Signature Strengths
Daily Practice
Research shows that using your signature strengths in new ways each day for just one week can boost happiness and reduce depression for up to six months. Here's how:
- Morning intention: Choose one strength to focus on each day.
- Find opportunities: Look for ways to apply that strength at work, home, and in relationships.
- Evening reflection: Note how you used your strength and how it felt.
Examples
- Curiosity: Ask a colleague about their weekend with genuine interest; explore a new neighborhood.
- Kindness: Write a thank-you note; help a stranger with directions.
- Love of Learning: Listen to a podcast on a new topic; take a different route to work.
- Humor: Share a funny story; find lightness in a stressful moment.
Benefits
- Increased happiness: Using signature strengths is associated with greater life satisfaction.
- Greater engagement: Work feels more meaningful when aligned with your strengths.
- Improved relationships: Strengths like kindness and social intelligence enhance connections.
- Better performance: People excel when working in their areas of strength.
- Resilience: Signature strengths can be deployed to cope with challenges.
- Authenticity: Living according to your strengths feels genuine and fulfilling.
Caveats
- Overuse is possible: Even strengths can become problematic when overused (e.g., too much perseverance becomes stubbornness).
- Context matters: Different situations may call for different strengths.
- Don't ignore weaknesses entirely: Some weaknesses may need attention, especially if they're causing problems.
- Strengths develop over time: Your profile may shift as you grow and change.
References
- VIA Institute on Character - Free Character Strengths Survey
- Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification. Oxford University Press.
- Seligman, M. E. P., et al. (2005). "Positive Psychology Progress: Empirical Validation of Interventions." American Psychologist.
