Knowing your strengths, it's a plus

How are you, dear fellows of Read.cash? I hope that life today smiles on you.

Today, I'm going to provide some information about how to know what are your character strengths. And I hope that you'll find it useful. I've written briefly about this in the En Español channel of Noise. But today, I'm going to delve a bit into the subject. Since I think that knowing your strengths, it's a plus.

I bring all of this here because these days, I was talking to my son. Some of you may already know he is a teenager who is about to enter his last year of high school. Lately, he has been very anxious. Maybe I was anxious at that age too. But it was easier for me. I wasn't in the middle of a Pandemic. It has been a difficult time for everyone, but I put myself in his place. And I think for him all this has to be much worse because of his age.

He has been studying with online classes for a year and a half. And there isn't any signal that this situation here could change in the short term. It's not easy at all. Socially speaking, the situation is far from normal. He meets with friends occasionally. But it's far from being the normal life of a teenager. There are no parties and no meetings with several friends. Also, the fear because we have experienced the loss of family and friends. In short, what all of us have been experiencing in some way in recent times is affecting him.

So speaking these days, he told me that he didn't know how he could handle all the challenges that are about to come to him with so many difficulties around. And it occurred to me that maybe a way to help him was by working on his personal strengths. To help him to identify what are his predominant strengths. And also to know what are the strengths he needs to work on. And you may ask, how can I help him to know his strengths? Well, I asked him to take a test that lets him know his strengths. I guess some of you will be curious and would like to do the test too. And we are going there, but before going to the test, some background.

Some background

Some years ago, I did a Diploma in Positive Psychology. This trend in the study of psychology is relatively recent, the late 90s. And it studies positive emotions and strengths as tools to achieve well-being. One of the great promoters of Positive Psychology is Professor of the University of Pennsylvania, Martin Seligman who in his theory has defined what is known as the PERMA model as the basis for achieving well-being. PERMA is made up of 5 factors:

• Positive Emotions

• Engagement

• Relationships

• Meaning and purpose

• Accomplishment

Martin Seligman and also professor Christopher Peterson talk about the existence of six virtues associated with well-being. These virtues are present in all cultures. And they are Wisdom, Courage, Humanity, Justice, Temperance, and Transcendence. According to them, we all have 24 character strengths to achieve these virtues that permeate the different factors of the PERMA model.

The 24 Character Strengths and the test

The 24 character strengths that according to them all people have with more or less presence are,

Creativity, Curiosity, Judgement, Love of learning, Perspective, Bravery, Persistence, Honesty, Zest, Love, Kindness, Social intelligence, Teamwork, Fairness, Leadership, Forgiveness, Humility, Prudence, Self-regulation, Appreciation of beauty & Excellence, Gratitude, Hope, Humor and Spirituality.

These aren't the only strengths that people can have. But they are the ones that Seligman and Peterson found to be common to all people regardless of their race or culture. Each of us possesses these 24 character strengths. And it's the top five on our personal scale that we employ the most in our daily lives. And you may wonder, how can I know which are the strengths that are most present in my character?

Very simple, taking the VIA test https://www.viacharacter.org/survey/account/register

The test takes approximately 15 minutes. Registration is free, and you can do it as many times as you want.

I've done it on several occasions. The position of our strengths may vary over time as many factors can affect it. Our personal circumstances, or the environment that surrounds us at a certain moment. Also over the years, we learn to value certain things and change our priorities. And those learning processes are definitely shown in our character.

Knowing your strengths, it's a plus

To know our strengths, it's much more than a mere curiosity. It can be a powerful tool to achieve our goals. Also, it could be meaningful for helping us to know more about ourselves. It may be that because of our values, ​​we believe we have a predominant character strength in us. But when we perform the test, we realize that in our scale that strength is far below. Maybe you consider yourself a person who knows how to forgive and the reality is different. That you are a generous person, but not as much as you thought. You may be considered yourself optimistic, but the truth is you aren't so much. In short, a myriad of possibilities.

This also helps us to work on those strengths that on our personal scale are not among the most predominant, but that we consider important to achieve some of our goals.

For now, I will leave it here. There is a wide range of different aspects that can be covered with positive psychology. But my intention isn't to bore you with this. I hope that if you are encouraged to do the test, you will find it useful.

To all my dear readers and wonderful sponsors, thank you so much!

Images credits on the caption.

Until next time! ;)