Make Your Character Strength Work for You

How to Reach Your Goal Maximizing Your Top Strengths

Discovering your top character strengths is useful information to begin understanding how you relate to situations and others. However, understanding how to flex them appropriately during a health journey is a game changer! Let’s look at the 24 character strengths and how to maximize them in reaching and sustaining optimal health and wellness. Investigating your character strengths is one way to personalize your health and wellness routine. Health Coach Tulsa understands the uniques personalities and approaches to wellness and the different influence this diversity can bring to the table in designing a sustainable and realistic plan to regain health. Let’s look at how you can optimize your strengths to get where you desire to go in our diverse healthscape according to Character Strengths Interventions – A Field Guide for Practitioners by Ryan M. Niemiec.

Personal Experience

I took my first VIA Character Strength Survey 2 years ago. My top strength was Love of Learning and my second strength was Judgment. I remember Bravery coming in a strong dead last and thinking, “How am I ever going to launch a business or create an online presence if I am not brave enough to put myself out there?”. I also knew immediately that Judgment had to shuffle its way on down the ranks. I had been Ms. Judgy McJudgerson for way too long and I had been my most frequent target. No more! I required an intervention and within one year of being extremely mindful when Judgment entered my world I was able to move it 6 spots to number 8 and move Bravery up two. This focused desire and intervention allowed space for grace to enter and compassion to cultivate a space in my life. I am still actively searching new ways to create balance with ALL my strengths so I call on the right one at the right time for the right reason. Health Coach Tulsa has included a few tips to help you navigate the world of your character from the angle of strengths and how to implement them for the best results in your life. Mindfulness is a key factor in finding balance.

Mindful Strength Shifts

Being mindfully present during your moments of adversity is a critical step in overcoming the challenge and maintaining your path. As an example, if your survey shows perseverance as underutilized strength, you may want to practice the suggestion in the “build” column to become more aware of using it during you journey to overcome a challenge. Likewise, if kindness is a well used strength, you may need to practice the suggestions in the “intervention” column to create a better balance with other strengths. You may be too kind to your family and friends by giving them your time and energy with nothing left to apply to your goals. BALANCE is the goal when looking to shift your strengths to serve you best at the best time for the best outcome.

Interventions to Strengthen Specific Strengths (1)

STRENGTH	SKILLS TO BUILD	SKILLS TO INTERVENE
HUMOR	What situations promote your use of humor? What strengths do you use to be sensitive to the context in order to express humor at the right time?	Write down 2 of the funniest things you experienced in a single day for a week. Explain why those funny things occurred? Did you do something specific to make them happen?
CREATIVITY	When are you the most creative? What prevents you from being creative?	When you identify a challenge, create a list of potential solutions instead of just thinking of one.
CURIOSITY	Where in your life do you feel safest being curious? (ex: physical location, during a specific activity, around someone) What prevents your expression of curiosity?	Choose an activity you do not enjoy and be mindful of a few features of the activity while performing it.
JUDGMENT/CRITICAL THINKING	When are you most likely to overuse this strength? (Narrow-minded) How might you use this strength automatically that might also be productive for you?	Challenge your personal opinions by looking for information that runs against your beliefs to help you see different viewpoints.
LOVE OF LEARNING	What areas of life are most important to you to apply your love of learning? What new area might you desire to apply this strength?	How can you dig deeper into learning a topic you may find boring?
PERSPECTIVE	What situations do you feel safest sharing your personal perspectives? How does this strength serve you in your relationships?	How would you explain a life problem to different cultures?
BRAVERY	How does bravery make others admire or worry about you? Which strengths have best combined with bravery?	Boost psychological bravery by using brave as a label when appropriate.
PERSEVERANCE	How can you apply this strength to change a habit or create a new one?	Grant positive feedback for effort and not just outcome.
HONESTY	How easy is it for you to take responsibility for mistakes?	How can you better use this strength to govern behavior the same in different environments. (ex: work vs. home)
ZEST	Which activities in your life create the most energy?	Need a boost? Head outside and spend time in nature.
LOVE	Is there a balance between love in and love out in your life?	Try spontaneous loving expressions that don’t require any planning.
KINDNESS	When is it most important to turn your kindness on yourself?	Pay it forward with a random act of kindness.
SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE	When has your social intelligence been inaccurate?	Practice identifying and expressing your emotions in a balanced way to others.
TEAMWORK	When does teamwork support you the most?	Use positive talk surrounding your team like “we are ready for the task”.
FAIRNESS	List examples of how you use fairness during the day.	Increase the strength by allowing other to weigh in on decisions that impact them.
LEADERSHIP	how do you decide when to lead or when to follow?	Search for the balance between compliant and despotism in each situation.
FORGIVENESS	How do you continue to forgive when you don’t fully forget?	Write about positive personal benefits of transgressions against you.
HUMILITY	Identify any obstacle for you to express humility.	Write about mentors or heroes that are great examples of humility.
PRUDENCE	Where is your prudence most accepted and appreciated?	Stop and consider challenges when making plans to achieve your goals.
SELF-REGULATION	Which habit are you best at regulating? How do you regulate it?	Practice mindfulness in self-control during areas of excess like food intake and mood swings.
APPRECIATION OF BEAUTY AND EXCELLENCE	How does this strength help or hurt your relationships and work?	Make a list of a few things each day you find beautiful.
GRATITUDE	When do you express gratitude the most?	How might a situation change if you had chosen to express gratitude? Keep a gratitude journal.
HOPE	How do you keep hope when times are tough?	Write a description of your best future version.
SPIRITUALITY	Define spirituality for yourself.	Find activities that build your sense of purpose like volunteering for a cause you believe in.

Make Your Character Strength Work for You

How to Reach Your Goal Maximizing Your Top Strengths

Personal Experience

Mindful Strength Shifts

Interventions to Strengthen Specific Strengths (1)

STRENGTH

SKILLS TO BUILD

SKILLS TO INTERVENE

HUMOR

What situations promote your use of humor? What strengths do you use to be sensitive to the context in order to express humor at the right time?

Write down 2 of the funniest things you experienced in a single day for a week. Explain why those funny things occurred? Did you do something specific to make them happen?

CREATIVITY

When are you the most creative? What prevents you from being creative?

When you identify a challenge, create a list of potential solutions instead of just thinking of one.

CURIOSITY

Where in your life do you feel safest being curious? (ex: physical location, during a specific activity, around someone) What prevents your expression of curiosity?

Choose an activity you do not enjoy and be mindful of a few features of the activity while performing it.

JUDGMENT/CRITICAL THINKING

When are you most likely to overuse this strength? (Narrow-minded) How might you use this strength automatically that might also be productive for you?

Challenge your personal opinions by looking for information that runs against your beliefs to help you see different viewpoints.

LOVE OF LEARNING

What areas of life are most important to you to apply your love of learning? What new area might you desire to apply this strength?

How can you dig deeper into learning a topic you may find boring?

PERSPECTIVE

What situations do you feel safest sharing your personal perspectives? How does this strength serve you in your relationships?

How would you explain a life problem to different cultures?

BRAVERY

How does bravery make others admire or worry about you? Which strengths have best combined with bravery?

Boost psychological bravery by using brave as a label when appropriate.

PERSEVERANCE

How can you apply this strength to change a habit or create a new one?

Grant positive feedback for effort and not just outcome.

HONESTY

How easy is it for you to take responsibility for mistakes?

How can you better use this strength to govern behavior the same in different environments. (ex: work vs. home)

ZEST

Which activities in your life create the most energy?

Need a boost? Head outside and spend time in nature.

LOVE

Is there a balance between love in and love out in your life?

Try spontaneous loving expressions that don’t require any planning.

KINDNESS

When is it most important to turn your kindness on yourself?

Pay it forward with a random act of kindness.

SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE

When has your social intelligence been inaccurate?

Practice identifying and expressing your emotions in a balanced way to others.

TEAMWORK

When does teamwork support you the most?

Use positive talk surrounding your team like “we are ready for the task”.

FAIRNESS

List examples of how you use fairness during the day.

Increase the strength by allowing other to weigh in on decisions that impact them.

LEADERSHIP

how do you decide when to lead or when to follow?

Search for the balance between compliant and despotism in each situation.

FORGIVENESS

How do you continue to forgive when you don’t fully forget?

Write about positive personal benefits of transgressions against you.

HUMILITY

Identify any obstacle for you to express humility.

Write about mentors or heroes that are great examples of humility.

PRUDENCE

Where is your prudence most accepted and appreciated?

Stop and consider challenges when making plans to achieve your goals.

SELF-REGULATION

Which habit are you best at regulating? How do you regulate it?

Practice mindfulness in self-control during areas of excess like food intake and mood swings.

APPRECIATION OF BEAUTY AND EXCELLENCE

How does this strength help or hurt your relationships and work?

Make a list of a few things each day you find beautiful.

GRATITUDE

When do you express gratitude the most?

How might a situation change if you had chosen to express gratitude? Keep a gratitude journal.

HOPE

How do you keep hope when times are tough?

Write a description of your best future version.

SPIRITUALITY

Define spirituality for yourself.

Find activities that build your sense of purpose like volunteering for a cause you believe in.