Finding Our Super Strengths
Let’s talk about character strengths! First, do you know what a character strength is? Nope, it’s not “I can jump high,” or “I’m good at math.” Those are your personal strengths.
Character strengths are the positive parts of your personality that impact how you think, how you feel, and how you behave. Scientists have identified 24 character strengths that humans are able to express. Everyone one of us has a unique character strength profile that makes us who we are, but did you know that only ⅓ of people are actually aware of their character strengths?
So often, we focus on what our weaknesses are, and how to improve those areas. But what if we spent as much time cultivating our strengths as we spend focusing on improving on our weaknesses. We could be unstoppable!
By knowing our character strengths, we can utilize those strengths to help overcome obstacles. For example, love is a character strength. But you might ask, “how does love and being loved help me when I have a bad race?” Ah! But it does! Having love as a character strength means having close relationships with others- family, friends, coaches. Those people are your support system, the people you can lean on when times are tough. I know that whenever I had a disappointing race the first thing I did was surround myself with the people that I loved, and they were crucial in helping me realize that this race was not the end of the world (even though it might have felt like it).
Want to know your character strength profile? Check out this survey. There is one for adults and for youth! It takes less than 10 minutes.
Mine are:
Kindness
Love
Social Intelligence
Honesty
Love of Learning
Enjoy!
