"Real change in society must start from individual initiative." - The Dalai Lama

Character Strengths is popular in positive psychology, as it focuses primarily on what you are good at, where your strengths and talents lie. It encourages people to lean into their power and in their specialty - not in becoming a more well-rounded person.

You have no weaknesses in this. Just greater and lesser strengths.

We did this test and loved the results. It leaves you with a very clear sense of your natural inclinations, and the you that you love being.

Interestingly, despite being the new kid on the block, character strengths has already been investigated in more academic research than MBTI, which has existed for decades.

The research shows that the character strengths is not just an accurate measurement for strength and capability, but also a useful way to improve various factors of productivity and wellbeing:

A character strengths course in China over 8 weeks was found to generate immediate and sustained benefits to students’ self-efficacy, positive affect, and academic performance (Li & Liu, 2016).

Randomized, controlled trial involving 3 groups - adults who targeted top 5 strengths, adults who targeted bottom 5 strengths, and a placebo group. The 2 intervention groups showed benefits to happiness for up to three months and depression benefits as well. Those with initially higher strength levels tended to benefit more from working on lower strengths while those initially lower in strengths levels tended to benefit more from working on higher strengths (Proyer et al., 2015).

For example, David's character strengths were creativity, hope, humour, love of learning, and appreciation.

What are yours?

https://www.viacharacter.org/character-strengths

Use this exercise to update your info sheet!