5 Superpowers
You probably didn’t know you have.
Well, not the type of Superpower that you can make anyone disappear, not yet, anyway!
I took the free VIA Character Strengths Survey and found out that my top 5 strengths are: Honesty, Appreciation of Beauty & Excellence, Love of Learning, Creativity and Perseverance. You think you know yourself pretty well, and just like that, you got empowered. There is always something new to discover about the person, you are.
Why are these superpowers? Because once you are aware of them, you can use them to your benefit and the people around you. I always knew that honesty was super important to me, but now I think about this differently, in terms of how is this a strength and a valuable trait. Honesty means, I have integrity, I do what I say I will do, people can count on me and I am in control of my thoughts and emotions, true to myself. I take responsibility for my life.
Honesty belongs to the Courage virtue category from the 24 Character Strengths and Virtues. There are 6 categories: Wisdom, Courage, Humanity, Justice, Temperance and Transcendence. I am fascinated by this. Not just because character always mattered to me, but because I love the story of how the Positive Psychology movement started, how focusing on the good and virtuous in ourselves instantly changes how we see the world and others. It is very easy to see in people what we do not like in them, but it is just as simple to see the best in them, their strengths and virtues.
According to the story, Martin Seligman, one of the founding fathers of Positive Psychology, was thinking about something ‘important’ and his daughter tried to get his attention. He snapped at her, but instead of staying quiet, her daughter replied: “I used to be a whiner when I was 3 and 4 years old. But when I turned 5, I’ve decided to stop, and if I was able to stop whining, you can stop being such a grouch!” And just like that, Seligman had a huge AHA moment. Yes, we can change and focus on our strengths not on what is wrong with us, as psychology did up until that.
Picture this: you focus on your character strength, Creativity or Humor, Bravery, instead of how many times you were late from a meeting, or you missed exercising or eating too many snacks? We beat ourselves up so much; instead of loving and accepting ourselves and concentrate on the good in us.
How to apply it
When faced with a seemingly challenging situation, it is possible to say to yourself, well, my top strengths are Curiosity and Teamwork. Instead of feeling that this issue is overwhelming and don’t know how to deal with it, what if I become curious and ask my team at work or my friends and family, what they think about the issue and figure out something together. You can have your very own Mastermind group right then and there.
I actually conducted my last research study before finishing university about how the 2 character strengths, Spirituality and Humor influence our level of happiness, well-being. They both belong to the Transcendence category. My research showed that these virtues have a well-being enhancing effect, but the real proof is observing your life as it changes in front of your very own eyes, just by just looking for what is funny in your day or believing that your life has a meaning and purpose.
We possess all of the 24 virtues although in different proportions. Why not focus on the ones that are built-in, we were born with, to make life simple. Imagine, you were raised in such a way that your parents pinpointed your top 5 strengths, how would your life be different than as it is right now? Is it a good idea to find out these qualities and teach them to our children? I think so.
So what are the 24 character strengths exactly? They are as follows: Appreciation of Beauty & Excellence, Bravery, Creativity, Curiosity, Fairness, Forgiveness, Gratitude, Honesty, Hope, Humility, Humor, Judgement, Kindness, Leadership, Love, Love of Learning, Perseverance, Perspective, Prudence, Self-regulations, Social Intelligence, Spirituality, Teamwork and Zest.
I will write about these individually, so stay tuned for more and use your powers wisely!
