February Focus: Strengths Recap Week 2

We focused our efforts this month to positively expand your perspective on yourself, others, and your environment by focusing on The Character Strengths as outlined by the VIA Institute of Character. To learn more about the Strengths, read our introductory blog post here. We’ve even included access to take your own FREE Strengths assessment to really be able to leverage all the information we’re sharing throughout the month over on Instagram.

STRENGTHS Recap: Week 2

We headed into week 2 of our month of strengths with 7 more notables. Read on for a recap of each strength and some suggestions to guide yourself through exploration to leverage these strengths and LIVE YOUR YES!

1. Leadership: The leadership strength means encouraging a group of which you are a member to finish things, and maintain good relations with the group; organizing team activities & making sure they happen. Transactional leaders clarify responsibilities, expectations, & tasks to be done. Transformational leaders motivate others to perform at an extremely high level while fostering a climate of trust & commitment. When do you know it’s best to lead and when to follow?

2. Love: Today is a brilliant day to create close connection with your friends, family, and partner. You know how good it feels when connection is reciprocated!  The strength of love means valuing close relations with others, in particular those in which sharing & caring are reciprocated; being close to people. The love strength is most connected to the overall satisfaction of life.  Those leading with love, express empathy, tolerance, and forgiveness in relationships which increases their health & life span in those relationships. Try on practicing spontaneous, in-the-moment loving acts that don’t require extensive planning, memory, or forethought as a way of expressing & boosting this strength.

3. Bravery: Do you have that one sibling or friend who always had your back, and never shrunk from threat?  They were always there, and during the scariest times. Well- they are expressing their bravery strength!  Bravery is aligned with the virtue of courage, and means to not shrink from threat, challenge, pain or difficulty (dang)! These peeps speak up for what is right; acting on convictions even when unpopular.  Using this strength is a resilience builder as challenges are overcome & active coping skills are built. Do you admire this strength and want to pump it up? Start to focus on the outcomes of courageous acts: thinking of the person you will help, reminding yourself of the goodness of your action, and what other strengths you will rely on to support you.

4. Humor: Who doesn’t love a good laugh?  Ah- nothing feels better; right?  And having people surrounding you who naturally make you laugh; bonus! Somedays, we stop what we are working on, and take a 10 minute break to watch stand up comedy on netflix! But not so seriously, Humor aligns to the virtue of transcendence and we aren’t surprised.  It means liking to laugh & tease & bringing smiles to other people. This strength ranks high on increasing well-being, life satisfaction, and positive emotions. Take our advice & take a break to laugh today.

5. Humility: Ready to strengthen your humility strength?  Okay! Allow all of your accomplishments today speak for themselves. Some people do this well, while a whole bunch of us are dying to share everything we’ve done.  Humility aligns with the virtue of temperance, and not regarding oneself as more special than one is. People that lead with this strength have strong social bonds, and is one of the least endorsed strengths across the globe.  We took this strength into practice the month of January, and we dare you to do the same for a week! Notice what you are left feeling, what space opens for you as a result.

6. Forgiveness: Forgiveness; the strength aligned with the virtue of temperance.  Forgiving those who have done wrong; accepting the shortcomings of others; giving people a second chance; not being vengeful.  We’d like to point out that forgiveness is not forgetting, reconciliation, pardoning, condoning, or denial. When you practice forgiving, you get rid of the ick of it living inside of you. Consider a time when you forgave someone who did not first apologize to you. What character strengths did you use to do that?   People who are forgiving experience less anger, anxiety, depression and hostility than not.

7. Fairness: The saying “equal opportunity for all” is so true about your strength of fairness.  Fairness is one of the five most frequently endorsed character strengths across the globe.  Fair-minded individuals are more likely to engage in positive, prosocial behavior! Fairness simply means you treat people the same according to notions of fairness & justice; not letting personal feelings bias decisions about others; giving everyone a fair chance. Hmmm….what situations at work or home challenge your capacity to be fair?  Increase your fairness strength by collaborating with peers in decisions that impact them. Give them opportunity to disagree.

Are you ready to dive into your Strengths?

Want more? We talk all about Strengths in our 1:1 coaching sessions and our group coaching platform HighPer Space. Ready to say YES to unblocking what’s holding you back and use your strengths to elevate your life? Shoot us a note. We’d love to chat.

Wishing you your YES,

B

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