Hello and welcome (back) to my blog, dear friends!
I hope 2024 continues smoothly for you and that you got a good sense of enthusiasm, now that the beautiful spring is just around the corner (at least in this parts of the world)!
But if your enthusiasm plays hard to get, fear not, cause here I am with this month’s motivational calendar, based on your own character strengths. But WHAT are these character strengths are why are they so important that scientists bothered to make calendars based on them?
Well, according to extensive research, understanding and applying our strengths can have groundbreaking effects on our lives and can lead to:
- Better self-Confidence
- Increased Happiness
- Strengthened Relationships
- Higher Resilience
- Better Problem Management
- Reduced Stress
- Accomplished Goals
- Better Meaning and Purpose
- Improved Work Performance
Based on my own experience – I was very excited to discover mine in 2022, when I started to study Positive Psychology – I can testify that just knowing your character strengths is very empowering, because you will recognize yourself in them and your self confidence will get a boost just from this. But then, when you take the next step and start to use study how you can best use your character strengths – that is to say optimally – well, that is very satisfying too, as you might imagine!!! Then comes the next and final step: using those character strengths intentionally, every single day.
As I was writing in this blogpost, you DO have these strengths within yourself. Each and every one of us has a total of 24 such character strengths, just in different degrees.
The Strengths Calendar for March shares simple ways to help us approach life with Courage. Show up more authentically in our life, relationships, and career using 3 of our character strengths: Honesty, Perseverance, and Bravery.
Now, every day in this calendar suggests an activity we can all implement – using these 3 strengths intentionally – to help build Courage in ourselves. And almost all activities have a link attached to them, that you can access if you click on the image – each of them will lead you to an article or a video about that strength/goal:
But for now, I would like to continue the theme I started in January and let you in on a professional secret. And that is how to use these 3 strengths optimally. And I will give you an example on why it is important to know HOW you should use your own strengths: 1st, because any strength that is under- or overused becomes a defect. And 2nd, because let’s say your top strength is Forgiveness, for example. Over-using your strength will transform you into a doormat, and so you will feel that everyone takes advantage of you, which can only lead to frustration, of course. Which leads to dissatisfaction about relationships, both personally and professionally.
So, how can we use our strengths perfectly? Well:
Honesty can be underused when we are self-righteous and rude, overused when we are phony, dishonest and inauthentic. While the OPTIMAL use is to be true to oneself and sincere.
Perseverance is underused when we are lazy, behave like we are helpless and we give up. Overused when we are stubborn and we struggle to let go. While the OPTIMAL use is to be persistent and to simply complete our tasks.
Bravery is underused when we behave cowardly and are unwilling to act. Overused is when we are risk-taking, foolish and overconfident. While the OPTIMAL use is to face our fears and confront adversity.
And just to go a bit farther into detail, there are 3 different types of bravery (one may possess 1 of these or a combination):
- Physical bravery (e.g., firefighters, police officers, soldiers)
- Psychological bravery (e.g., facing painful aspects of oneself)
- Moral bravery (e.g., speaking up for what’s right, even if it’s an unfavorable opinion to a group)
I hope these tips are useful to you, at least to give you an idea what not to do and how not to behave in situations when you need to apply these strengths.
If you did not take your VIA Character Strength Test yet, then by now you are probably curious and excited to find out your OWN Strengths, and how they can make YOU feel more energised, confident and accomplished. Then you will most likely want to know what makes you unique (your top 5-6 strengths are unique to you) and how to use your strengths to thrive and flourish.
Well, im looking forward to meeting you, so we can discover together how you can get rid of your limiting beliefs, so that you live your life from a position of strength. All for a flourishing life filled with more purpose and enthusiasm.
Remember, 2024 will be (y)our BEST year yet ;)!
Until next time, stay positive and take care of yourselves!
Positive-Mind-4-Life 