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 HERE (we had 30 degrees in the end of March)!
But if your enthusiasm plays hard to get, fear not, I am here 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, they are the backbone of the science of Positive Psychology – which im aware it might sound a bit toxic to some of you – there is such a thing nowadays as “toxic positivity”. But what Positive Psychology actually does is to study human flourishing, or what leads humans to peak performance – and that is our inner resources, our character strengths. Which are:
- Universal
- Cross-cultural
- Easily recognized
- Supported and revered by society
- Elevating to self and others
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
I was very excited to discover my character strengths in 2022, when I started to study Positive Psychology and I can testify that is enough to find out your character strengths to feel empowered. You will recognize yourself in them and your self confidence will get a boost just from this. You can go even farther to check how you can best use your character strengths, and that is very satisfying too, as you might imagine!!! Then comes the next and final step: using those character strengths intentionally, in a different way, every single day. This is how you will get to live a flourishing life and reach your peak performance, personally and professionally.
The Strengths Calendar for April shares simple ways to help us approach life with Gratitude. Take a few minutes to appreciate everything and everyone you have in your life using 2 other character strengths of yours: Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence, on one hand, and Hope on the other.
Now, every day in this calendar suggests an activity we can all implement – using these 3 strengths intentionally – to help build Gratitude in ourselves. And that is very important, because being grateful for what we have in our lives is the 1st, simplest and biggest step we can all take toward being happier about our lives. And I say simple because it’s enough to start a Gratitude journal and write 3 to 5 things you are grateful for every day, and you will soon start to notice the difference in how you feel in general. You might not get teary eyes with gratitude every single day, but it’s ok as long as you don’t give up. It’s the same as going to the gym: that gratitude “muscle” needs to be worked out in the same way as our triceps or glutes, for example.
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 your strengths optimally. And I will give you an example on why it is important to know HOW you should use your strengths:
- 1st – because any strength that is underused or overused becomes a weakness and
- 2nd – because let’s say your top strength is Forgiveness, for example. Being over-forgiving will make others treat you like a doormat, and so you will feel that everyone takes advantage of you, which can only lead to frustration. Which leads to dissatisfaction about relationships, both personally and professionally.
So, how can we best use our strengths? Well:
Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence can be underused when we are oblivious and/or stuck in autopilot. It is overused when we are snobbs and/or perfectionistic. While the OPTIMAL use is seeing the life behind things:
Hope is underused when we are negative and past-oriented. Overused when we are unrealistic and blindly optimistic. While the OPTIMAL use is to have positive expectations and be optimistic.
Gratitude is underused when we are self-absorbed and behave like we are entitled. Too much gratitude can seem contrived and/or repetitive to the recipients, in the way that they are not looking for thanks or do not experience what they’ve done as special. While the OPTIMAL use is to feel connected and to appreciate the positives, taking the time to understand why you are grateful, where the thing/person you are grateful for came from, how it feels in your body when you experience gratitude.
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 