Anways, the episode of "This Emotional Life" I just finished watching inspired me to take this Positive Psychology survey. I was attracted to it because I seriously need help in focusing on what my strengths are because I tend to dwell on my weaknesses. So, I took the survey -- which is 240 questions -- and bought the full results (I'm curious like that I guess) and here are my Signature Strengths:
1. Love of Learning
2. Gratitude
3. Judgement and Open-Mindedness
4. Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence
5. Curiosity
6. Fairness
They also provided a "Balance" graph that I thought very interesting:
My Signature Strengths have a dark dot next to them and are plotted on a scale showing the relation of each strength to mind-vs-body and focus-on-self-vs-focus-on-others. With the list and the graph, I must say I am not surprised. Although, I am pleased to see somethings I know to be true about myself articulated. Most of my sig. strengths are on the "focus on self" side of the scale, which I think correlates to my introverted nature. I'm proud that I seem to be balanced in Heart and Mind.
Again, this all comes back to Gretchen Rubin's book/blog "The Happiness Project." Her first commandment is to "Be Gretchen." I have always had a hard time with this commandment, to "Be Jennie," because I thought it too hard or not fulfilling. For some reason, I always feel like the things I really like or the things I'm good at are not good enough. I need to try harder and be someone more special to be loved.... I guess that's why I was so curious about this survey. I wanted to see what "Being Jennie" means right now -- since I'm usually trying to undermine myself. I'm glad that I am who I always suspected I was...
The comparative graph is especially interesting. I won't show it here (it's hard to read) but basically all my top 10 strengths are relatively uncommon for females my age with Bachelor degrees. Of course that totally makes sense to me (I always feel like a fish out of water with other women my age), but it's fascinating seeing the numbers. My top strength, Love of Learning, is especially unique for my peers: only 10% of my peers scored higher than me on this survey.
For each signature strength, the report has suggestions for further cultivating that strength:
1. Love of Learning: participate in formal or informal ways of learning new things such as taking classes, joining clubs, or starting a hobby. They note that any recreational activity OTHER than watching TV provides ways to use this strength and enhance it. Unfortunately, I love TV and I use it to help my stupid brain stop thinking all the freakin' time...
2. Gratitude: count blessings on a regular basis -- preferably in writing -- and think about why those good things happened. They talked about this in the movie I watched. They suggested writing 3 reasons for why those good things happened, which sounds very interesting to me. Usually I just feel grateful and then guilty for not being more worthy of such good things. I wonder if I reflect deeper on good things that happen to me if I'll finally be able to see that I helped them occur (in other words, I am worthy). My mind already knows that to be partially true, but my heart does not.
3. Judgement and Open-Mindedness: consider other points of view, try living briefly as if you have different opinions, order a meal or see a movie you wouldn't normally, surround yourself with people that have different viewpoints, and aim to collect rather than evaluate information you receive. All all accounts, I think I do these things very well -- besides living as if I have different opinions. That sounds weird. BUT, I do know people with different view points from mine, and it doesn't lower my respect for those people. I do learn from them and enjoy thinking about their lives and why they think that way. I'm probably most proud of this trait. But...I wonder if THIS is why I love judge shows so much??!
4. Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence: learn how to savor positive emotions (from appreciating beauty/excellence) better, share your appreciation with other like-minded individuals, immerse yourself in the experience, keep a beauty log to record beautiful things you experience, take souvenirs and do not put them out of sight in a drawer, learn more about those people who impress you (role models). The last three suggestions for this strength really strike a chord with me. I often find myself in a situation where I wish I could bottle up a moment and save it for later -- so I never forget. Keeping a record or displaying souvenirs is perfect for that. Also, I have been thinking on and off for over a year now about assembling a display of all the people I find to be my role-models. Just thinking about them gives me a boost and makes me feel special for some reason.
5. Curiosity: identify an area in which you are an expert and resolve to become more of an expert, practice becoming curious when you come upon an activity you dislike, write about ways you use curiosity at work/family life/pursuit of pleasure. Meh, I don't have much to say about this one.
6. Fairness: approach a moral dilemma from a different perspective, think about ways of tolerating differences & appreciating different cultures. Meh (who wrote these last two strength-building-suggestions?! They're really bland...)
Okay, that's the end of my long post. I guess since I haven't been able to talk lately because of my stupid throat, it all came out here...in the Dairy :) Sometimes being sick can be good for you. At least, I think my body decided to teach me a lesson for ignoring it these past few (more like 6) months.
PS: the viacharacter.org site advertises the key strengths of other people that took the survey. So far, I've seen "Kindness" and "Humor," both of which I scored very low on. I'm kind of glad, though.... I like my strengths a lot better :)
