Character Strengths1
To practice this character strength is to face your challenges, threats, or difficulties. It involves valuing a goal or conviction and acting upon it, whether popular or not.
Bravery (valor)
this strength involves producing ideas or behaviors that are original. However, originality is not enough: whatever is created, whether an idea or a product, must also be useful or adaptable.
Creativity (originality, ingenuity)
This character strength is to extend understanding towards those who have wronged or hurt us. It is a process of humanizing those who have led us to feel dehumanized.
Forgiveness (mercy)
This character strength involves taking the time to genuinely express thankfulness to others. This thankfulness can be for specific gifts or thoughtful acts. It could also more generally reflect recognition of what that person contributes to your life.
Gratitude
This strength is to explore and discover, to take an interest in ongoing experience for its own sake. It is often described as novelty-seeking. It is fulfilling to journey toward an answer, to engage in a new experience, or to learn a new fact.
Curiosity (interest, novelty-seeking, openness to experience)
When you practice this character strength you present yourself in a genuine and sincere way, without pretense, and taking responsibility for your feelings and actions.
Honesty (integrity, authenticity)
This strength is treating people equally, not letting your personal feelings bias your decisions about others. You want to give everyone a chance, and believe there should be equal opportunity for all.
Fairness
This character strength is being generous with others, giving your time, money, and talent to support those who are in need. It means to really be there for someone, listening intently to their suffering or just sitting with them and silently supporting them.
Kindness (generosity, nurturance, care, compassion, altruistic love, niceness)
This character strength involves being open-minded and able to change one’s mind in the light of evidence, remaining open to other arguments and perspectives
Judgement (open-mindedness, critical thinking)
This character strength involves optimistic thinking and focusing on good things to come. It is more than a feel-good emotion. It is an action-oriented strength involving agency, the motivation and confidence that goals can be reached,
Hope (optimism, future-mindedness, future orientation)
This character strength involves setting goals and accomplishing them, enlisting effective help, building coalitions, and smoothing ruffled feathers.
Leadership
This character strength means being hardworking and finishing what is started, despite barriers and obstacles that arise. It involves organizing oneself to support activities (e.g., scheduling breaks and sticking to them, rewarding in small ways along the way), but when all else fails, this strength helps the person to barrel through until the project is done.
Perseverance (persistence, industriousness)
The creator of the concept of 'flow', and one of the founders of the field of positive psychology.
Double Points: spell their name correctly!!
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
This character trait has been defined consistently by scientists as the search for or connection with “the sacred”. The sacred might be that which is blessed, holy, revered, or particularly special. This can be secular or non-secular: sacredness might be pursued as the search for a purpose in life or as a close relationship with something greater.
Spirituality (religiousness, faith, purpose)
This character strength refers to the degree to which you value close relationships with people, and contribute to that closeness in a warm and genuine way.
Love
This character strength extends to being a good citizen of your community or country, and more broadly to a sense of social responsibility for particular groups of people or even all of humanity. In other words, the person high in this strength applies a certain way of acting in whatever context they consider themselves committed to the good of the group as a whole.
Teamwork (citizenship, social responsibility, loyalty)
Those high in this character strength have a good level of confidence in their belief that they can be effective in what they pursue and are likely to achieve their goals. They are admired for their ability to control their reactions to disappointment and insecurities. It can be viewed as a resource that can be depleted and fatigued.
Self-Regulation (self-control)
This character strength involves accurately evaluating your accomplishments. A common misconception is that this strength involves having a low self-esteem, a sense of unworthiness, and/or a lack of self-focus.
Humility (Modesty)
When a person knows what makes other people tick, he or she is displaying this character strength. They’re aware of the motives and feelings of themselves and others, and how to fit into different situations.
Social Intelligence (emotional intelligence, personal intelligence)
This character strength means not approaching tasks or activities halfway or halfheartedly. People who are high in this strength live their lives like an adventure. It is a dynamic strength that is directly related to physical and psychological wellness. This strength has the strongest ties to overall life satisfaction and a life of engagement.
Zest (enthusiasm, vigor, energy, vitality)
This character strength represents a high level of knowledge, the capacity to give advice and to recognize and weight multiple sides before making decisions. It allows the individual to address important questions about the conduct and meaning of life.
Perspective (wisdom)
People high in this strength are responsive to these three types of goodness:
PHYSICAL GOODNESS: This may include auditory, tactile or abstract. This type of goodness produces awe and wonder in the person experiencing it.
SKILL OR TALENT: This is often energizing, and compels a person to pursue their own goals. It inspires admiration.
VIRTUE OR MORAL GOODNESS: Virtuous goodness makes someone want to be better, more loving and creates feelings of elevation.
APPRECIATION OF BEAUTY & EXCELLENCE (awe, wonder, elevation)
This character strength describes the way in which a person engages new skills. It is a strength that teachers would like to see in their students, parents want to encourage in their children, therapists support in their clients, and employers try to foster in their employees.
Love of Learning
This character strength can contribute to team building or moving toward group goals. Where other strengths are more or less essential for achieving certain types of goals or dealing with certain types of problems, this strength is rarely an essential component to positive social interactions, but it is often a desirable one.
Humor (playfulness)
This character strength means being careful about your choices, stopping and thinking before acting. It is a strength of restraint. When you practice this strength, you are not taking unnecessary risks, and not saying or doing things that you might later regret. It involves far-sighted planning as well as short-term, goal-directed planning.
Prudence