Discovering your superpowers and putting them to use
We all have a unique set of strengths - the things we're just naturally good at. When we use and develop these strengths, they become our own set of superpowers that enable maximum performance, confidence and wellbeing.
What do we mean by 'strengths'?
Your strengths are the unique combination of your character (personality traits) and talents (abilities). They're the things you're naturally good at without even trying.
You're likely to already have some awareness of your talents since they're often easy to notice. For example musical, athletic, artistic or cognitive abilities.
Whereas, your character traits are the parts of your personality that impact how you think, feel and behave. For example you might have curiosity as a character strength, which drives you to ask questions to understand how things work.
Using strengths vs improving weaknesses
A lot of people focus on trying to 'fix' their weaknesses. What most people don't realise is you get a much bigger reward when you invest your time and energy in developing your strengths instead.
You can make your strengths exceptional, but it'll take infinitely more effort (and struggle) to become even remotely as good in the areas you're not naturally strong in (like flossing - no one is good at making flossing look graceful).
Developing strengths to maximise performance
The best way to develop your strengths is to actively seek out opportunities to put them to use. Do this as often as you can. For example, if you're working on a team project and you have curiosity as a strength, you might want to put your hand up to do the research for the project. If leadership is a strength, nominate yourself as team leader.
The bonus of this is that when you're using your strengths, it's easier to find a sense of 'flow' where you get into the zone and everything just seems to just flow.
It gets easier to find opportunities to use your strengths the more you learn about them and the more you tune in to them.
Knowing your weaknesses
Just like everyone has strengths, everyone has weaknesses. You can't be great at everything. No one is. Seriously, stop trying to turn weaknesses into strengths.
BUT...
It's important to be aware of your weaknesses (or 'lesser strengths'). This awareness can help you recognise when a weakness is getting in your way so you can figure out how to work around it by using... you guessed it, strengths.
How can I discover my character strengths?
There are tests that can help you find your character strengths (don't worry - there's no right or wrong answers!).
Our fave is the VIA Character Strengths Survey method, a well-established strengths framework based on global scientific studies that identified 24 core character strengths.
Everyone expresses all 24 character strengths to different levels. Some are strong strengths and others are lesser strengths (weaknesses).
The VIA test asks you a series of questions to help determine these strengths (this takes about 8-minutes and results aren't publicly published). Learning about your strengths and lesser strengths is a great first step on a journey to discover more about who you are, what's important to you and how you can leave your mark on the world.
Download the Hodie app, take the VIA Character Strengths Survey to reveal your character superpowers and start flexing your strengths!