As my 30 day practice of identifying my heroes list continues, I’ve moved from story book characters to real people. One of my recent teachers, Tal Ben Shahar, the Chief Learning Officer at the Wholebeing Institute made the list. He was one of the instructors in a positive psychology certificate program I took in 2015.
Tal is a person that has an energy about him that is rare. When I first heard him speak at a conference in 2014 I knew I wanted to study with him. He is one of the pioneers of positive psychology.
Positive Psychology is the scientific study of the strengths that enable individuals and communities to thrive. The field is founded on the belief that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves, and to enhance their experiences of love, work, and play.A study of strengths is quite a different approach. It’s a focus on what’s working. Being a defiant optimist I liked this approach. One of Tal’s sayings is appreciate the good and the good appreciates. This idea of strengths as a guide to wholebeing caught my attention.
There are many “tests” in the business world to identify strengths, though often they are more about personality traits or work habits. One of Tal’s close colleagues, Martin Seligman, at Penn in Philadelphia also made my list of heroes. In his work related to positive psychology, well being and flourishing, he developed a quick, free test to identify strengths, the VIA Character Strengths.
But how can this be helpful?
First the research. In a study in 2015 of nearly 10,000 New Zealand workers, they examined indicators of flourishing. Seligman identifies five endeavors crucial to human flourishing – positive emotion, engagement, good relationships, meaning and purpose in life, and accomplishment
So just knowing what you do well is already a huge step toward flourishing. Often we overlook the things that come natural to us. We keep striving to shore up the weakness. Yet, studies show if we align our work with our strengths, it takes a lot less effort, we are happy and more successful. Here are the 24 strengths.
That all sounds good for work. What about in life? How can your strengths enhance wholebeing?
My top strength is Appreciation of Beauty & Excellence. I had taken the test a while back not really know what to do with that. In the summer I had an awakening to my deep connection and appreciation of plants. I began what was to be a 30 day practice to take a picture of a plant each day and post it on facebook. After 30 days I could not stop. I had a bit of a following on facebook and several things began happening.
The habit of looking for plants and taking the picture forced me when I was out walking, or in the city or at a new place, to stop and look, literally to stop and smell the roses. Typically I can get very consumed with my thoughts and not notice where I am and what is around me.
The habit forced me to stop and be where I was. As I took photos I had several conversations with people who asked what I was doing. One woman when I told her even excitedly directed me to some beautiful flowers just around another corner from where I was that I would have missed.
Looking and appreciating the beauty changed my days. These few minutes of looking tapped into something that really makes me happy and joy filled. Sharing the photos with friends offered something else on facebook that people appreciated, especially these past few months. I was in awe when I got a beautiful shot and how my phone could capture colors and frost crystals. This one practice leveraged one of my strengths into an avalanche of benefits for me, enhanced my wholebeing and just made life more fun.
That 30 day practice lasted 120 days.
What are your strengths?
How could you use them to enhance your wholebeing?
Be well, it’s a state of mind.