embrace your essence: a note on discovering your character strengths
When someone asks you what your strengths are, what do you say? When I’ve heard others answer that question, they usually mention some of the more common ones: communication, patience, teamwork, leadership, etc. And those are great, but what about some of the less mainstream strengths, like curiosity, fairness, humor or prudence?
I recently took the Character Strengths Assessment from the VIA’s Institute on Character. “In the early 2000s, scientists discovered a common language of 24 character strengths that make up what’s best about our personality. Everyone possesses all 24 character strengths in different degrees, so each person has a truly unique character strengths profile. Each character strength falls under one of six broad virtue categories, which are universal across cultures and nations. See the full character strengths list here and learn more about each one.” (Idk about you but I find this stuff FASCINATING.)
Anyway, when I took the assessment, my top strength came back as “Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence”. At first, I thought that seemed somewhat ordinary to be my TOP character strength, but the more I dove in, the more I realized how accurate it is and how often I actually wield it. If you know me, you know it’s not unlike me to point out or take a picture of something I think is sweet throughout the day — I thought the seeing and the savoring was just something I did, I never considered it to be a legitimate strength I had to offer. Suddenly, it makes total sense why I stopped to take this picture of those eggs in that wooden bowl because they just looked too pretty not to (!) or why I live for ‘beauty emergencies’: those things you have to stop and look at before they’re gone. Now I know why savoring sunsets and words and moments are so important to me — because seeing beauty in the small corners of the mundane day-to-day isn’t just something I enjoy, it’s my strength, my essence, my special sauce! And if you’ve ever been grabbing coffee with me and had to wait for me to take a picture of your latte or your donut before you took your first taste, well, now you know why. Hellooo, I was strength building. ;)
Owning this as a strength truly was a validating lightbulb moment for me — learning I could leverage this part of my personality made me want to work even harder to lean into the tendencies and the pulls to document, to photograph, to share because it’s my gift! Now I’m working even harder at actively showing up for others with this strength in my toolbox, affirming the beauty and the excellence I see out loud instead of just thinking it because I believe our strengths are directly tied to our callings. Learning about my top strength means that appreciating the beauty around me isn’t just something I do haphazardly, it’s something I can (and should) be leveraging as part of my calling by showing up for others in this way.
So what about you? What’s your essence? What’s your top character strength? I think you’ll find it’s what set you apart from everyone else. What you may have classified as a trait you acquired as a result of various experiences in your life could now be one of your top strengths, something you can intertwine with your calling and your purpose. Certainly many of us have a good grasp on some of the more commonplace strengths like honesty, integrity, kindness or love, but I think we can also be proud of and invest more time in owning the more obscure, unique strengths that make us who we are. Who knows, maybe if you’ve been feeling a little lost in your purpose or your direction, IDing your character strengths might help you know where to focus more of your energy moving forward.
Do you want to get your own Character Strengths profile? Click here to take the assessment (fyi: you have to register with your email to take the survey, but it’s free and I haven’t gotten any spam emails from them).
One of my favorite quotes from The Ministry of Ordinary Places says this:
“The loudest revolutions often begin so quietly, so unassumingly near the ground that most don’t bother to notice. I won’t speak for you, but surrounded by cynics, worrywarts, doomsday prophets and Facebook apologists with their lofty solutions, I’d rather be a hope-holder with mud on my shoes. We might have a zillion reasons to be jaded about our world, but that is not the kind of person I want to be. I want to be someone who clings to the grace and the gifts and the good. Rather than spend my days scanning the digital horizon for a dopamine hit of false comfort, I want to keep my ear tuned to the groanings of my place. I want to stand ready, as Christ’s ambassador in my neighborhood, wearing grace, flesh and skinny jeans. I want to belong, just as I am, and I want to get better at loving people for every good and puzzling thing they are.” - Shannan Martin
If your top strength ends up being bravery, I hope you’ll continue speaking up for what’s right even if there’s opposition and you feel more equipped to lean into this strength to stand with others, too. If your best strength comes back as zest, I hope you know you inspire others just by approaching life with adventure, excitement and energy. If your best strength is forgiveness or perspective, I hope you’ll utilize those to provide wise counsel and show others the power of second chances. And if your top strength comes back the same as mine (yay!), first, feel free to share those moments with me always, but also, let’s take it one step further and be more intentional about vocalizing the beauty and excellence we see in others.
Friends, let’s use our strengths to keep our ears tuned to the needs of those around us. Let’s use our strengths to be hope-holders, standing ready to help ourselves and those around us find increased joy, goodness and meaning in the world.
Taste what’s good and pass it on. xx
