The crux of this post will be a personality test. No not the kind that tells you what kind of dog you would be.
I usually wind up as a basset hound, in case you were wondering.
This test will tell you what your core strengths are, personality wise.
Why should I care what my strengths are?
Always a good point to bring up, hypothetical reader. You have such good questions.
Abraham Maslow, the guy who came up with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, said “What one can do one must do.”
I do love that quote. To put it in easy to understand terms if you are great at something and don’t do it, you aren’t living up to your potential.
Studies by Martin Seligman (one of the founders of positive psychology) show that not doing stuff you are good at makes you unhappy. Turns out Maslow was right.
Alright, what are my strengths then?
Heck if I know. Luckily there is a test that will tell you. If you are in a hurry, go to authentichappiness.com and look for the link that says “Brief Strengths Test” Sadly you have to make a free account but the test doesn’t take long either and the results are worth it. Take the test now or continue reading, I will still be here when you get back either way.
What strengths are there?
After studying numerous cultures, from modern to ancient and religions around the world researchers found that there are 6 core areas that are universally agreed upon. This in of itself is an interesting find so they took it further. The facets were broken down into 24 ideas that are present in all people and represent how you approach life. So here they are in alphabetical order.
- Appreciation of beauty and excellence
- Bravery
- Citizenship
- Curiosity
- Creativity
- Fairness
- Forgiveness and mercy
- Gratitude
- Hope
- Humility/modesty
- Humor
- Integrity
- Kindness
- Leadership
- Love
- Love of learning
- Open-mindedness
- Persistence
- Perspective
- Prudence
- Self regulation
- Social intelligence
- Spirituality
- Vitality
I would give you descriptions for these but honestly most are self evident. Also when you take the test there are nice blurbs that tell more about each one so no point in duplicating that here.
So what did you get then?
Well that is kind of forward of you. Here are my top traits, no particular ordering:
- Leadership
- Integrity
- Charisma
- Humor
Note: I did get rankings for all the traits as you will but these are the traits I always show and hence bothered to memorize. Plus they spell lich so that helps.
What do I do now with this knowledge?
The first step for things like this is to make sure the results make sense to you. Try to differentiate between “this doesn’t make sense for me” and “I don’t want to believe this is true.” If the first, ignore it and get on with your life, if the second you have some more work to do. But at least now you have a good direction to start in.
You may have noticed these strengths tell you how you solve problems but not what to do with them. I have always wanted to help spread knowledge and improve peoples lives so by going back to my strengths I worked at coming up with a way to meet my goal while being true to myself. As an example, here is how I use my top four strengths here.
To me a leader leads by example. So all the advice you see here is from the trenches of my own life. If I share a tip it is because I did it and would recommend it to others.
Integrity means being honest about my intentions and unwavering to who I am. This blog is for people improving their lives because that is what I am trying to do and share in an honest way with you all.
Without curiosity I would run out of topics to write about pretty quick, as well as stall out in my own personal goals.
And humor; I’m sure by now you are aware that I am hilarious. If you don’t think so then you would probably hate me in person even more.
Quit stalling and take the test!
- Go to http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx
- Click on the Brief Strengths Test
- Create an account or sign in
- Take the test
