Virtues and Strengths

Talents and Strengths Talents: Innate Either have them or you don’t If we have them we have them whether we choose to use them or not Nonmoral (neither good nor bad) Relatively automatic Limited buildability

Strengths Can be chosen and nurtured Can decide when to use it, whether to keep building it, or whether to acquire it in the first place “Building strengths and virtues and using them in daily life are very much a matter of making choices. Building strength and virtue is not about learning, training, and conditioning, but about discovery, creation, and ownership” “usually produces authentic positive emotion in the doer: pride, satisfaction, joy, fulfillment, and or harmony”

Strengths Not all of our top strengths are “signature strengths”. How to know which ones are signature: A sense of ownership and authenticity (“This is the real me”) A feeling of excitement while displaying it, particularly at first A rapid learning curve as the strength is first practiced A sense of yearning to find ways to use it A feeling of inevitability in using the strength (“Try and stop me”) Invigoration rather than exhaustion while using the strength The creation and pursuit of personal projects that revolve around it Joy, zest, enthusiasm, and/or ecstasy while using it

Strengths When used can bring sense of happiness and fulfillment Allow us to experience “flow” choose or design and activity in which you use one or more of your signature strengths Allow yourself to become immersed in the experience Allow us to potentially influence others