Strength Finding: 57 Questions, Exercises & Activities
What are your strengths? Check out these activities and self-reflection questions to get a better idea of your areas of strength.
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What Are Strengths?
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Why Might We Want to Find Our Strengths?
By spending some time thinking about your strengths (and weaknesses) you might get to know new things about yourself. Even beyond discovering your specific strengths, you might discover other things about the way you think or the way other people think about you.
2. Finding your strengths can help you like yourself more
Strength finding is a tool that is often used in positive psychology. That’s because thinking about our strengths can help us focus more on the positive aspects of ourselves (Proyer, Gander, Wellenzohn, & Ruch, 2015).
3. Finding your strengths can show you what to focus on
Once we know our strengths, we can use those strengths to improve our lives. For example, in one study where people used a personal strength each day for one week, they showed an increase in happiness, and that increase in happiness persisted six months later (Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005).
Strength Finding Questions
Finding your skills
- Do you have any degrees or certificates?
- Do you speak any languages?
- Have you taken any trainings or courses?
- Do you know how to use any computer programs?
- Do you have experience doing specific things?
Finding your ‘soft’ skills
Finding your character strengths
- Do you have positive personal qualities?
- What are the good parts of your personality?
- Which of your traits benefit your well-being?
- Which of your traits benefit your work?
- Which of your traits benefit others?
Video: How to Find Your Strengths
Strength Finding Test
Want to keep assessing your strengths? Indicate how much you agree or disagree with the following statements. Keep an eye out for high scores—these are likely to your areas of strength.
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Leadership: I take charge.
Strongly disagree Strongly agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Friendliness: I make friends easily. Strongly disagree Strongly agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Creativity: I like to solve complex problems. Toughness: I am not embarrassed easily. Adaptability: I adapt easily to new situations. Cautiousness: I tend to take precautions. Rationality: I do things in a logical order. Ingenuity: I am full of ideas. Imaginative: I have a vivid imagination. Persistence: I don’t quit a task before it’s finished. Trustworthy: I keep my promises. Adventurous: I prefer variety to routine. Fearlessness: I face danger confidently. Patience: I am usually a patient person. Wisdom: I have a broad outlook on what is going on. Liveliness: I maintain high energy throughout the day. Acceptance: I take things as they come. Empathy: I feel others’ emotions. |
Competence: I come up with good solutions.
Strongly disagree Strongly agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Calmness: I am relaxed most of the time. Strongly disagree Strongly agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Trusting: I trust what people say. Caring: I know how to comfort others. Intellectual: I am quick to understand things. High-achieving: I do more than what’s expected of me. Team-player: I enjoy being part of a group. Fair: I treat all people equally. Forgiving: I let bygones be bygones. Optimistic: I look on the bright side. Kind: I am never too busy to help a friend. Self-control: I am a highly disciplined person. Bravery: I have taken frequent stands in the face of strong opposition. Modesty: I don’t act as if I’m a special person. Originality: I am able to come up with new and different ideas. Organized: I keep things tidy. Grateful: I stop to count my blessings. Tolerance: I accept people as they are. Romanticism: I see beauty in things others might not notice. |
Video: How to Focus on Strengths
Strengths Finding Exercises
Strength finding exercise 1: Imagine your best self
Take a moment now to imagine the best possible version of yourself in the future (Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2006). Try to be as specific as possible by thinking about the best possible life you can imagine. Ask yourself, who would you be? What would be your strengths and how would you be using them? Where would you be? What would you be doing?
Strength finding exercise 2: Reflect more deeply on your positive qualities
Once you know some of your character strengths, take a moment to reflect on how these strengths affect your life. What do you do that shows these strengths? What are the positive impacts of these strengths on your life? And how do your strengths benefit others? Think through what it actually means that you have these strengths.
Strength finding exercise 3: Build your strengths
We often want to work on our weaknesses, but we can also work on making our strengths even stronger. Take a moment to think about how you could get even better at one of your strengths, turning it into a super-strength. Might you practice using your strength more often? Get feedback from others on how to improve this strength? Or, ask yourself, might you use this strength in new contexts or situations? Building on our strengths can actually be an easy and beneficial way to improve our skills.
A Few More Examples of Strengths
Here are some more strengths to explore. Do you think you have any of these?
Strength Finding Activities
- VIA character strength test. One of the most well-known and respected strength-finding tests is the VIA character strength test. It’s based on research and free to the public.
- Use your strengths activity. This activity was created by UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center and can help you think about how to use your strengths.
Strength Finding (SWOT) Analysis
Strengths and weaknesses are our internal factors. Opportunities and threats are external factors. It is thought that SWOT is a useful strategic planning tool. By knowing more about where you (or your project) is strong or weak, you can make more informed decisions about what to pursue or what to do next (Gürel & Tat, 2017).
Strength Finding Articles
Books Related to Strength Finding
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References
- Gürel, E., & Tat, M. (2017). SWOT analysis: a theoretical review. Journal of International Social Research, 10(51).
- Proyer, R. T., Gander, F., Wellenzohn, S., & Ruch, W. (2015). Strengths-based positive psychology interventions: A randomized placebo-controlled online trial on long-term effects for a signature strengths-vs. a lesser strengths-intervention. Frontiers in psychology, 6, 456.
- Seligman, M. E., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: Empirical validation of interventions. American Psychologist, 60(5), 410-421.
- Sheldon, K. M., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2006). How to increase and sustain positive emotion: The effects of expressing gratitude and visualizing best possible selves. Journal of Positive Psychology, 1(2), 73-82.
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