I’m a optimist. I find the opportunity in any problem. My happiness bucket is often full to the brim, yet I still strive for more. The quest for happiness is the reason humans do most of what we do, with varying degrees of long term success.
While standing in the grocery checkout line, I noticed a Time special edition entitled The Science of Happiness which wound up in my cart. One of its first tenets is that personal growth is not a way to increase your happiness in that it makes us focus on our weaknesses instead of our strengths. Initially I struggled with this idea, particularly since I’m on a path of personal growth. If you’ve read other posts on this blog, you’ll already know that I am a lifelong learner. The constant acquisition of knowledge on a wide variety of topics, including myself, is a source of fulfillment for me.
Organizations tend to be interested in your strengths. Think about your resume. It’s filled with all the things you do really well. Many tools have been developed to help identify what you are good at, how you work best, and which side of your brain you tend to favor.
Have you ever taken the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument® (HBDI®) test? It’s used where I work as a way of understanding how team members can compliment each other’s thinking styles. My preference is Quadrant D, Green. At work, this represents planning and organization. Overall, I am nearly evenly balanced between the left and right modes, and between upper and lower modes.
What about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®)? My personality type is INTJ. This type indicates a person who is energized by time alone (Introverted), who focuses on ideas and concepts rather than facts and details (iNtuitive), who makes decisions based on logic and reason (Thinking) and who prefers to be planned and organized rather than spontaneous and flexible (Judging). (Did you notice the recurrence of planning and organizing?) Apparently only 1% of women are this type.
The article in The Science of Happiness that suggests we focus on our strengths in order to increase our happiness mentioned a survey from the VIA Institute on Character (http://viacharacter.org/ ). Their motto is “The science of strengths. The practice of well-being.” Of course I had to take the test! While I didn’t pay for the complete analysis of my character profile, the site provides a personalized ranking of the 24 strengths, which can be grouped into six “virtues.” Below are my top five strengths, along with the virtue each belongs to.
Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence (Transcendence): Noticing and appreciating beauty, excellence and/or skilled performance in various domains of life, from nature to art to mathematics to science to everyday experience.
Honesty (Courage): Speaking the truth but more broadly presenting oneself in a genuine way and acting in a sincere way; being without pretense; taking responsibility for one’s feelings and actions.
Perspective (Wisdom): Being able to provide wise counsel to others; having ways of looking a the world that make sense to oneself/others.
Hope (Transcendence): Expecting the best in the future and working to achieve it; believing that a good future is something that can be brought about.
Love of Learning (Wisdom): Mastering new skills, topics, and bodies of knowledge, whether on one’s own or formally; related to the strength of curiosity but goes beyond it to describe the tendency to add systematically to what one knows.
These five strengths are a beautiful expression of Adrienne. Nature, art and music all stop me in my tracks. While I’ve learned to soften my honesty, you’ll always know what I think about any situation. All information I’ve acquired is readily available to others, and if I don’t have the answer, I’ll work to find it. My optimistic outlook nurtures positive outcomes. While learning comes in fifth, it is the underpinning of everything that makes me me.
VIA reports that our strengths are a pathway to and the expression of fulfillment in life, which certainly holds true for me. Introspection and focus on my personal opportunities for improvement are also leading to increased happiness.