Knowing your inner strengths allows you to rally them when you face a challenge, large or small. I’ve seen it happen time and again: for instance, knowing hers helped my friend Laurie navigate a tough year full of medical tests and treatment, and my son used two of his to bring up some of his marks at school.
Both print and interactive versions are available for download.
To help you find your inner strengths, I created this little workbook that you’re welcome to download for free, no strings attached. It’s simple to use but can have a powerful impact: practiced over time, it can actually rewire your brain to see things more positively and trigger the use of your greatest strengths.
When you know your strengths, you can use them to handle your challenges
Each day for a week, write down three good things that happened that day and, if applicable, what you did that contributed to that good thing happening. Over time you’ll see some patterns emerging. Maybe, like Laurie, gratitude helps you see the good even in difficult times, or you claim your love of learning and ask lots of questions. Perhaps, like Max, teamwork and curiosity help you do well. Or maybe you have a couple of the strengths I used to make this workbook: I like making new things (creativity) that help people (kindness).
By noticing what went well, you’ll also be developing your strength of gratitude, which is a great way to balance our human tendency to focus on the negative. Research has shown that doing exercises like this even alleviates symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Next steps
Use this workbook for a few days and see what you discover. If you enjoy the process, print more copies and keep going – the longer you do it, the more automatic it will become to notice what went well and how you helped it happen.
Next week, I’ll write a post about what you can do with the information you’re beginning to learn about yourself: how to begin harnessing your strengths so you can use them more intentionally in all sorts of ways.
In the following week’s post, I’ll give you ideas for using this workbook or concept with anyone who looks to you for leadership, such as your family, students or employees.
At the end of the month we’ll wrap up this topic with stories from you all: What worked? What didn’t? What wisdom can you share to help make this an even richer experience for other people?
I look forward to hearing from you and am happy to answer questions and field comments whenever you have them. Starting now. Let’s go!