To fully understand why strengths are so important, we need to first recognize what human beings want. Human beings have some fundamental needs that include expressing who we are, being recognized/valued/accepted by others, and feeling like we’re part of something...
When we commit to using our character strengths continuously and in new ways, we engage those strengths in a more authentic and natural expression, which literally increases our capacity to do. This upward spiral produces what is commonly known as “flow”. When things...
Many people feel like they are mismatched in their jobs and with their coworkers—finding themselves in a “crisis of disengagement.” We certainly can’t expect our organizations to run well if we don’t achieve a good fit between the employees and their work roles. The...
Every culture has its own version of social envy, the “green-eyed monster” that keeps people striving for things they don’t really need because those things are perceived as status symbols. There’s nothing wrong with healthy competition in sports or the marketplace,...
We are born with everything we need to lead fulfilling lives. All twenty-four character strengths can be found in all human beings across the globe. Some of us are born into environments that cloud our access to that inner wisdom, but even in the worst of...
Stopping to get gas at a convenience store, I realized many of us are killing ourselves with our choices. The manager of the store, a friend of mine, was sitting on a bench outside taking a break. He was smoking and drinking a gigantic soda. In his early thirties, he...