Increase Happiness By Using Your Signature Strengths

 When people talk about the science of happiness – a topic I love – they usually talk about the importance of exercise, the benefits of meditation, or the value of gratitude journaling. And clearly I’m as guilty of that as anyone in the self-development field.

But positive psychology has more to offer than that. There is another practice that might be both easier to do and more universally helpful: using your signature strengths.

Research has demonstrated that the more often you use your signature strengths, the happier you become.¹ All other things being equal, we prefer to spend our time being effective, we enjoy activities that align with our natural abilities, and we like doing things at which we are skilled.

You can find ways to use your signature strengths in your work, your hobbies, and your home life. If you do, you’ll discover that life is more satisfying when you’re doing the things you’re best at. Indeed, research shows that people who use their signature strengths on a regular basis enjoy more fulfilling careers and better relationships.²

But before you say to yourself, “Got it. Use my strengths.” and stop reading, please know that the actual science here is more nuanced than it sounds. Psychologists have created detailed classifications of human strengths, and they’ve created corresponding guides for the use of those strengths.

Step one is identifying what your signature strengths are. It’s not enough to just casually think about what you’re good at. You’re going to need professional help. But don’t worry – it’s free.

Identifying

Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman, both keystone professors at the U Penn Positive Psychology Center, created the VIA (Values In Action) Classification, which catalogs human virtues and strengths. You can take the test for free here. Seriously, bookmark this page or email it to yourself to do later, or just do it as soon as you finish reading this. Heck, you could just do it right now. It takes about 15 minutes.

The test results alone are pretty enlightening, but if you want VIA’s advice on how to implement your top five signature strengths, you’ll have to pay $19. So another option that is not free, but excellent and highly affordable ($17.30 when I last checked), is StrengthsFinder 2.0.

This book, by Tom Rath, builds off of the work of Donald Clifton, the man who pioneered the concept of signature strengths before positive psychologists created the VIA Classification. Their test, and the corresponding list of strengths, is similar to the VIA model. And if you buy the book (a new copy, not a used copy), you’ll get an access code to take the test online.

The book has a breakdown of each strength, ideas for how to use it, and strategies for how to interact well with people who have strengths different from your own. So if, say, your spouse or your business partner takes the test and shares their results with you, you can learn how to have a better relationship with them.

Both tests have value, and there is a fair amount of overlap between them. The main difference is that VIA is more mental-health-focused, while StrengthsFinder is more career-focused. I’ve taken both and will be discussing my results – and how I’ve applied them – as an example of how to use your signature strengths.

Note: Often the focus is on your top five signature strengths, but to give you a better sense of the options and their application, I’m giving you my top seven from each test.

My VIA Top 7

(descriptions quoted from my test results)

1. Appreciation of Beauty & Excellence: 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.
2. Honesty: 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.
3. Love of Learning: 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.
4. Gratitude: Being aware of and thankful for the good things that happen; taking time to express thanks.
5. Humor: Liking to laugh and tease; bringing smiles to other people; seeing the light side; making (not necessarily telling) jokes.
6. Creativity: Thinking of novel and productive ways to conceptualize and do things; includes artistic achievement but is not limited to it.
7. Zest: Approaching life with excitement and energy; not doing things halfway or halfheartedly; living life as an adventure; feeling alive and activated.

How I’m Using My VIA Top 7

Here are some of the ways I’m deliberately using my VIA signature strengths:

1. Appreciation of Beauty & Excellence: Spending time in nature and taking photos while on hikes, filling my home with art, listening to good music every day, watching or reading about feats of athletic and academic excellence.
2. Honesty: Striving to live authentically, being open about my struggles and my flaws, writing about my experiences in this blog, having difficult conversations with loved ones when necessary, using mindfulness to see my own thoughts and feelings more clearly.
3. Love of Learning: Working as an academic coach for Northwest Educational Services, practicing relentless learning via nonfiction books, podcasts, YouTube videos, and online courses.
4. Gratitude: Taking time to notice and appreciate the things I have to be grateful for, gratitude journaling, giving thanks to the people in my life, treating every day as a bonus day.
5. Humor: Watching comedy shows, playing humorous games (such as Snake Oil), generally being goofy in my everyday life.
6. Creativity: Writing, playing creative games (such as Dixit), making art, cooking, occasionally doing improv (pre-COVID).
7. Zest: Striving to bring energy and enthusiasm to as many situations as possible, getting regular exercise, dancing, smiling.

My StrengthsFinder Top 7

(descriptions paraphrased and adapted from StrengthsFinder 2.0)

1. Strategic: Marked by the pragmatic application of logic to complicated challenges, adept at if-then thinking, the ability to see and evaluate multiple paths, the capacity to plan for and overcome obstacles, the use of cleverness over brute force.
2. Analytical: Marked by careful thinking, looking for patterns, seeking truth and deep understanding, logical reasoning, seeing things from multiple angles, comprehension of complicated systems and sequences of events.
3. Arranger: Marked by mental flexibility, the ability to juggle and organize many puzzle pieces at one time, and a desire to have things organized in a logical, functional manner.
4. Communication: Adept at explaining or describing things through writing speaking, skilled at teaching, tutoring, and training.
5. Activator: An action-based orientation toward life similar to Zest, a desire to get going and get things done, an eagerness to stop deliberating and start trying things, the ability to take an idea and turn it into a plan of action.
6. Ideation: Similar to Creativity, Love of Learning, and Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence, marked by creativity, innovation, and an interest in ideas for their own sake, always seeking or seeing connections between ideas, eager to learn new things.
7. Command: Capable as a leader and a decision-maker, willing to speak up even if what you have to say is unpopular or goes against established norms or authority (similar to Honesty), happy to take charge of a situation that needs a leader.

How I’m Using My StrengthsFinder Top 7

Here are some of the ways I’m using these signature strengths:

1. Strategic: Playing board games, applying effective strategies to behavioral change, mental health, learning, and creativity.
2. Analytical: Playing board games, studying history, doing math, writing.
3. Arranger: Executive function coaching, mapping out my days and weeks, setting up furniture for maximum utility, doing jigsaw puzzles, using mise-en-place in my home office and kitchen.
4. Communication: Teaching, tutoring, coaching, and writing, occasionally giving talks or toasts.
5. Activator: Modeling how to overcome procrastination and perfectionism, getting things done, making progress toward my goals every day via effort tracking and calendar chains.
6. Ideation: Writing and teaching, studying science, philosophy, psychology, and history.
7. Command: Guiding hikes, taking a leadership role in planning trips and events, speaking up on behalf of political causes I believe in. (See, for instance, “Growth Mindset Patriotism.”)

Career Applications

Whether or not you use your signature strengths at work is a really big deal. Here’s Tom Rath detailing the research that proves this:

“Gallup has surveyed more than 10 million people worldwide on the topic of employee engagement (or how positive and productive people are at work), and only one-third ‘strongly agree’ with the statement:

‘At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.’

And for those who do not get to focus on what they do best – their strengths – the costs are staggering. In a recent poll of more than 1,000 people, among those who ‘strongly disagreed’ or ‘disagreed’ with this ‘what I do best’ statement, not one single person was emotionally engaged on the job.

In stark contrast, our studies indicate that people who do have the opportunity to focus on their strengths every day are six times as likely to be engaged in their jobs and more than three times as likely to report having an excellent quality of life in general.”²

Wow.

So we should definitely be using our signature strengths at work. If you’re not currently doing so, there are two approaches: 1) Find ways to use your signature strengths at your current job, or 2) Find work that allows you to use your signature strengths.

Option one might be as simple as thinking about the tasks you do every day and finding ways to do them a little differently – in a way that plays to your strengths. Or it might involve a conversation with your coworkers or your boss about rearranging shared duties and responsibilities. You might volunteer to take on a project that would allow you to use your signature strengths. You might delegate tasks that don’t align with your strengths.

The option of finding new work is generally more challenging, but if there’s no way to get your current work to align with your strengths, this is the path you must take. If we think about this in terms of Ikigai, your strengths are the things you love and/or are good at.

If you’re not yet good enough to get paid to do what you love, then you need to put in more time. Study and practice until you have the skills to get a job that aligns with your signature strengths. Several of my top strengths align with writing, teaching, tutoring, and coaching, and I currently get paid well to do those things. But it’s important to note that I spent years studying independently and doing that work for free to get to a point where I could get paid to do what I love.

Another thing the Ikigai diagram shows is that we’ll be more satisfied if we’re using our strengths in service to the world. Deep satisfaction comes from both doing what you’re best at and doing work that matters. In Authentic Happiness, Martin Seligman referred to this kind of work as a calling. And critically, whether or not your work is a calling depends more on your attitude than on the nature of the work itself:

“Any job can become a calling, and any calling can become a job. A physician who views the work as a Job and is simply interested in making a good income does not have a calling, while a garbage collector who sees the work as making the world a cleaner, healthier place could have a calling.”¹

In other words, the way you interpret reality makes a big difference.

Furthermore, here’s Tom Rath from Are You Fully Charged?:

“You create meaning when your strengths and interests meet the needs of the world. Knowing your talents and passions is critical, but that is only half of this supply-and-demand equation. What may be even more important is understanding what the world needs from you and how you can productively apply your strengths and interests. … One of the rightful critiques of all the ‘follow your passion’ advice is that it presumes that you are the center of the world, and pursuing your own joy is the objective of life. Those who make a profound difference, in contrast, begin by asking what they can give. Starting with this question allows you to direct your talents toward what matters most for others.”³

So please don’t mistake this article as advising that you just “follow your passions.” Using your strengths is good. Using your strengths to help others is better.

Double-Down on Your Strengths

Imagine two small online startups. One has six people who are only good at one thing: an excellent leader, an excellent programmer, an excellent graphic designer, an excellent marketer, and an excellent accountant. The other startup has six people who are decently skilled at all of those things, but no one excels at any of them. Which company is going to succeed?

The team of specialists will win every time.

Division of labor is one of the hallmarks of civilization, and it’s a major reason behind our success as a species. We are, by nature, interdependent, so you don’t need to become self-reliant or well rounded. What teams need – what the world really needs – is more people who have mastered something. And a jack-of-all-trades is a master of none.

“People don’t hire you, buy from you or recommend you because you’re indifferently average and well rounded. They do it because you’re exceptional at something. What if you invested the energy to be even more exceptional at it?” –Seth Godin⁴

One of the most common approaches to self-improvement is striving to fix your weaknesses. But this is what Tom Rath calls “the path of most resistance.”² It is possible, but it’s an uphill battle that probably won’t be as rewarding as letting your strengths be your guide. Now, you know I love the idea that struggle makes you stronger, and struggling is often necessary, but there is also wisdom in the idea that we should choose the path of least resistance.

So instead of fixing your weaknesses, find teammates with complementary strengths, delegate, hire out, and otherwise get help. This allows you to spend more time doing what you do best, which is the most valuable way to spend your time.

It’s not that you should completely ignore your weaknesses and neglect to work on them; you shouldn’t. It’s that most of your energy should go toward developing and applying your strengths because that’s where you get the most bang for your buck.

Tom Rath puts it this way:

“If you spend most of your life trying to be good at everything, you eliminate your chances of being great at anything. Unless your goal is to be mediocre at a lot of things, starting with what you are naturally good at is a matter of efficiency. Focusing on strengths is in many ways a basic time-allocation issue. Every hour you invest in an area where you have natural talent has a multiplying effect, whereas each hour you spend trying to remedy a weakness is like working against a gravitational force. Yet many people spend years or even decades working on weaknesses in hopes that doing so will make them well-rounded.

Do everything you can to avoid falling into this trap. While well-roundedness may be helpful for acquiring the basic tools in any trade—such as reading, writing, and arithmetic—it loses value as you get closer to finding a career. At that point, what’s more important and relevant is what sets you apart. If you want to be great at something in your lifetime, double down on your talents at every turn.”³

However, you should not expect your career to utilize all of your signature strengths. To put all your strengths to use, you’ll have to look beyond work.

Beyond Work

Recall that in the breakdown of my signature strengths and how I’m using them, I mentioned several habits and hobbies that have nothing to do with my career, such as hiking, cooking, and learning.

Think about how you spend your recreational time. Is it spent doing things you’re good at? Or is it spent in the pursuit of passive pleasures like television? Now, don’t get me wrong – relaxation certainly has its place, but it should not dominate your recreational time. More of it should be devoted to engaging in activities that give you a chance to shine.

For me, this often means playing complicated strategy games. For my dad, this means helping the neighbors with home improvement projects. For my friend Justin, this means volunteering at the local fire department.

What about you? How can you put your strengths to use in your home life and playtime?

“The good life consists in deriving happiness by using your signature strengths every day in the main realms of living.” –Martin Seligman¹

So use your signature strengths often, and use your skills to help people. Do things you’re good at, and work to become even better at them. The more opportunities you create for your best characteristics to shine through, the happier you’ll be.

Once again, the VIA signature strengths test is here: https://www.viacharacter.org/

Or if you’d prefer to have a book to accompany your results, order StrengthsFinder 2.0.

¹ Seligman, Martin. Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment. Atria Books, 2004.

² Tom Rath, StrengthsFinder 2.0. Gallup Press, 2007.

³ Rath, Tom. Are You Fully Charged?: The 3 Keys to Energizing Your Work and Life. Silicon Guild, 2015.

⁴ Godin, Seth. “Amplify your strengths.” August 15, 2020.