Personal Strengths

Some call them personal strengths, other values, other virtues. In any case they are positive aspects that we should work every day to incorporate them into our personality. It is not an easy task.

Before seeing these 27 examples of personal strengths, I invite you to watch this video that shows us, in just one minute, what life consists of.

In order to improve in any area of ​​our life, we must begin by knowing what are strengths. Only then will we know what we must change or, at least, work on them so that in this way, we can start working on them.

What is fortress

Personal strength or strengths can be defined as a capabilities that we acquire through our will. So all these strengths will be those that represent traits of our personality. That is, they are the qualities or characteristics that define you and that make you be or act in a precise way. Broadly speaking, it can also be said that strengths are always positive. Therefore, being so good, we must always work on them a little more, to be able to reinforce them.

Can you imagine wanting to implement the value of "persistence" in your personality if you are a person who does not finish any of the projects you are starting?

Faced with the number of mental disorders that exist, the human being is also endowed with a series of personal strengths that lead him to do incredible things. I prefer to focus on the strengths of a person than on their disorders 😉

As a summary, it should be noted that strengths are all those qualities that stand out or stand out in a very positive way. So all that positive is what we really want in our life. But for them to remain with us and still improve, we must try to study them well and perfect them throughout life. When we have a skill in a discipline, we need to dedicate ourselves to it in order to continue climbing and achieving the goal within it. In this way, we will stand out even more, in what many people call personal strengths and others, a gift. Remember that if a quality makes you stand out among others, you must enhance it and never leave it aside.

In addition, skills and strengths can be divided or classified into several groups to take into account, according to experts. This is how they make it known in a book entitled 'The Handbook of Character Strengths and Virtues'. Which has been created by Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman.

• Wisdom and knowledge: They are the strengths that are based on the acquisition as well as the use of everything that we are learning).
  • Creativity - Ability to generate new ideas
  • Curiosity - A natural behavior that generates interest.
  • Mental opening
  • Love of learning - Where skills are modified and also acquired as well as skills and other knowledge.
  • Perspective and Wisdom - A way to apply intelligence to experience.
• Courage: It is one of the strengths that will give us enough strength to be able to achieve all those achievements that we have in mind or that are presented to us throughout life.
  • Courage - Willpower or courage
  • Persistence - Constancy
  • Integrity - Always seek to do the right thing
  • Vitality - Connects with being happy and with life in general.
• Humanity: It is one of the strengths that makes us connect and bond with other people.
  • Love - Feeling or attachment for those around us
  • Kindness - Behavior of an educated person
  • Social intelligence - What helps us understand what is happening around us.
• Justice: They are the union of the strengths that they seek and that build a better society.
  • Citizen Participation / Loyalty / Teamwork
  • Justice
  • Leadership - Managerial Skill Set
• Temperance: It is about this type of personal strengths that will protect us against any excess that comes our way. 
  • Forgiveness and Mercy - Count on Compassion and Mercy
  • Humility and honesty - A strength that makes us act as we think.
  • Prudence - Act in moderation and fairly
  • Self-regulation and Self-control
• Significance :
  • Appreciation of beauty and excellence
  • Gratitude - As recognition of a benefit
  • Hope - With an always optimistic sense of mind.
  • Humor and cheerfulness
  • Spirituality, sense of purpose and coherence

What are personal weaknesses

All the opposite of strengths, they are referred to as personal weaknesses. Broadly speaking, we can say that they are the thoughts but also the most negative behaviors. Therefore, we can say that it is that end that we usually resist and that we are not good at fulfilling. It happens to all of us that there is always some quality that stands out in our person and it would be strength, compared to another that really implies the opposite and will be our weakness. We do not have the ability to carry them out and in general, it is something that we do not like.

It is true that for this reason we should not give up. Because having weaknesses is not something that will be like that forever. It will depend on some factors such as the environment or circumstances. Hence, we also have to work on them a little to advance and improve. Some of the most common weaknesses are the following:

• Indecision
• Nervousness
• Lack of punctuality
• Arrogance
• Being stubborn
• Falsehood
• Avarice
• Pessimism
• Lack of trust.

What are personal strengths

? Creativity

Originality, ingenuity, thinking of new productive ways. Get out of the ordinary.

It is synonymous with a constructive imagination. Your solutions will always be original and new ideas will emerge to capture creative thinking.

Related article:

17 effective ways to boost your creativity and resourcefulness

? Curiosity

Interest, search for novelty, openness to experience, explore and discover.

It is an inquisitive and natural behavior. It leads to inquiry and learning.

❤ Love of learning

Mastery of new skills, topics and bodies of knowledge, either on their own or formally.

A way of being able to modify or acquire certain skills, as well as behaviors or values ​​that are achieved through a study or through reasoning and experience.

? Perspective [wisdom]

Being able to provide advice to others, having ways of looking at the world that make sense to oneself and to other people.

It is the particular point of view that a person has. But it can become variable, thanks to the search for information and the desire to learn and observe.

? Persistence [industriousness]

Finish what you start, persist despite obstacles.

When we talk about the strengths of a personWe couldn't forget about persistence. A quality that implies willpower, where the key to success lies in people with clear and fixed ideas.

? Integrity [authenticity, honesty]

Presenting oneself in a genuine way, taking responsibility for one's own feelings and actions.

This quality is what allows us to make decisions. Always related to behaviors as well as beliefs of each person. What will lead to a specific way of acting.

? Vitality [encouragement, enthusiasm, vigor, energy]

In everything we do, energy has to be present. This prompts us to do everything seen from a more optimistic point of view. With what always, we will achieve better results. The desire and efficiency always go hand in hand.

? Kindness [generosity, caring, caring, compassion, altruistic love, "kindness"]

Do favors and good deeds for others.

Another personal strength is kindness. Because good people are always inclined towards good and disinterested acts. What can be summarized as do good.

? Social intelligence [emotional intelligence]

Be aware of other people's motives and feelings.

Broadly speaking, we can say that it is a quality that we need. Since it implies being able to understand others. It is much more important than we think, as it will influence the choice of our friends, as well as our partner.

Related article:

Emotional intelligence - What is it, types and phrases

⚪ Citizenship [social responsibility, loyalty, teamwork]

Work for the common good of a group.

The combination of Rights and duties that must be fulfilled by each citizen, to establish a better coexistence in the face of society.

❎ Equity

Treat all people with the same criteria of fairness and justice, do not allow prejudice to influence.

It is the respect of treating everyone the same. Taking into account their qualities as well as differences. It is called as a 'natural justice', which has nothing to do with those laws that we have in writing.

? Forgiveness and mercy

Forgive those who have done wrong, accept the shortcomings of others, give people a second chance, do not be vindictive.

It is manifested through kindness to be able to help those who need it. In what way ?, forgiving. Since this forgiveness and a reconciliation are the best practice of this quality.

It becomes a capacity to be able to downplay some importance to the achievements that are being achieved, without being carried away by them. Since they will also see the errors in themselves.

? Humility / Modesty

Letting your achievements speak for themselves, not considering yourself better than others.

♦ Prudence

Be careful with your choices, don't take unnecessary risks, don't say or do things that you might later regret.

We will act fairly and always in moderation. Otherwise, we can fall into that spiral of mistakes and regrets. Once again, we will put it into practice rspitting the values and the feelings of other people.

? Self-regulation [self-control]

Regulation of what one feels and does, being disciplined, controlling emotions.

Tolerable but also flexible, who can accept certain behaviors or more spontaneous attitudes.

? Gratitude

Be aware of and thankful for the good things that happen, take the time to express appreciation.

? Hope [optimism, forward-looking, future-oriented]

Hope for the best in the future and work towards it.

The optimistic attitude is established in this quality. It is based on an expectation that you will always have favorable results. Of course, to achieve this we will always have to do our part with great effort.

? Humor [joy]

Laugh and joke; bring smiles to others, see the bright side.

One way of always highlight the funniest side of things, of life and situations.

? Spirituality [religiosity, faith, purpose]

Have consistent beliefs about some higher purpose, the meaning of life, and the meaning of the universe.

Through your beliefs, you can feel well-being and liberation taking over you through this quality.

? Self discipline

It includes avoiding distractions, setting goals, not procrastinating, and controlling personal behavior.

You yourself can coordinate attitudes. You do not need anyone else to guide you, which implies a training towards ourselves. The result will be to do what you know is best.

? Communication

This includes written and verbal communication skills. Examples of good verbal communication include presentations, conflict management, and active listening.

Sharing information helps us to improve and learn. The purpose of it is understanding.

? Problem resolution

Being able to analyze problems to find the cause and possible solutions, ability to identify and define problems and devise and implement the best solutions.

? Initiative

Take the necessary steps to make your job better. For example, identifying needs and finding solutions, providing ideas for improvement, etc.

One step forward to be able to search solutions to certain problems. People who have this quality never wait to be helped, but they will be the ones who take the first steps to get out of where they are.

? Judgment / Decision making

It includes monitoring decision-making, coming up with viable alternatives, and gathering the information necessary to make a correct decision after considering the pros and cons of each one.

? Planning and organizing skills

Compliance with established deadlines, time management, keeping up with calendars or schedules, setting and achieving objectives and goals.

? Diligence

It includes hard work, maintaining good quality work, doing more than what is required, finishing projects ahead of time, and working unsupervised.

The opposite of laziness. It is the desire to carry out a project or a dream. Agility and speed, as well as the desire to complete what was started are part of this strength.

? ️‍♂️ Value

Courage is also another of a person's strengths. Despite all the impediments, this quality gives us the necessary willpower. Courage makes us overcome all stumbles. A form of overcome fears, looking straight ahead and visualizing the target.

More examples of strengths

• Resilience: It is a capacity that a person has to be able to recover from certain traumas or complicated moments.
• Empathy: The way to understand other people's feelings
• Sensitivity: The ability to perceive both external and internal stimuli.
• Trust: Have hope in something
• Know listen: is another of the qualities that symbolize paying attention in a direct way.
• Intuition: A direct consequence of the subconscious.
• Sympathy: Affection towards other people, as well as positive behavior.
• Patience: Ability to tolerate or bear any circumstance.
• Oratory: Another ability to get to speak eloquently and in public.
• Assertiveness: When a person can express their point of view clearly.
• Decision: To have the security and the firmness at the time of doing some action.
• Leadership: Skills that a person has and that can influence others, according to their way of being.
• Motivation: Impulses that lead a person to perform various activities, from an always positive point of view.
• Overcoming: An improvement on something that we have proposed.
• Commitment: It is about performing an obligation that is always intended for positive terms.
• Sincerity: Honesty, truth and without having ulterior motives.

How to discover a person's strengths and weaknesses

We always have at our disposal a series of tools and steps to achieve our goal. In this case it will be to discover the strengths and weaknesses of a person.

• Personal SWOT analysis: It is a technique that is usually used in the business environment, but also in the personal in order to improve as people and workers. It is divided into internal variables that would be strengths and weaknesses. It would analyze where we excel or where we fail, as well as what are the strengths and what is the behavior that prevents us from achieving our goals. On the other hand there would be the external variables that are opportunities and threats. The first refers to what we can achieve in the form of a challenge and the second the risks to which weaknesses lead us.
• Johari's window: It is another tool that has been developed by two people: Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham. It is most useful because it allows us to know both the strengths and weaknesses that we already know and also others that perhaps go unnoticed by ourselves but that are conditioning us. It is made up of four parts that are:
  • Public area: Those we know ourselves
  • Blind area: What others see or think of us
  • Unknown area: The phobias that we do not know, nor do we show them to others.
  • Private Area: Both positive and negative characteristics that we try not to show to others.

In addition to these two tools that are the main and most used, we can always resort to the strengths and weaknesses test which are made by experts in the field and which can also be found online. Of course, the help of a professional can give us the best guidelines for a self-analysis and discovering so much more about ourselves that we don't even know is there.

How to enhance personal strengths

As we have well commented, we must work on personal strengths and that is why we must enhance them to reach a successful conclusion. How?:

• First, we must know what our strengths are. For this you can use some of the techniques and methods that we have explained to you previously. Think about everything that you are good at, what you tend to stand out even if you don't put too much effort. That is, you have to think about your strengths and the answer will be your personal strengths. But also in your limits, which are always linked to the knowledge of the strengths themselves.
• Once identified, we must put it into practice. Some of them are already innate and therefore we must continue working on them. In this way, we need to strengthen them even more to improve the results. To do this, you can draw up a plan and record the progress.
• The evaluation of said plan will be another of the fundamental steps. That is, from time to time we will think about whether we are advancing and further developing our strengths or not. Every day you will think about whether you are taking advantage of it in the way you would like and what things you could change to make that better. It is a way to analyze yourself, to put your fears aside and to always add the good skills that a person has.
• To enhance a strength such as perseverance, guidelines can be integrated on setting a goal that is possible to achieve. Creativity can be enhanced by exercise or therapies where art is present. As we well know, both imagination and reading will lead us to improve our curiosity. While to further enhance justice, nothing like seeing ourselves in the practice of assumptions full of ethical dilemmas.