Achieve greater life satisfaction using your natural Character Strengths

Have you heard of the VIA Character Strengths? There are 24 different character strengths which are universal to cultures around the world, and each of these 24 strengths fall under one of 6 virtue categories: Wisdom, Courage, Humanity, Justice, Temperance, and Transcendence. Everyone has all 24 strengths but ranked in a different order, which is what makes every person so unique. Those strengths which are ranked as your top 5 are known as your signature strengths.

Research in positive psychology indicates that one can achieve greater life satisfaction by utilizing their dominant character strengths in each of the main domains of life: family/parenting, work, leisure time, romance, and friendship. These strengths are based on our values, and when we actively seek to put our values into action in all areas of our lives, we achieve a more enduring and fulfilling state of happiness. Thus, these strengths are called Values in Action Character Strengths, or VIA Character Strengths.

Positive Psychology pioneer Dr. Martin Seligman identified 3 main sources of happiness: the pleasant life, the good life, and the meaningful life.

The Pleasant Life centers around deriving joy from material and sensory pleasures, which tend to be short-lived. Some examples would be going on a luxury vacation, getting a massage, eating a delicious meal, having your kitchen remodeled, buying a new car, or purchasing a new wardrobe. These give us a boost of happiness, but it tends to be somewhat fleeting because as we adapt to the new sensation or environment, the intensity of the pleasure wears off and we find ourselves on a hedonic treadmill, chasing one pleasurable experience after another.

The Good Life is achieved when we identify our top 5 character strengths, or signature character strengths, and incorporate them into the various domains of our lives. (You can identify your signature strengths by taking the VIA Character Strengths questionnaire, to which there is a link below.) When we are using our strengths, we are engaged in an activity because it is intrinsically rewarding for us and not as a means to an end, such as doing an activity solely for the financial compensation we will reap. When we use our signature strengths, we achieve a state known as flow. That is, we become so immersed in what we are doing that it appears as if time stops; it's as if we become one with the activity. The more we are able to engage in activities that put us into a state of flow, the more lasting satisfaction we experience in our lives.

The Meaningful Life is when we utilize our signature strengths in service of a cause that is larger than ourselves. For instance, if one of your top 5 strengths is Fairness, you could find a cause that is meaningful to you where you could advance your belief in treating everyone according to the broader virtues of equality and justice. Some examples of this might be volunteering or working for an organization that advances equal rights and stands up to any form of oppression, such as by combating racial discrimination, advancing the rights of undocumented immigrants, fighting for women's equal pay, or supporting survivors of domestic violence or sexual assault.

Studies in positive psychology indicate that living the Good Life leads to greater and more enduring levels of happiness than the Pleasant Life, while leading the Meaningful Life, enables people to achieve the greatest levels of life satisfaction. Thus, while we can continue to enjoy the pleasurable life, we should strive to lead both the good life and the meaningful life if we want to experience a more lasting sense of fulfillment and greater life satisfaction.

Are you ready to begin living a more fulfilling life? Take the VIA Character Strengths Survey to discover your signature strengths and start putting them into action!