Use Your Strengths to Reach Goals and Increase Well-Being

“Reaching beyond where you are is really important.”

~Martin E. P. Seligman

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Strengths in Action Lead to Well-Being

Use your strengths at work and you are more likely to:

1. Create positive habits;
2. Produce successful results;
3. Enjoy your work;
4. Have clarity, take action and overcome challenging obstacles.

Start using your strengths regularly at work to experience these benefits.

Find your Passion Using your Signature Strengths

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Research done at the VIA Institute on Character has shown that using signature strengths at work influences a workers’ optimal functioning and well-being. This produces a happier and more productive version of yourself and supports you in realizing your goals. Working with your strengths brings satisfaction and increases what psychologists call harmonious passion. The Harvard Business Review describes people with harmonious passion as “able to feel in control of their work, feel good about themselves while working and to find their work to be in harmony with their other activities.”

Conversely obsessive passion is where people “are obsessively passionate, feel an uncontrollable urge to engage in their work, feel more conflict between their passion and other areas in their life, and their work forms a large part of their often unstable and negative self-concept.” It is easy to relate with both at different times and also easy to see which one is more desirable.

5 Ways to Use your Strengths at Work

1. Find out what your strengths are! Take the assessment for free here.
2. Visualize yourself using your signature strengths and focus on how you feel.
3. Actively seek out, schedule and implement using your signature strengths during your work time.
4. Work with a coach to help you identify new creative ways to use your strengths.
5. Take time to reflect about what is working and where you see the most results.

Get Started Now

The research shows over and over that the result of following these simple steps can dramatically increase well-being, life satisfaction and vitality. It is easy to see why so many organizations have taken on strengths coaches to support individuals and teams.

Work should be a source of fulfillment and joy in our lives as we grow and evolve and reach new heights. It doesn’t need to be stressful, disruptive and unhealthy as so many have conditioned themselves to believe. Your strengths are your keys to increased well-being and will support you in reaching your goals. I challenge you to get started today!

Author

Dr. Lynn K. Jones is a Board Certified Coach and an Advanced Certified Personal and Executive Coach based in Santa Barbara, California and a sought after coach and consultant for organizations and individuals across the US.   Her doctoral work completed at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Yeshiva University concerned organizational culture; she coaches, consults and trains organizations on what they need to do to create organizational cultures that are aligned with their vision and values using a process of Appreciative Inquiry.  She coaches individuals on achieving their reflected best selves.  A MSW@USC faculty member, Dr. Lynn K. Jones, MSW, DSW, CSWM, teaches Human Behavior and Social Environment and Leadership to social work students at the University of Southern California.