Do you know your own personal strengths?
I’ve been profiled many times over the years through my business life — as a graduate, employee, manager, business owner. Different models were used at different times to help me understand myself and how I might operate.
Our lives change.
We change jobs. People come and go. We become partners, parents, grandparents, carers, business owners, leaders or perhaps single travellers exploring a completely different chapter of life.
Yet I still meet people in their 50s, 60s and 70s who refer back to the profile they were given decades ago as though it still defines who they are.
What happens if we get stuck in an old description of ourselves?
And if you use another personality or strengths model, that's absolutely okay too. They can all give us useful insights.
Can we become a little too attached to that label and adopt the phrase “That's just who I am. That's my type.”
Most models are actually asking us to understand the whole person, yet sometimes we end up identifying with just our little piece of the model.
These days I prefer the VIA Character Strengths approach. It looks at 24 character strengths that we all possess in different degrees, rather than putting us neatly into a particular type or box.
The free VIA survey gives you your own ranking of those strengths and highlights the ones that come most naturally to you.
I found mine fascinating.
Perhaps the real question isn't “What type of person am I?”
Perhaps it is:
“What strengths have I already developed, and how can I draw on the wisdom I’ve gathered throughout my life?”
These are mine as of today:
Gratitude, Social Intelligence, Prudence, Love and Teamwork.
I smiled when I saw them because they feel familiar. I also know how different this list would have looked at 25, 40 or even 60.
And perhaps that's part of the point.
We keep developing. We keep learning. We keep becoming.
A profile can give us insight, but it doesn't have to become our identity.
If you’re curious, here’s a free place to discover yours:
Take the free VIA Character Strengths Survey
I’d love to know — what are your top strengths?