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Welcome
It is a great pleasure to offer you this compilation of strengths exercises. During the past years,
Positive Psychology has gained an increasing amount of attention, both from helping professionals
and researchers. This attention has resulted in many valuable insights in what contributes to a
happy, fulfilling life. In addition, positive psychology has given us many tools not only to flourish,
but also to cope with difficult times in life.
Since 2013, our aim with PositivePsychology.com has been to contribute to this field by disseminating
the science to psychology practitioners and educators alike.
We hope that the tools presented here may inspire you too to increase your own wellbeing and the
wellbeing of the people around you. Please feel free to print and share this document with others.
For those who like what they see, make sure to also check out our online searchable database with
all kinds of practical positive psychology tools:
https://positivepsychology.com/toolkit/
All the best!
Seph Fontane Pennock
Hugo Alberts, Ph.D.
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Red and Green Activities
Strengths According to Linley (2008), a strength is “a pre-existing capacity for a particular way of
behaving, thinking or feeling that is authentic, energizing to the user, and enables optimal
Intervention
functioning, development and performance” (p. 9). In this definition, perhaps the most
5-10 min/day important characteristic of strengths is that they are energizing. Activities that rely on
our strengths are enjoyable and feel as if our energy levels are being raised. While high
Client
performance can be the result of both strengths use and learned behavior, the experience
No
of increased energy most often applies when using character strengths.
Moreover, the perceived amount of energy also provides information on weaknesses.
According to Linley, Willars, & Biswas-Diener (2010), “Weaknesses are the things at which
you both perform poorly and find de-energizing or draining. When weaknesses are used,
they lead to feelings of negativity, disengagement, and lack of motivation” (p. 68). In this
exercise, awareness of personal weaknesses and strengths is being increased by analyzing
daily activities in terms of the energy levels that the client experiences.
Goal
The goal of this exercise is to increase the client’s awareness of activities that rely on
his/her strengths or weaknesses. An advantage of this exercise is that it relies on daily
reflection to increase the client’s awareness of strengths and weaknesses. Rather than
relying on general post hoc reflections, daily reflection is often more specific and accurate.
Advice
■ To clarify the concept of energy, it is advisable to inform clients that we refer to mental
energy here. Activities that allow clients to use their strengths may cause them to
become physically tired but psychologically more energized than before.
■ The current form of exercise requires clients to record activities for one week.
However, the client may also decide to spread the reflections over a longer period. In
any case, it is advisable to use multiple measurements because more measurements
will provide more accurate and detailed information.
■ Instead of using pen and paper, clients may also use an electronic device (e.g., a phone
or tablet) to record their activities throughout the day.
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References
■ Linley, A. (2008). Average to A+: Realising strengths in yourself and others. CAPP Press
■ Linley, A., Willars, J., & Biswas-Diener, R. (2010). The strengths book. CAPP Press.
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Red and Green Activities
Instructions
Step 1: Introduction
A hallmark of strengths is “energy.” When we use our strengths, we feel energized and engaged. Activities
that rely on our strengths are enjoyable and feel as if our energy levels are being raised.
In contrast, using weaknesses drains us. When we operate from our weaknesses, we feel negativity,
disengagement, and lack of motivation. Activities that rely on our weaknesses feel as if our energy levels are
being drained.
In this exercise, we call activities that rely on your strengths and provide you energy “green activities.” These
are activities that:
■ you genuinely enjoy doing
■ make you feel energized
■ make you forget the time
■ you look forward to
■ you can do well even under conditions of stress or fatigue
Activities that rely on your weaknesses and deplete your energy are referred to as “red activities.” These are
activities that:
■ you do not like doing
■ make you feel depleted
■ seem to pass very slowly
■ you don’t look forward to
■ require a lot of effort and self-control to do well
Step 2: Record Red and Green moments
During the upcoming week, record your “green” and “red” moments daily. Use the table in Appendix A. In the
first column of this table, provide a brief description of the activity. In addition, indicate energy levels per
activity by registering the extent to which the activity at hand enhanced energy or depleted energy. In the
second column, put a sign next to each activity to indicate the change in energy level:
-- required a lot of energy
- required some energy
0 did not require energy but did not give energy either
+ gave me positive energy
++ gave me a lot of positive energy
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Step 3: Strengths reflection
After completing the reflections, closely examine your answers. Select the five activities that make you feel
most energized and use the first column of the table in Appendix B, “My Top 5 Green Activities, “ to list them.
Next, use the second column of the table to indicate what strength(s) you may be using during each activity.
Step 4: Weakness reflection
Now do the same thing for the 5 activities that depleted your energy. Select the 5 activities that make you
feel most depleted and use the first column of Appendix B, “My top 5 Red Activities,“ to list them.
Next, use the second column of the table to indicate, for each activity, which strengths you lack during this
activity.
Step 5: Evaluation
What have you learned from this exercise?
How can you use your strengths more often?
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How can you effectively deal with situations that deplete your energy? For instance, you can delegate your
energy-draining areas to someone or reframe those tasks? Alternatively, you may marshal your strengths to
help or build your energy ahead of time so that you have the baseline energy you need to get through an
energy-draining task.
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Appendix A: Daily Reflection Form
Date:
Green Activities
Activity Energy levels Note
Red Activities
Activity Energy levels Note
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Appendix B: My Top 5 Activities - Reflection
My Top 5 Green Activities
Activities that make me feel most energized: Strength(s) that I am using during these activities:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
My Top 5 Red Activities
Activities that make me feel most depleted: Strength(s) that I am lacking during these activities:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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You, At Your Best
Strengths For many practitioners, coaching and strengths-finding/using have become synonymous
processes. The coaching process is often built on the premise that the coaching client has
Exercise many resources to close the gap between where he/she is at in the present moment and
45-60 min. where he/she wants to be in the future (Whitworth et al, 1998). Unfortunately, identifying
and acknowledging one’s own unique strengths can be difficult, for many cultures view
Client
this behaviour as being boastful (Biswas-Diener & Dean, 2007). According to Peterson and
Yes
Seligman (2004), too few opportunities exist in today’s societies for people to use their
best qualities, or their strengths. This tool was designed to increase the client’s awareness
of personal strengths.
Author
Ryan Niemiec (VIA Institute on Character, 2012).
Goal
The purpose of this exercise is to leverage the power of storytelling when working with
clients to identify their unique strengths. By asking a client to draw upon an actual
experience in his/her past, the process of strengths-identification becomes less daunting.
In addition, by encouraging the client to relive an experience, he/she will in turn savour
that memory of his/her best self.
Advice
■ The “You, at Your Best” exercise is easiest to use as homework, for it is important that
the client has some time to really think about and reflect upon an experience when
he/she was at his/her best. It is also important that the client takes the time to pen
his/her story as objectively as possible.
■ Once the client has written his/her story, it may be beneficial to review the story
together, fist asking the client to highlight his/her strengths that are apparent to him/
her. Then, if you see a strength that the client did not see in his/her own story, it may
be beneficial to have a coaching conversation around that strength.
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■ This exercise may also be used in a group setting. A “Strengths Introduction” is a
positive way to introduce members to each other when first forming a new group.
■ It is important that being “at your best” is meaningful to your client, not an attempt to
impress or conform to what others think.
■ Note that “being at your best” is predominantly a subjective feeling/experience.
Whether somebody actually delivers an outstanding performance is not of primary
importance.
Suggested Readings
Biswas-Diener, R. & Dean, B. (2007). Positive Psychology Coaching: Putting the Science of
Happiness to Work for Your Clients. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Bryant, F. B., Smart, C. M., & King, S. P. (2005). Using the past to enhance the present:
Boosting happiness through positive reminiscence. Journal of Happiness Studies, 6, 227–
260.
Peterson, C. & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and
Classification. Washington D.C.: American Psychological Association and Oxford University
Press.
Whitworth, L., Kimsey-House, H., Sandhal, P. (1998). Co-Active Coaching: New Skills for
Coaching People toward Success in Work and Life. Palo Alto, CA: Davies-Black.
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You, At Your Best
Instructions
Step 1: Find your story
Think of a specific time, recently or a while back, when you were at your very best. You may have been
facing a particularly difficult situation, or you may have enhanced an already positive situation. You were
expressing the qualities that make you feel the most authentic and energized. The experience made you feel
proud and happy to be alive. Develop a story for that experience or for that moment in time.
Step 2: Write
Write your story as concretely as you can. Allow the facts of the story to demonstrate your strengths and
values. What happened in the situation? What role did you play? What did you do that was particularly
successful or useful to someone? What kind of feelings did you experience?
Step 3: Beginning, middle, end
Give the story a beginning, a middle, and try to close your story with a powerful ending. You might take the
approach of reliving the positive experience in your mind, just as you were watching a movie of it. Write
your story down.
Step 4: Read
After you have completed writing about your experience, go back and read your story. As you read through
it, circle the words and/or phrases that you would consider to be related to your personal strengths.
Step 5: Find your strengths
Write down a list of your strengths that you identified as the result of reflecting upon a time when you were
at your best.
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Strength Regulation
Strengths Our strengths reflect our capacity for thinking, feeling, and behaving in ways that facilitate
the pursuit of valued outcomes (Linley & Harrington, 2007). The comprehensive study
Exercise
of strengths is a new initiative for psychological research and hallmark of the positive
10 min psychology movement. Examples of strengths include curiosity, kindness, fairness,
perseverance, humility, and hope.
Client
No According to Niemiec (2014), strengths can be underused or overused, and this misuse
leads to negative functioning and psychopathology. Niemiec suggested finding a balance
between the underuse and overuse of one’s strengths to achieve their optimal use
(Niemiec, 2014). Optimal strength use is also referred to as the “golden mean,” and one
achieves the golden mean through strength regulation.
Our context and needs at a given moment in time influence our ability to use our strengths
optimally. For example, your best friend asking you if you like her wedding dress moments
before she walks down the aisle may require you to “dial down” your strength “honesty”
and dial-up your strength “kindness.” In this way, strength use can be compared to a
volume control knob on a stereo, rather than an on/off switch. This exercise invites clients
to examine times in their life where they misused a personal strength and what happened
because of this. Clients are also asked to indicate visually, using the metaphor of a volume
dial, the extent to which they misused the strength. Clients then examine a personal (or
hypothetical) example of when they used this same strength optimally.
Author
This tool was created by Lucinda Poole (PsyD) and Hugo Alberts (Ph.D.).
Goal
The goal of this tool is to help clients become aware of the consequences of underusing
and overusing strengths and to examine the optimal use of strength. As such, this exercise
offers a nice starting point for creating plans to increase or optimize strength use.
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Advice
■ Be aware that clients may have difficulty recalling a time in their life when they used
their given strength optimally (Step 4). If this occurs, practitioners should help clients
devise a hypothetical example of using this strength optimally in everyday life. It is
important to keep the hypothetical example simple, realistic, and achievable, so as
not to overwhelm the client or make him/her think that optimal use is unfeasible. The
client can then use the insight gained from this hypothetical example to try to regulate
his/her strength use to the optimal level in the future.
■ Clients may benefit from taking home a few blank copies of this exercise so that they
can continue to monitor the extent to which they are regulating their strengths in
daily life.
■ A prerequisite for this exercise is for the client to know at least one of their strengths.
The following tools in the Toolkit can be used to identify client strengths: 30 Strengths-
Spotting Questions, 5 Kinds of Strengths Questions, and The VIA Classification of
Character Strengths & Virtues.
References
■ Linley, P. A., Maltby, J., Wood, A. M., Joseph, S., Harrington, S., Peterson, C., ...
& Seligman, M. E. (2007). Character strengths in the United Kingdom: The VIA
inventory of strengths. Personality and individual differences, 43(2), 341-351.
■ Niemiec, R. M. (2014). Mindfulness and character strengths: A practical guide to
flourishing. Hogrefe.
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Strength Regulation
Introduction
The best way to play to our strengths in day-to-day life is to manage the way we use them mindfully because
sometimes, overplaying or underplaying a strength can lead to problems. Take, for example, your best friend
asking you whether you think her wedding dress is pretty moments before she walks down the aisle. At
this moment, if you happened to dislike the dress, overplaying your strength “honesty” could have dire
consequences. You (as well as your best friend) would benefit most from regulating your ‘honesty’ at this
moment.
Like the volume knob on a stereo, playing to your strengths can be dialed up and dialed down for the best
result in a given situation. In this exercise, you will choose a personal strength and explore the consequences
of overplaying (i.e., dialing up) and underplaying (i.e., dialing down) this strength in a particular context. You
will then explore what it would be like (and what the outcome would be) to use this strength in an optimal
way (i.e., to set the volume at the perfect level).
Instructions
Step 1: Select a strength
First, select a personal strength for this exercise. You might like to choose one of your strengths that you
wish to use more of or that you know you tend to underuse or overuse in your life (e.g., honesty, creativity,
perseverance).
My strength:
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Step 2: Overplaying the strength
Can you think of an example when you overplayed this strength?
What did you do (i.e., what did overplaying this strength look like)?
What were the consequences?
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In the illustration below, draw an arrow on the dial to indicate the extent to which you were overusing your
strength (an example is shown in Appendix):
optimal
too little too much
Step 3: Underplaying the strength
Can you think of an example when you underplayed this strength?
What did you do (i.e., what did underplaying this strength look like)?
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What were the consequences?
Draw an arrow on the dial to indicate the extent to which you were underusing your strength in this situation:
optimal
too little too much
Step 4: Optimal use of the strength
Can you think of an example when you used this strength optimally? If not, what would the optimal use of
this strength look like?
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What was/would be the outcome?
Draw an arrow on the dial to indicate the extent to which you used or would use your strength optimally at
this time:
optimal
too little too much
Step 5: Reflection
1. Do you tend to misuse this strength in your day-to-day life? If so, is your tendency to overuse or
underuse it?
2. What triggers you to misuse this strength?
3. What could you do to use this strength more optimally in the future?
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Appendix: A graphic representation of strength overuse
optimal
too little too much
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