In my last blog, I mentioned that some of my family members, including myself, took an assessment of their character strengths.  I like the word, assessment, because it doesn't sound as scary as the word, test.  When I say, "test", it conjures up the possibility of failing.  Fear of failure does not grow happiness nor does it get children to take "tests."

The assessment that we took is called the, VIA.  According to Christopher Peterson Ph.D, the lead developer of the VIA, this is a test of 24 character strengths that researchers have found lead to happiness.  The top five character strenghts that correlate most with happiness are gratitude, zest for life, hope and optimism, curiosity and the capacity to love and be loved.  The idea is that you can use your top strengths to foster your overall happiness.  You can also grow your strengths that are lower on your list.  For example, if creativity is important to you and it is low on your list of character strengths you can do things to bring it up the list.  You can make being creative a higher priority by doing creative things like taking an art class, painting, drawing or writing.


As I explained in my previous blog, we are working on gratitude in our home.  We have been keeping a gratitude journal for a week now and perhaps it's a coincidence, but my girls have been more relaxed and gracious than I have witnessed in some time.  Even though gratitude did show up in my girls' top 5, I decided to experiment with fostering this trait.  I will keep you posted on our progress.

In the field of coaching, we can use this assessment to help clients with their happiness.  For example, if I am working with a client who is unfulfilled with his/her job I may have them take this assessment.  If their highest strength is in direct conflict with their job they may conclude, over a period of time and lots of work, that they need a career change. 

The previous examples are two extremes.  In the first, we are trying something that can only have a positive benefit in our home. The second, is a major life change that would take a lot of time and evaluation on the part of the client.  The point is that the VIA is just one tool, of many, that we can use to help grow happiness in our lives.

If you would like to take the assessment, go to www.authentichappiness.org and register at the website.  Then, go to the "questionnaire" section and take the VIA, or any other assessment, and read more about positive psychology.