I'll be the first to admit - I've become an assessment addict lately. I've taken every self-assessment I can get my hands on, starting with Myers Briggs, the book StrengthFinders 2.0 and most recently a fantastic online tool called the VIA Institute on Character - Signature Strengths survey. In the past, I spent a lot of time reflecting on my weaknesses and areas for development. These assessments have helped me realize the incredible power available to me if I actually tap into my strengths and turn up the volume on innate talents. To that end, I found the VIA Survey to be incredibly helpful, rich with data and free!, which is why I'm sharing it with you. The survey contains 240 questions "designed to reveal individual character strengths" and takes about 30 minutes to complete. Once you finish, it spits out a report with a ranking and description of your top five "signature" strengths. You can also expand the report to show all 24 characteristics, ranked in descending order of how much of each strength you possess. The idea is that your top five strengths are the ones to pay attention to and find ways to use more often.
If it's of any interest to you (perhaps some of these have come out in my blog posts), according to this report my strengths are:
- Hope, optimism and future-mindedness
- Creativity, ingenuity and originality
- Perspective (wisdom)
- Judgment, critical thinking and open-mindedness
- Love of learning
Click here to take the VIA Signature Strengths survey and uncover your own strengths - you might be surprised by the results!