Join me on a 30-day Signature Strengths Challenge!

Feel like you're stagnating lately and need a happiness boost? Try this out.

What are your Top Five Signature Strengths?

If you don't have a clue about what I'm talking about, no worries. Statistically, two out of every three people don't have a very clear awareness of what their strengths are too.

Well, as a quick introduction, in each of us there exists a core set of strengths that make up who we are as a person.

They are the best of who we are.

It might have been strengths that are innate and born in us, or something that we've consciously or subconsciously cultivated throughout our lives.

There are actually 24 types of character strengths that can exist in all people. Know that these strengths are all relative - you have some strengths that are more prominent than other strengths (intra), while some strengths are more apparent in you than other people (inter).

When Psychologists talk about Signature Strengths, we refer to the strongest or most prominent of the 24 possible character strengths within you. In fact, as a guideline, research in this area says we should focus on our top five.

Ready to find out what yours are? Go on then, take this quiz here. It's totally free.

By the end, you should get report like the below, detailing your top five strengths.

Now onto the challenge.

The report above actually belongs to me. My top five strengths are:

1. Creativity

2. Prudence

3. Love of Learning

4. Kindness

5. Appreciation of Beauty & Excellence.

If you'd like to learn more about your strengths, you can check out this page on the same online test website.

The 30-day challenge I'd like to invite you on is about using your Signature Strengths in a new way each day, consecutively for a month.

The idea to use to start with your no.1 strength on your first day, and then move on to your second highest strength the next. After the five days, it resets.

What does this activity involve? It's actually about using your signature strengths in new ways.

Don't be surprised, but this is actually a well-known psychology intervention. It's been found to give people a boost of happiness and a decrease in depression.

These effects have been shown to last up to six months.

So without further ado, I'm about to embark on this mental wellbeing challenge. Today's day one.

Let's go.

I'll update this page as we go along, but I'll post updates on my Instagram story each day.

30-day Signature Strength Challenge.

Day 1 (Creativity): I start this challenge by doing something I've never done before. I analysed a dream that I had last night and it just so happened I had a pretty odd dream. I actually decided to journal this down and I write a creative piece about it in this article!

Day 2 (Prudence): Writing down my goals for the next week on my Whiteboard.

Day 3 (Love of Learning): Enjoying my class on advancing counselling skills despite it being a saturday.

Day 4 (Appreciation of Beauty): Spent some time with my wife and two dogs having lunch at Changi Coastal Settlement. Enjoyed a nice walk in the green.

Day 5 (Kindness): Signed up to volunteer every monday with giving mental and physical health assessments to the elderly.

Day 6 (Love of Learning): Been dreading to do assignments, decided to approach it with curiousity and interest instead of thinking of it as a burden (lol!)

Day 7 (Appreciation of Beauty): Enjoyed a nice Friday evening at a dog park with my wife and two dogs.

Day 8 (Prudence): Weighing some of the suggestions by readers on this blog, and decided to create a space for people to share the things they want to say in this new segment.

Day 9 (Kindness): Since the previous kindness challenge, I've been teaching a youth how to swim. He's gotten a lot faster and we made a bet that if he ever did 100m freestyle in 1:30 minutes, I would buy him some fried chicken. Today was the day!

Thanks for reading Kaya Toast for the Soul. If you'd ever like to discuss your signature strengths, or join me on this challenge, let me know! Thanks,

Hernping