Midlife is a time when many women find themselves evaluating their professional options. Maybe a layoff has suddenly thrust you into an intense job search out of necessity. Perhaps a major relationship change, such as becoming widowed, divorced or married, has made you rethink how you want to spend your days. Or maybe you are ready for something new. Everyone wants to do good things and do them well.
No matter if your nest is empty or still full, don’t you deserve to spend your time being happy and fulfilled as often as possible? No matter your age or life stage, using your time and strengths to help others and achieve your goals is one of the most noble achievements a woman can enjoy. You may be interested in using not only your education and workplace skills, but how you can also get your personal values into the mix.
Enter VIA Strengths Inventory. Originally, it was named Values In Action, but now the official name is VIA.
Martin Seligman, Ph.D. is noted for his work in the development of the field of Positive Psychology. Christopher Peterson, Ph.D. was known for his work on optimism and wellness. In Positive Psychology, the focus is on the nurture and development of a person’s strengths instead of many psychology theories of treatment that are centered around pathology or dysfunctional patterns.
Together Dr. Christopher Peterson and Dr. Martin Seligman, studied many prominent organizational institutions and combed literature from the fields of psychology, religion and philosophy to see which common virtues or values that were in each. Using their findings, Dr. Peterson introduced the VIA Classification in 2004.
The idea behind the VIA Classification is that we all possess all 24 core strengths and virtues, but we each simply have more of some than of others. Each strength is clustered around one of 6 virtues. By identifying the strengths that we have the most of, we can look at not just how we show up in the world, but help ourselves understand why we have the outlook on life that we have.
The VIA Virtues and Character Strengths are:
Wisdom
| Creativity | Curiosity | Judgement | Love of Learning | Perspective |
Courage
| Bravery | Honesty | Perseverance | Zest |
Humanity
| Kindness | Love | Social Intelligence |
Justice
| Fairness | Leadership | Teamwork |
Temperance
| Forgiveness | Humility | Prudence | Self-Regulation |
Transcendence
| Appreciation of Beauty | Gratitude | Hope | Humor |
You can take the survey for free on the VIA Strengths website.
Featured photo by Yeimy Olivier from Unsplash.