Welcome to Connecting with Our Purpose where we at the Student Wellness Center will be exploring with our community the various pathways for pursuing purpose. A wonderful step to serve you on your journey towards more meaning and fulfillment is by recognizing the character strengths you hold and express, which can help you tap into one of the many entry points for living your strongest life possible.
What are character strengths? Character strengths are, according to the field of positive psychology, a family of constructive traits expressed through a person’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are universally recognized for the strength that they create in individuals and communities. Understanding your own character strengths can help you realize what you intuitively gravitate towards and contribute. With awareness and intention you can maximize that which makes your life most worth living.
There are more than few tools out there to help you connect to character strengths. But did you know that Dartmouth students have free access to the renowned Gallup CliftonStrengths Assessment, which guides you through your unique talents and how to use those talents to succeed in your role as a student? Understanding your top strengths can help you thrive academically, socially and in your future career. Explore the assessment (available for Dartmouth students) here. Or perhaps you already have a heightened awareness of your unique strengths or understanding of your heart’s compass through a reflective journaling or other wellbeing practice. What next?
Try Gallup’s “Name It, Claim It, and Aim It” framework to make meaning of your strengths and leverage them to fortify your connection to purpose:
- Name it: Raising self-awareness of your unique talents and intentions helps you gain clarity on what you naturally do well and enjoy. Take the CliftonStrengths survey and/or try these steps for strengthening your self-awareness.
- Claim it: Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism, posits that “your obligation is to the highest contribution you can make”. So how do you know what unique contributions you have for this world? By not only understanding your strengths but accepting them too. By appreciating what powers and values you are bringing to the table, you are empowered to claim ownership of them and better articulate your needs moving forward.
- Aim it: When you have identified your talents and claimed them as strengths, you might ask: ‘how can I leverage these strengths to accomplish what is most important to helping me live a purposeful life?’ Intentionally practice using and developing your strengths. Schedule a Wellness Check In with a trained Wellness Coach at the Student Wellness Center or connect with a Career Coach from the Center for Professional Development to strategize how to meaningfully apply your strengths towards personal growth in areas like your career, relationships, and wellbeing.
You can thrive and live more fully into your life’s purpose when you take a strengths-based approach to your life. By doing more of what you do best, and you can feel more engaged, empowered, and energized.