David J.
Pollay
Read David's bio and previous columns
August 18, 2008
Find Your Voice By Tapping Your Strengths
It was 1977 and I was in the sixth grade. I joined the Boy’s
Choir. I really didn’t like singing in choirs, but I joined anyway. All
my friends had signed up, so I did too.
I can still remember our two performances. I stood in the
back row of the choir and mumbled my way through most of the songs. Why?
I didn’t know all the words. So I sang the choruses and smiled a lot.
How many of us mumble and stumble through life? We just go
through the motions. We’re not happy with our performance, but we
continue anyway. Will we ever be good at what we’re doing? More
importantly, will we ever be happy if we stick with the things about
which we’re not passionate?
Martin Seligman, Ph.D., of the University of Pennsylvania,
and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Ph.D., of Claremont College – the
co-founders of positive psychology – wrote that people do their best
when they focus on “identifying and nurturing their strongest qualities,
what they own and are best at, and . . . find niches in which they can
best live out these strengths.” Success will come to us when we discover
what we enjoy doing, what natural strengths we have and what activities
we find meaningful.
Positive psychology researcher Christopher Peterson, Ph.D.,
of the University of Michigan, and Dr. Seligman conducted extensive
research on strengths. They developed a scientifically validated and
widely used assessment tool to help people discover and learn about
their strengths. The assessment is called the Values in Action Inventory
of Strengths Survey (VIA-IS). The VIA-IS helps people identify what
strengths are most natural to them – the strengths they use most often
in their lives. Nearly one million people throughout the world have
taken the assessment. You can complete the VIA-IS Survey at
www.viastrengths.com.
When you complete the VIA-IS, you will walk away with a
greater awareness of your top five strengths. You should then ask
yourself two powerful questions.
First, how do you use your top five strengths in some way
every day, and how have you used them in the past? You’ll find out that
you express your strengths in many areas of your life.
Second, when you look back at your most significant
accomplishments in your life, which of your top strengths helped you
achieve those successes? You’ll begin to see a pattern in your life: You
will discover that many of your greatest achievements were made possible
by engaging your top strengths.
Now that we’ve talked about your strengths, what about your
weaknesses? Can you forget them? The answer is “no, but.” The “but” is
that you no longer should focus your energies on trying to fix your
weaknesses. There’s a better answer: Look for the people who have the
strengths you lack and partner with them. Focus on what you do best, and
then let others do the same.
So, let other people sing in the Boy’s Choir if that’s what
they love to do. As for you, find your own voice in life and express it
in your own unique way.
David J. Pollay
is an internationally sought after speaker and teacher, a syndicated
columnist, and is
the founder and president of The Momentum Project. Mr. Pollay holds a
Master’s Degree in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of
Pennsylvania, and an Economics Degree from Yale University. Email him
your thoughts and stories at
david@themomentumproject.com.
© 2008
David J. Pollay. Distributed by North Star Writers Group. May not be
republished without permission.
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