Character Strengths Worksheet: Identify Your Strengths and Use Them More

About this tool

Character strengths are the positive traits we draw on at our best: qualities like kindness, curiosity, perseverance, and fairness. The VIA Classification, developed by Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman, organizes 24 such strengths under six broad virtues. The idea is that everyone holds all 24 to some degree, but a handful sit near the top for each person. These top few are often called signature strengths because they feel authentic, energizing, and central to who you are.

Decades of research suggest that the path to greater wellbeing is less about fixing weaknesses and more about recognizing and deliberately using the strengths you already have. In a landmark study, people who identified a signature strength and used it in a new way each day for a week reported higher happiness and lower depression, with effects that lasted for months. This worksheet walks you through that exact exercise.

Naming a strength is only the start. The shift comes from application: taking a strength you may use on autopilot and aiming it somewhere new on purpose. If curiosity is a top strength, that might mean asking a coworker about their work in real depth. If kindness is, it might mean one unplanned act of generosity a day. The novelty keeps the practice fresh and the benefit alive.

The 24 strengths sit under six broad virtues in the VIA Classification: wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence. You do not need to memorize the virtues to use the worksheet, but they explain why strengths as different as bravery and forgiveness both count: each is a distinct route to the same handful of broad human goods. A later replication of the original signature-strengths study found the effect held up for some exercises, like noting three good things each day, more consistently than for others, which is a reminder to treat any single week of practice as an experiment rather than a guarantee.

The confidence rating in step 3 is worth returning to rather than filling in once. A low number is useful information before you start, since it points to a plan that is too vague or too large; narrowing what, when, and with whom you will use the strength usually raises it. In the reflection step, look for whether using the strength on purpose felt different from using it on autopilot. That difference, not just whether you completed the plan, is the sign the exercise is doing its job.

This worksheet is a wellbeing exercise, not a treatment for depression or anxiety, and it works best alongside, not instead of, care for those conditions when they are present. If low mood, hopelessness, or loss of interest are persistent or severe, a licensed therapist can help in ways a self-guided worksheet cannot. Psychology.com's therapist directory is free to search.

Reviewed by Michael Callans, MSW
Reviewed the worksheet for fidelity to the VIA character strengths framework.

References

1. Peterson C, Seligman MEP. Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification. Oxford University Press; 2004.
2. Seligman MEP, Steen TA, Park N, Peterson C. Positive psychology progress: empirical validation of interventions. Am Psychol. 2005;60(5):410-421.
3. Mongrain M, Anselmo-Matthews T. Do positive psychology exercises work? A replication of Seligman et al. (2005). J Clin Psychol. 2012;68(4):382-389.

Character Strengths Worksheet FAQ