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Strength Finding: 57 Questions, Exercises & Activities

By Tchiki Davis, MA, PhD
What are your strengths? Check out these activities and self-reflection questions to get a better idea of your areas of strength.
Strength Finding: 57 Questions (+ Exercises) to Find Your Strengths
*This page may include affiliate links; that means I earn from qualifying purchases of products.
Are you struggling to find your strengths? In this article, we'll help you evaluate a variety of different parts of yourself to identify which ones are your strengths. Exploring these parts of yourself can help you prepare for job interviews, pursue opportunities that are a good fit for you, and even boost your well-being.

Before we dive in, we thought you might be interested in taking our well-being quiz to get your free personalized report. Or, if you're a well-being entrepreneur or coach, download our Wellness Business Growth eBook to get expert tips, tools, and resources to grow your wellness business fast.​​

What Are Strengths?

Strengths can be knowledge, traits, skills, and talents that are considered positive. In theory, we should know our own strengths--we are the ones who have them, right?! But knowing our strengths means knowing ourselves, knowing how we compare to others, and knowing how others see us. All this makes it a bit tricky to evaluate our strengths. That's why doing exercises to find our strengths can be helpful. We might ask ourselves questions, reflect on past experiences, or ask our friends to find our strengths.
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Why Might We Want to Find Our Strengths?

1. Finding your strengths can increase self-awareness
By spending some time thinking about your strengths (and weaknesses) you might get to know new things about yourself. Even beyond discovering your specific strengths, you might discover other things about the way you think or the way other people think about you.

2. Finding your strengths can help you like yourself more
Strength finding is a tool that is often used in positive psychology. That's because thinking about our strengths can help us focus more on the positive aspects of ourselves (Proyer, Gander, Wellenzohn, & Ruch, 2015).

3. Finding your strengths can show you what to focus on
Once we know our strengths, we can use those strengths to improve our lives. For example, in one study where people used a personal strength each day for one week, they showed an increase in happiness, and that increase in happiness persisted six months later (Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005).
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Strength Finding Questions

To start finding your strengths, consider asking yourself some of the following questions. Write down your answers so that you can reflect on them later.
​
Finding your skills
  • Do you have any degrees or certificates?
  • Do you speak any languages?​
  • ​Have you taken any trainings or courses?
  • Do you know how to use any computer programs?
  • ​Do you have experience doing specific things?

Finding your 'soft' skills
  • Are you good at communication?
  • Do you have problem solving skills? 
  • Are you a good listener?
  • Do you tend to get along with people?
  • Can you influence or convince people of things?

Finding your character strengths
  • ​​Do you have positive personal qualities?
  • What are the good parts of your personality?
  • Which of your traits benefit your well-being?
  • Which of your traits benefit your work?
  • Which of your traits benefit others?

Video: How to Find Your Strengths

Strength Finding Test

Want to keep assessing your strengths? Indicate how much you agree or disagree with the following statements. Keep an eye out for high scores—these are likely to your areas of strength.
Leadership: I take charge.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 
​
Friendliness: I make friends easily.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Creativity: I like to solve complex problems.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Toughness: I am not embarrassed easily.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 ​
​
Curiosity: I like to know how things work.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 
​
Good memory: I can handle a lot of information.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Adaptability: I adapt easily to new situations.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

​Cautiousness: I tend to take precautions.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Rationality: I do things in a logical order.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Ingenuity: I am full of ideas.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Imaginative: I have a vivid imagination.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Persistence: I don't quit a task before it's finished.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Trustworthy: I keep my promises.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 
​
Sociable: I am able to fit into any situation.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Adventurous: I prefer variety to routine.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Fearlessness: I face danger confidently.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Patience: I am usually a patient person.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

​
Wisdom: I have a broad outlook on what is going on.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Liveliness: I maintain high energy throughout the day.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Acceptance: I take things as they come.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Empathy: I feel others' emotions.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 
Competence: I come up with good solutions.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 
​
Calmness: I am relaxed most of the time.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Trusting: I trust what people say.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Caring: I know how to comfort others.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 ​
​
Playful: I have a lot of fun.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 
​
Poise: I remain calm under pressure.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Intellectual: I am quick to understand things.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

High-achieving: I do more than what's expected of me.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Team-player: I enjoy being part of a group.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Fair: I treat all people equally.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Forgiving: I let bygones be bygones.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Optimistic: I look on the bright side.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Kind: I am never too busy to help a friend.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Self-control: I am a highly disciplined person.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Bravery: I have taken frequent stands in the face of strong opposition.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Modesty: I don't act as if I'm a special person.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Originality: I am able to come up with new and different ideas.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Organized: I keep things tidy.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Grateful: I stop to count my blessings.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Tolerance: I accept people as they are.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

Romanticism: I see beauty in things others might not notice.
Strongly disagree            Strongly agree
1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 
*questions were drawn from research at ipip.ori.org.
If you want to find even more strengths, here's a huge list of character strengths.

​Video: How to Focus on Strengths

Strengths Finding Exercises

In addition to asking yourself questions to find your strengths, it can be helpful to do other activities to help you better understand your strengths and how to use them effectively. Here are few strength finding exercises you may enjoy:

Strength finding exercise 1: Imagine your best self
Take a moment now to imagine the best possible version of yourself in the future (Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2006). Try to be as specific as possible by thinking about the best possible life you can imagine. Ask yourself, who would you be? What would be your strengths and how would you be using them? Where would you be? What would you be doing?

Strength finding exercise 2: Reflect more deeply on your positive qualities
Once you know some of your character strengths, take a moment to reflect on how these strengths affect your life. What do you do that shows these strengths? What are the positive impacts of these strengths on your life? And how do your strengths benefit others? Think through what it actually means that you have these strengths.

Strength finding exercise 3: Build your strengths
We often want to work on our weaknesses, but we can also work on making our strengths even stronger. Take a moment to think about how you could get even better at one of your strengths, turning it into a super-strength. Might you practice using your strength more often? Get feedback from others on how to improve this strength? Or, ask yourself, might you use this strength in new contexts or situations? Building on our strengths can actually be an easy and beneficial way to improve our skills.

A Few More Examples of Strengths

Here are some more strengths to explore. Do you think you have any of these?
  • Cooperative
  • Disciplined
  • Patient
  • Respectful
  • Determined
  • Honest
  • Balanced
  • Punctual
  • Innovative​
  • Motivated
  • Professional
  • Practical
  • Responsible
  • Open minded
  • Organized
  • Storyteller
  • Likable
  • Persuasive
  • Detail-oriented
  • Focused
  • Genuine
  • Responsible
  • Smart
  • Thoughtful
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Strength Finding Activities

Here are a few other free strength-finding tools and activities from reliable sources around the web.
  • VIA character strength test. One of the most well-known and respected strength-finding tests is the VIA character strength test. It's based on research and free to the public.
  • Use your strengths activity. This activity was created by UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center and can help you think about how to use your strengths.

Strength Finding (SWOT) Analysis

SWOT analysis is another tool that can be used to evaluate the ‘strengths’, ‘weaknesses’, ‘opportunities’, and ‘threats’ involved in any plan, project, or activity (Gürel & Tat, 2017). Although SWOT analysis is a tool that is most often used by businesses, it may also be useful in helping us think about any goal or project we would like to pursue. 

Strengths and weaknesses are our internal factors. Opportunities and threats are external factors. It is thought that SWOT is a useful strategic planning tool. By knowing more about where you (or your project) is strong or weak, you can make more informed decisions about what to pursue or what to do next (Gürel & Tat, 2017).

Strength Finding Articles

Want to keep using your strengths? Check out these related articles to keep learning.
  • ​Strengths & Weaknesses: Definition, Meaning, and 50+ Examples
  • Positive Qualities: Discover 100+ Positive Character Traits​
  • What Are Your Strengths? Find Out From Your Friends
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    What Are Your Strengths?

    The tool below will help you reflect a bit more on your strengths while simultaneously helping us learn more about people's strengths.
    Note. Submitting your responses helps us to better understand strengths. If you want to keep your responses, you'll have to save this to a PDF or print this page. Thanks!
Submit

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References

  • Gürel, E., & Tat, M. (2017). SWOT analysis: a theoretical review. Journal of International Social Research, 10(51).
  • Proyer, R. T., Gander, F., Wellenzohn, S., & Ruch, W. (2015). Strengths-based positive psychology interventions: A randomized placebo-controlled online trial on long-term effects for a signature strengths-vs. a lesser strengths-intervention. Frontiers in psychology, 6, 456.
  • Seligman, M. E., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: Empirical validation of interventions. American Psychologist, 60(5), 410-421.
  • Sheldon, K. M., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2006). How to increase and sustain positive emotion: The effects of expressing gratitude and visualizing best possible selves. Journal of Positive Psychology, 1(2), 73-82.

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