How to find your strengths, and put them to work
Most people can list their weaknesses faster than their strengths. Yet using your strengths more is one of the better-tested ways to feel better and do better. Here is how to find your strengths, four methods from quick to thorough, and what to do once you know them.
Free, about 10 minutes. Runs in your browser; your answers stay on your device.
Why strengths are easy to miss
What comes easily to you feels ordinary, so you discount it. Meanwhile, school and performance reviews train you to fix gaps. The result is a clear picture of what you lack and a blurry one of what you bring.
What using them does
Psychologists call your most characteristic strengths your signature strengths. In one well-known study, people who used a signature strength in a new way each day for a week reported more happiness and less depression for six months (Seligman and colleagues, 2005). A later meta-analysis of signature-strengths interventions found significant effects on happiness, life satisfaction and depression (Schutte and Malouff, 2019). The authors call for more research, but the direction is consistent.
Take the free career test. Free, about 10 minutes. Runs in your browser; your answers stay on your device.
Take the free career test →Four ways to find them
- Take the free VIA Survey. It measures 24 character strengths, such as curiosity, kindness and perseverance, and is free from the VIA Institute on Character.
- Ask five people. “When have you seen me at my best?” Look for the pattern across answers.
- Track energy. For two weeks, note which tasks leave you more energized than when you started.
- Review your results. List your best outcomes and name the ability behind each one.
Character strengths and work skills
Character strengths (kindness, curiosity) and work skills (analysis, writing) are different lists. You need both to choose work well: strengths for how you like to work, skills for what you can do. See transferable skills.
Put them to work
- Use one in a new way each week. The method from the study above.
- Reshape a task. Move a little of your time toward work that uses your top strengths.
- Check the fit. If your work rarely uses them, the free career test shows which careers might.
Strengths check
Rate each statement as it is for you now. 1 means not true; 5 means very true.
1 = not true · 5 = very true
A reflection prompt, not a psychological test or advice. Your answers stay in your browser; if you continue to the free chapter, only your total is added to the link.
Where APSP fits
APSP builds a whole-life plan on what you already do well. The free career test scores your skills and competencies against 129 careers; the first chapter’s Five Domain Diagnostic shows which area of life your strengths are not reaching yet.
Do it with others. A change is easier to hold when other people see your progress. In a meta-analysis of 138 studies, people who reported their progress publicly or recorded it reached their goals more often (Harkin and colleagues, 2016). Vcomm is 12 months of self-directed accountability among professionals who work from the same model, so you are not redesigning your life alone.
Questions about finding your strengths
Is the VIA strengths survey free?
Yes. The VIA Institute on Character offers the VIA Survey of 24 character strengths free.
Should I focus on strengths or weaknesses?
Both have a place. Research on signature strengths suggests that using them more is a reliable way to improve well-being; fix weaknesses that block your goals.
Can strengths change?
They can develop. Rescore after major changes in your life or work.
Sources
- VIA Institute on Character. Signature strengths: research findings, and the free VIA Survey of 24 character strengths. Source
- Seligman, M. E. P., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: empirical validation of interventions. American Psychologist, 60(5), 410–421.
- Schutte, N. S., & Malouff, J. M. (2019). The impact of signature character strengths interventions: a meta-analysis. Journal of Happiness Studies, 20(4), 1179–1196. Source
Checked October 16, 2026. Evidence labels follow the APSP evidence tiers. Educational content; not therapy or professional advice.
Keep exploring
Take the free career test.
Free, about 10 minutes. Runs in your browser; your answers stay on your device.
Want to build on your strengths, live? The APSP Live Session: 90 minutes online with live Q&A, $98.