LIFE COACHING NEWSLETTER
June 2005
The Five Signature Strengths [1]
Third Edition
“I believe that each person possesses several signature strengths. These are strengths of character that a person self-consciously owns, celebrates, and (if he or she can arrange life successfully) exercises every day in work, love, play, and parenting.”
M. Seligman, Prof. of Psychology at the University of PA
In the May Edition of The Five Signature Strengths (Vitality, Optimism, Curiosity, Love, and Gratitude) Optimism was explored. In this Third Edition, the Signature Strength of Curiosity will be explored.
Curiosity is classified by Peterson and Seligman as:
Curiosity [interest, novelty-seeking, openness to experience]
An expression of the virtue of Wisdom and Knowledge [2]
Cognitive strengths that entail the acquisition and use of knowledge
Taking an interest in all of ongoing experience for its own sake; finding subjects and topics fascinating; exploring and discovering
Criterion 1. Fulfilling
"As an intrinsically motivated trait, curiosity is fulfilling. Finding out an answer, having a new experience, learning a new fact -- all satisfy the curious individual. Someone who is not curious evidences no such fulfillment and may even be disquieted by novel experiences. Because curiosity can never be satisfied in the same way twice, it may fuel the expansion of oneself, inasmuch as new experiences and new information are integrated once obtain." [Ch.2.a Section]
**************************
Albert Eintein said this about curiosity
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery everyday. Never lose a holy curiosity."
*************************
Seligman gives his Authentic Happiness students the Beautiful Day exercise, which uses a person's talents and attributes to create the "perfect day," or even the perfect half day. He stresses that it's important to schedule enjoyable events. If your top traits are love of learning and curiosity, your day might include a trip to a favorite museum or a few hours with a book that you've been meaning to read. If the capacity to love crowns your list, you might spend an evening with old friends or summon family for a dinner.
Summary: Knowing your strengths, counting your blessings and making a beautify day can help you attain happiness. [Psychology Today]
*************************
A Personal Essay on Curiosity and Destiny
There were no books in my home growing up, except for one – a book of fairy tales. But it didn't matter. From the beginning, learning was so seductive for me, it pulled me toward everything outside myself. As an extravert, I loved and thrived in the tiny universe I inhabited as a child: a living and breathing mix-up of family and church, friends and the park, the Radio, and the Rialto Movie Theatre, which charged 14 cents for admission and was located within a square mile of the working-class neighborhood I lived in. At the time, books were merely props in school.
I fell in love with my first novel in high school. It was A Tale of Two Cities. To this day, strong feelings remain about the world and characters Charles Dickens created. Particularly, the archetypal character of Madame De Farge -- that soothing old witch who secretly recorded the names and injustices she witnessed, in her knitting, for future retribution. What imagination!
It wasn't until I graduated from high school, and my teachers faded into the past, that I took responsibility for my own learning. By then, I had a pervasive passion for politics and became an avid reader of Time Magazine and the New York Times.
Early on, destiny dropped me on the doorstep of Little Brown Publishing House. In hindsight, it was as she personally escorted me into a world of books and ideas, which I instantly recognized as my own. During my 20s, I randomly read through some of the classics and the American writers.
When, in my early 30s, I came upon a book entitled “You Are Not The Target by Laura Huxley, my romance with psychology began. The book informed and expanded my life and freed me forever from the trap of false selves, social masks, and the rigid roles that most unconsciously play out in our society.
In Midlife, I arrived at a crossroad, lost in a struggle. It was then that I was introduced to the novel, Jude the Obscure by Hardy. Like Dickens, Hardy stirred my soul and I was able to uncover and raise an ancient ache of unrealized potentiality. In 1988, I took a class called Spiritual Autobiography with the writer, Dan Wakefield. On the eve of my first class, I synchronistically came upon a book entitled Memories, Dreams and Reflections, the autobiography of Carl Jung. It had been on my list of books to read and intuited that it would make the perfect reading companion for me while writing my own spiritual autobiography.
While reading it, I came upon these words of Carl Jung: "When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Though the meaning of this sentence remained obscured in a foggy depth for a time, I eventually came to understand that “my inner situation” referred to an unconscious identification with Victimhood – that invisible prison that keeps most of us trapped in the past.
Once I “got it” and realized I could actually live my life out of the present moment, a new future rolled out before me. Soon after, I entered a degree program at Harvard University Extension School in the fall of 1989.
The schedule for the Day of Self-Discovery Programs at Radcliffe for 2005 is:
Sunday, September 4, 2005
For more information, visit
www.discoveryourpsychologicaltype.org.
amaffeo@post.harvard.edu
[1] A signature strength is experienced as :
A sense of ownership and authenticity (“This is the real me”)
A feeling of excitement while displaying it, particularly at first
A rapid learning curve as the strength is first practiced
Continuous learning of new ways to enact the strength
A sense of yearning to find ways to use it
A feeling of inevitability is using the strength (“Try and stop me”)
Invigoration rather than exhaustion while using the strength
The creation and pursuit of personal projects that revolve around it
Joy, zest, enthusiasm, even ecstasy while using it
[2] "Wisdom and Knowledge - Strengths of wisdom and knowledge include positive traits related to the acquisition and use of information in the service of the good life. In psychological language, these are cognitive strengths. "
