Tool Description

Instructions

Step 1: Find your story                                                                                                                          

Think of a specific time, recently or a while back, when you were at your very best. You may have been facing a particularly difficult situation, or you may have enhanced an already positive situation. You were expressing the qualities that make you feel the most authentic and energized. The experience made you feel proud and happy to be alive. Develop a story for that experience or for that moment in time.

Step 2: Write                                                                                                                                       

Write your story as concretely as you can. Allow the facts of the story to demonstrate your strengths and values. What happened in the situation? What role did you play? What did you do that was particularly successful or useful to someone? What kind of feelings did you experience?

Step 3: Beginning, middle, end                                                                                                                

 Give the story a beginning, a middle, and try to close your story with a powerful ending. You might take the approach of reliving the positive experience in your mind, just as you were watching a movie of it. Write your story down.

Step 4: Read                                                                                                                                        

After you have completed writing about your experience, go back and read your story. As you read throughit, circle the words and/or phrases that you would consider to be related to your personal strengths.

Step 5: Find your strengths                                                                                                                    

 Write down a list of your strengths that you identified as the result of reflecting upon a time when you were at your best.