For those who are making New Year’s resolutions, I would like to point out a very common mistake that often leads to resignation to any improvement. Namely, that we focus our New Year’s resolutions on what we are not good at. We feel that if there is a weakness somewhere, we need to eliminate that very weakness. We grit our teeth in frustration, force ourselves to do something we don’t enjoy, and quit after a few weeks anyway. All that remains is the aftertaste and the memory of wasted time and wasted energy.
What to do instead? Professor Seligman and his school of positive psychology recommend: Focus on your strengths. Focus on what you’re good at and yet you’re not there yet. Then you will enjoy your resolution, you will see results, it will encourage you and overall it will be for growth.
The absolute best thing to do is to develop strengths to cover weaknesses, but that’s a royal discipline. However, just going from “pretty good” to “very good” at something is an important shift.
Those who are not sure what they are good at can test themselves at Authentic Happiness.