Identify Signature Strengths

WTF – What’s the Fear??

Do you want to be happy, more confident, more successful, more doing, more being??

Of course, you do and I want to help you. First things first, RE-THINK how you think. If you can practice, or keep this train of thought in mind (no pun intended there,) this is what we all need to do. Admit we make mistakes, we all of us make mistakes and all of us have inherited subconscious biases about other people, places and things in our lives.

Those subconscious biases are not the ones I want to help you RE-THINK how you think. The NUMBER ONE subconscious bias I am talking about is the one that hurts us the most and prevents us from becoming, or doing what we want in and of our lives…the bias we have of ourselves.

Our subconscious is a very powerful aspect of our lives, believe it or not our subconscious mind controls more of our conscious mind than we think (psychiatric and psychological studies have shown this to be true in ways we think and act the way we do.) hence the title of this article WTF – What’s the Fear.

Some people’s fears are so strong they will do anything to avoid them, or it will have a huge impact on them. Think about this a spider to you may be nothing but a tiny little cute bug, but to others that little bug, will make them cry, run away, curl up in a little ball, scream and yell at the top of their lungs etc. etc.

So, back to my questions in the first paragraph and opening statement of this article…do you want to be happier, more confident, more successful etc. etc??

This one exercise that I am about to show you (and I will prove it works right here in this article, by giving you an example of something we all do.)

This one exercise, is called "Identify Signature Strengths," your strengths.

I would like you to think of an event in your life when you were at your best and that you are proud of, what you accomplished, or how you dealt with a difficult situation. It doesn't have to something huge it can be anything, even something that's small but is very meaningful to you. 

Now write down the story of that event. Don’t write the entire story of that event, or moment (not asking you to write a book here folks,) that would defeat the purpose of the exercise. Write down key points of that event, or accomplishment(s) your proud of…basically I want you to present yourself with a Power Point Presentation of Yourself.

In writing your story of that event that are meaning and memorable to you, it is certain points that give you the power you need or were able use to make the day, event so meaningful to you.

Hence the title of the exercise “Identify Signature Strengths.” HOWEVER, your story does need to have a beginning, middle and an end. 

Re-read that story every day for a week and each time, ask yourself what qualities you displayed when you were at your best. Were you innovative? Smart? Courageous? Compassionate? Calm Cool Collective, Understanding, a Listener, Team Player etc. Did you push yourself to do things you didn't think you could? Whatever the answers are, write them down.

Your last step is to take a good long look at the things you're good at when you're at your best…your strengths.

Now ask yourself this: How can you make the most of those strengths? How can you use them to help me over come my fears, my weaknesses in my work, in my daily life, in my relationships?

When our goal is to use our strengths to focus on certain aspects of our lives, which we have proven to ourselves over and over again, time after time that we can, by the story (POWER POINT PRESENTATION YOU JUST WROTE ABOUT YOURSELF.)

You can turn your weaknesses into strengths, practice, practice, practice. It is called practice for a reason, because you will make mistakes. WHAT ARE YOUR WEAKNESSES?? Our weaknesses are part of what we fear. 

Nobody I mean nobody likes to look at their flaws, their mistakes, their fuck ups, because it forces us to admit to ourselves that maybe all that shit people are saying is true…NOT. 

“If you believe what others say you can’t do, you will never be able to do what you can do.”

If you keep saying to yourself I can't do this, you will never be able to do whatever it is you can do.

What is fear people?? Fear is nothing more than asking yourself a question. It is the same thing with our success in life, they too are nothing more than questions…both our fears and our success start with the EXACT SAME FRICKEN QUESTION: CAN I DO THIS??

Do this exercise everyday (you only have to write your story once,) but read that story of a moment you are proud of, a moment that has meaningful memories of and to you, read it every single day for a week and I guarantee your life will change.

Note: Remember the little talk about our subconscious bias inherited and other wise, here is poof of exactly what I am talking about and how we avoid addressing, or at the very least ignore our weaknesses.

How many of you remember getting a report card in grade school/elementary school? You get the report card and automatically we look at how many A’s we got, then B’s, then C’s etc. Once we have done this we ignore the lowest grades and focus our attention on our highest marks we received. Then we read the comments our teachers wrote about us, in each subject he/she graded us in.

Do you see where I am going with this, we will read the comments about ourselves in the sections where we received our lowest grades too, but we will only focus most of our attention on our best grades received and the comments of the teacher wrote on those classes we received grades of A's or B's and we read them over and over again and ignore the not so good grades and comments.

Where as in, our parents would focus on the lower grades, trying to empower us by pointing out the good grades we got in our other subjects.

Why don’t we read the comments over and over again in the subjects we received low marks or failing grades, because it forces us to look at ourselves and our weaknesses. And then we begin to think those shitty thoughts about ourselves I’ m not good enough, I’m not smart enough, I’ll never be able to etc, etc. These are those subconscious bias we have of ourselves and what I am talking about.

thanks for reading and helping me shine a brighter light on mental health,

daniel pressello