VIA Strengths Inventory

My top five character strengths:

1.) Judgement- Thinking things through and examining them from all sides; not jumping to conclusions; being able to change one’s mind in light of evidence; weighing all evidence fairly.

2.) Curiosity- Taking an interest in ongoing experience for its own sake; finding subjects and topics fascinating; exploring and discovering.

3.) Creativity- Thinking of novel and productive ways to conceptualize and do things; includes artistic achievement but is not limited to it.

4.) Humility- Letting one’s accomplishments speak for themselves; not regarding oneself as more special than one is.

5.) Leadership- Encouraging a group of which one is a member to get things done and at the same time maintain good relations within the group; organizing group activities and seeing that they happen.

If I were to create this list myself, I would have likely placed judgement, curiosity, and humility high up on the list. Creativity and leadership surprised me, upon reading creativity’s description, it seems more apt to my character than I assumed, the word creativity inspires images of artistic masterpieces and musical genius, both of which are certainly not strengths of mine. I would have placed love of learning and kindness higher than 9 and 8 (respectively), however these categories all appear to have some degree of overlap, such as curiosity and creativity corresponding significantly. There is no specific time any of the strengths are particularly pertinent; they aren’t perks that can be dished out when the time calls–they are melded into every facet of life, whether leadership is important in a scenario or not, the traits of leadership are still infused in every action. Of the top five strengths, I personally value curiosity the most, however it is a close race between judgement. Curiosity prevents life from being boring and stagnating as a human; if you live the same life every day, why bother after the first day? In this increasingly-toxic world of political incorrectness and prioritizing shock-value over education and truth, judgement is a virtue that seems to have decayed in society.

This, is Oreo. Living in an exceedingly rural area, you get used to people abandoning their pets on your property. While we do tend to every creature that gets dumped, our involvement isn’t intensive. Usually, the ditched animals are elderly, sick, too large, or simply unwanted, so we feed them and give them shelter until they’re ready to move on. Oreo’s mother was pregnant when she was ditched, she gave birth in my barn and left, never to be seen again. Her babies, however, were left alone and without a mother. There were originally 5 kittens, Oreo was the only one who survived, due to various reasons, and if it were not due to the infusion of my traits, (again, actions are never determined by just one trait) none of the kittens would have made it. Long nights of bottle feeding, bowel movements, and a very loud mew resulted in this new addition to the Kramer family, Oreo.

The choice for this scenario to represent a trait is entirely arbitrary, as the point I’ve been trying to make throughout is that every action is a result of every trait. I simply think she is adorable so I wanted to post a picture of her!

 

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