Discover the strengths that you have inside of you.

These are YOUR resources for a happy and balanced life.

About strengths

Strengths are inner resources that help us experience more positive emotions in our lives, which consequently renders us more balanced and contented. If we mobilise of our resources, we just simply feel better in our skin. That’s why it is important for you to figure out what you’re good at and draw on your skills and capabilities every day.

Do you already know what your resources are?

Since we are people of all kinds, the right combination of the various resources is different for all of us and for this reason, it is essential for you as well to discover, understand and sensibly use the resources of your own. If you do that, you’ll be able to feel better and more contented in life because you can experience what you’re good at and find what charges you up.

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Find your strengths,
find your well-being

You can discover 18 strengths
in the Ok-Key app during your journey.

Optimism

Penguin

Staying positive means some sort of general attitude towards life: the confidence that things that are important to us will work out well in the end if we do what we can for them to happen. Optimism is the living faith that we are capable of making our fate and life better. It does not only refer to activity-based control.

People with positive thinking believe that even if we cannot control what happens to us, what we can do is to remember that every cloud has a silver lining or to hope for a fortunate turn of events. Thanks to this attitude perhaps, optimistic people engage in any task wholeheartedly and with a high level of enthusiasm.

Therefore, optimism promotes well-being and happiness not only through positive emotions but also because of the resilience and long-standing motivation which originate from it.

Panda

Gratitude is one of the most intensively studied strengths. An obvious reason behind it is its strong connection with happiness and satisfaction. Researches show that gratitude can have a positive impact on your well-being, spiritual life, mental and physical health and your relationships as well.

Gratitude has several dimensions. The first one is recognising the value of things we already have and feeling grateful for them. The second is being grateful in an emotional way and the internal act of giving thanks. The third is expressing gratitude to others, God or any transcendental power. Lastly, as a fourth dimension, gratitude can lead to the deeply held belief that your life is a gift and you are blessed.

Improving these dimensions of gratitude does not only help you because it promotes positive emotions, but it can also render you a more valuable member of your communities. Studies have shown that developing the strength of gratitude can make you kinder, more empathetic, loving and altruistic, someone who makes other people grateful too.

Dog

The strength of love refers to the ability to love someone, to express this feeling and to receive it from others. It means you can maintain strong, intimate and long-lasting relationships. Although it might not seem like an extraordinary strength to all, data indicate that not everybody is capable of it. Love requires a mature and deep commitment to the relationship, the willingness to invest in it and the acceptance of the other person without conditions or judgement.

Moreover, if you want to excel at love, you have to do all these same things for yourself too. If it hadn’t already sounded challenging enough, we all know that love can be painful sometimes… Interestingly, loving someone enables us to forgive others without expecting a reward in return and to forgive ourselves as well.

Cat

Being playful is having a good sense of humour and the ability to use it at the right place, the right time. Humour can be used as an excellent relief during agonising conflicts and it can be one of the cleverest, most recognisable tools of self-reflection. However, playfulness goes beyond the adaptive and creative application of humour, it also embodies a playful approach to life and our roles in it.

It refers to the freedom of expressing yourself in an intuitive, instinctive way. Playfulness is having a good relationship with the young child living inside of you. It is being brave enough to cross the boundaries of expected behaviours and reactions, to honestly and vulnerably be yourself.

Of course, playfulness is not the equivalent of infantile or immature behaviour − it much rather means that we are adult enough to experience every aspect of our personality, and by doing so, we manage to be more efficient, more productive, and last but not least, happier.

Peacock

The appreciation of excellence and perfection refers to sensitivity and a unique outlook upon life. It means you recognise the beauty that surrounds you and sincerely appreciate it. Excellence can be discovered in almost anything − in people with high moral values, in abstract notions such as science or the arts, but also in nature and our everyday physical environment.

Sensitivity to perfection may include, for instance, appreciating the perfection of human accomplishments such as a remarkable achievement in sports, an outstandingly prepared meal, or an elegantly solved mathematical problem. It is important to note that appreciating excellence and perfection is far from perfectionism! It is not a rigid pursuit of making everything perfect — it is about the true joy felt at beautiful and outstanding things and the reverence for them.

Sensitivity to perfection contributes to your psychological well-being through feelings of admiration, exaltation or piety. But it can also help you find meaning or a purpose in life. Although the pursuit of excellence may at first sight seem somewhat material, on closer inspection, it is much more of a transcendental strength as it helps to recognise yourself as a small part of something larger and truly beautiful.

Elephant

Thirst for knowledge is curiosity and the lasting motivation to learn something new. This strength means both the search for novelty and the ability and desire to broaden your already acquired knowledge. In other words, thirst for knowledge can be of general, exploratory nature, or specific, focusing on a particular subject or topic.

Thirst for knowledge promotes your well-being in two ways. On one hand, by positive emotions that you experience when you learn something or acquire new competencies as these emotions go hand in hand with an increased sense of self-efficacy.

On the other hand, this strength has a beneficial effect on motivation and resilience to stress. Since people with a great thirst for knowledge see failures and mistakes as an essential and valuable part of the learning process, this strength has the potential to help one overcome obstacles and achieve their goals while sincerely enjoying the long journey towards them.

Chameleon

Creativity refers to both unconventional, original perspectives and the ability to find various, unexpected solutions to problems that arise. It’s important to emphasise that when we call creativity a strength, we don’t just mean artistic creativity. Although originality is a value in itself, it only becomes really a strength if it serves you or your wider community.

Therefore, if you are creative under our conditions, you need to contribute to finding new solutions or to the development of the individual or the community. In other words, you don’t need any artistic or aesthetic talent to be creative – coming up with an innovative idea or developing a product for your company is also creativity.

Creativity promotes well-being by helping to get to know and express yourself. Also, if you’re creative, you’re more likely to solve problems effectively − making this strength a valuable resource for you in hard times.

Dolphin

There are several key aspects to sensitivity. First, it is a sophisticated ability to perceive other people’s feelings, motivations and desires. Second, it means that you are well aware of your own emotions, motivations and desires as well, and you can deal with them efficiently in social situations. Third, a sensitive person knows how to feel good at social events and among various people while also contributing to the positive emotions of others.

Knowing what makes other people and you happy is a huge opportunity to establish relationships that are mutually rewarding, long-lasting and are supported by strong connection points. Furthermore, sensitivity can also be a cornerstone of your career as it can help you find a position, fit in with the others or contribute to the success of group projects. Last but not least, thanks to sensitivity, you have the chance to live in harmony with both other people and yourself at the same time.

Lion

The most important contributions of bravery to psychological well-being are the increase in the sense of competence acquired by stepping out of the comfort zone and the resulting positive effects of it that help one cope with the situation in hand. In other words, the strength of bravery is choosing the possibility of growing over safety. Courage has several forms. Facing great physical danger (e.g. saving a drowning person from the sea) or psychological fears (e.g. starting psychotherapy) can be both considered bravery.

Moreover, standing up for moral values can also be courageous in an environment that is disapproving or discouraging as in such cases, we consider fostering the common values of the community more important than our own safety. A common misconception is that bravery means not having any fears. If we give it some thought, true courage is more about doing something or choosing something valuable despite the fears, not without fears.

Wolf

In short, inspiration in our model means being able to persuade others to take actions or think further. For this you need to be able to set realistic, meaningful and motivating goals, and at the same time determine a clear path to them. Inspiring people also need to demonstrate a high level of dedication and commitment so that others can look at them as role models. Perhaps they need to be charismatic or come up with very good questions or ideas at the right time. Inspiration often requires the ability to work in a team or to coordinate people as many times you have to get people to do their work or tasks.

Considering all these aspects, it is not surprising that the strength of inspiration can also be described as the effective utilisation of a wide range of other strengths (e.g. team spirit, bravery, authenticity) at the right time. Researchers continue to debate whether it is the active practice of inspiration that makes people happier or it is rather happy people who inspire others. However, it is clear that efficiency, autonomy and self-expression, that are inspired by this strength, positively affect our mental health.

Bee

Team spirit is not just about being able to work in a team, although being a team player can be an essential component of this strength. It is more about being a responsible member of your communities and considering your roles within them before taking an action. What do we mean by communities? Well, it could mean a community formed by partners in a romantic relationship, family members, colleagues or a class, a church or even a nation.

Whatever it is for you, team spirit means a deep commitment to them, prioritising the success of the community over individual desires. Team spirit also requires loyalty and humility, for what it is necessary to recognise that the successes of the community enhance individual development and progress, too.

Team spirit can contribute to finding a purpose in life as it allows you to see yourself as part of something larger, plus teamwork can help you collect a lot of positive experiences. At the same time, it can strengthen one’s relationships as well since in a team, we work for common goals and that creates a very powerful bond.

Deer

Kindness to others can be best described as a complex mixture of various capabilities. First, you need to be empathetic and able to recognise the often unspoken needs of others. Second, you need to make a decision that for a little while, you’ll prioritise others’ needs over your own. Third, you need to have certain social skills to use kindness in the right place and at the right time, without coming across as “too much” or “odd”. Fortunately, this comes naturally to many wonderful people. The good news for them is that kindness not only serves others, but it’s also beneficial to the kind person.

When you practise kindness, you experience a good deal of positive emotions, you get a lot of positive feedback from others and you improve your relationships at the same time. Last but not least, caring for others is one of the most beautiful transcendental and spiritual aspects of life, so it can help strengthen your faith in the meaning and value of life as well.

Tiger

Authenticity means being brave enough to show yourself as who you are and take responsibility for yourself. Despite its simple description, exercising authenticity comes with a number of prerequisites. Maintaining your personal integrity requires a heightened awareness of your own emotions, desires and beliefs.

Also, you need to be able to manage and maintain this integrity in different areas of life and different communities. In addition, authenticity means being responsible for your emotions, thoughts and actions, regardless whether they are part of your present or past. So, in order to be truly authentic, you need to be honest, fair and possibly consistent with others.

Although authenticity is often a challenge, it helps you find your personal goals in life and maintain deep and intimate relationships. It also serves your mental health as you don’t have to worry about what others may think of you, whether they love you for your true self… etc. You can enjoy the freedom and independence that come with living a life dictated solely by your personal values and character.

Snake

Spirituality is a deep and personal inner belief that life has a meaning and purpose beyond our understanding. As part of this strength, one often feels a universal connection with others or recognises and appreciates universal values. When spirituality is strong within us, it can help find our personal life goals and it might let us feel that we have a role and a place in a larger system.

At the same time, people with great spirituality are aware that others have a role to play too, so they can recognise and respect the lives, views and personalities of others. Researchers often define spirituality as the search for the “holy” − to seek and find something that goes beyond our evanescent human existence. It doesn’t necessarily involve religions (although they help a lot of people).

We can find peace, admiration or exaltation in nature, during personal meditation or prayer, when we work for others or in human relationships. It is not that there is something extraordinary that we should understand or recognise — this strength is more about finding and recognising the extraordinary, the transcendental and the sacred even in profane situations and in our everyday life.

Owl

Wisdom has several, slightly different aspects to consider. One is the definition of wisdom as a critical approach to information one hears or reads. It is not just a question of checking the facts, but of interpreting them or the same situation differently; it is the ability to question one's own initial convictions. Furthermore, it is wisdom that makes you integrate the incoming information into broader perspectives.

Thanks to this strength, you can link practical experiences to general knowledge and matching theories. Some people define wisdom as being able to make sound, accurate judgments. Nevertheless, there is clearly something to wisdom that transcends human intellect — it is a deep and mature understanding and synthesis of the practical, theoretical and emotional meanings of a given situation.

Wisdom can help you make the right decisions in life, so it can reduce unnecessary stress and help you see that your life makes sense. At the same time, wisdom lets you give good and valuable pieces of advice to others, thereby making the benefits of wisdom spread and flourish in your wider communities as well.

Squirrel

Future-oriented thinking refers to prioritising long-term goals over immediate rewards. It means the ability to persevere and continue your work in order to achieve your goals even when motivational deficiencies and difficulties arise. This strength requires self-regulation and self-motivation so that you can stick to your aspirations and stay on track to realise them.

In addition, you need to be prudent. If you are working for long-term goals, it is essential to invest your energy into the most favourable and least risky opportunities. And then there is hope − you need to hope that your investments pay off in the long run.

The strength of future-oriented thinking can enhance well-being by regulating your emotions, reducing the number of unnecessary conflicts and problems and by dealing with difficulties and stress effectively. It can also improve your performance as thinking long-term helps you set right and attainable goals, manage failures and overcome obstacles on the long road to success.

Monkey

Mindfulness is the strength of living in the present and fully enjoying the present moment with all its gifts. This strength consists of the openness to new and unexpected experiences, the ability to perceive without judgement and the immersion in the process of experiencing. It helps you get rid of the restricting categories of “good” or “bad”. Instead, you can concentrate on what kind of experiences you have and how you live them

Mindfulness promotes your psychological well-being by reducing stress and enhancing your positive emotions at the same time. The strength of living in the present refreshes your perception by enabling you to see your daily activities and experiences differently − as novel, exciting and satisfying happenings.

Koala

Relaxation can be defined as the ability to switch off when it is needed. It relates to a number of various skills that help people effectively calm their minds, organise their thoughts and clear their heads. The often neglected ability to rest without feeling guilty or having distracting thoughts also belongs to this strength.

The strength of relaxation can be developed primarily by using breathing and relaxation techniques, paying attention to sleep hygiene and doing leisure activities. It is also crucial to differentiate procrastination, demotivation or simple laziness from the need for a break or the ability to choose the most refreshing form of rest and recreation.

In addition to playing a key role in nurturing your well-being and mental health, relaxation can also increase efficiency and help you achieve your goals. Finally, it boosts concentration and helps to manage time and tasks better, so it can eventually lead to greater performance.