I attended a coaching workshop led by Professor Emeritus Jerald Forster and Master Coach Fran Fisher. One of the tools they shared is a process for logging positive feelings and articulating strengths.
Briefly, the process goes like this:
1. Notice how you feel. Pay special attention to when you feel good, and notice the circumstances. Distinguish times when your positive qualities, or strengths, contributed to the events and circumstances that evoked positive feelings.
For example, if a sports team you follow won a game, you may feel great, but they did not win because of your awesomeness. However, if your bathroom remodel came out well, that might have been, in part, the result of your aesthetic, persistence, willingness to postpone gratification, leadership, or some other strengths.
2. For those positive feelings that seem to be associated with your strengths, write down a description of the positive feelings, and the circumstances surrounding your positive feelings. Then, write down the strengths that you are noticing.
3. After some time has passed, and you have logged several strengths, take the time to reflect on your listed strengths. Choose a strength to work with further that stands out as making you feel very good, or making you feel curious about yourself. Try to find the very best words that could be used to communicate this strength to another person. Find words that make this strength uniquely your own.
For example, I might first list the strength "teacher." There are many ways to be a teacher. What do I teach? Who do I teach? When and why is this associated with positive feelings? How am I a teacher like no other? There are many questions one might ask oneself to evoke further articulation of this strength. The point is to pose questions to yourself that evoke a deeper, more personal articulation process.
4. After more time has passed, and the deep articulation process of step 3 has been done 20 times or more, edit your list down to 7 to 10 strengths that you enjoy the most.
And then? Keep doing this process, editing and evolving your list, and let this thought process become second nature to you. Make this a habit that supports your positive identity.
Please click this text to go to Professor Forster's Strengths Focused Coaching website. There, you can download a Word document called: LOG Entry Form. Keep the LOG on your desktop and make an entry whenever you recall a memory associated with positive feelings. You will find further instructions at this link as well.
Find out more about Fran Fisher and Jerald Forster's work:
www.franfisher-coach.com
www.strengths-focused-coaching.org
