Lesson 2 - Character strengths case studies 

What will I be learning, and why am I learning about this?

Sometimes it is easier to be able to recognise the characteristics and resilience in others who have overcome adversity in order for us to recognise our own skills and strengths. These can also inspire us. 

In this lesson you will use personal stories of individuals. They have faced challenges and overcome adversity to develop resilience. The aim is to see if you can recognise their character strengths and how they use these to shape their thinking, their actions and behaviours.

These skills can then be applied to current challenges. 

View the explicit instructions for the details for this activity. 

Access to Lesson two – Practical application from last week's lesson.

Task 1 - Identifying character strengths 

1. Copy the table into your workbook and complete it by identifying your strengths and your friend or family members' strengths.

Task 2 - Strengthen your movement challenge plan.

• Strengthen your plan by; 

  1. Think explicitly about your character strengths you listed in the table.

  2. Identify a goal to modify  

  3. Modify the goal to explicitly include your character strengths

  4. Write it in a post-it note and stick it to your plan

For example - Goal 2

How often and when: Three times a week, first thing in the morning at 8am 

Modify to: Use my strength of self-control to switch off my phone to have an earlier bedtime to achieve an early morning meeting time three times a week.

Task 3 - Look at the list of motivational strategies that you have and reflect

• Are there any that really worked well for you? Why? 

• Are there any that worked really well for your friend/family member

• Are there any that didn’t work, or you didn’t try? Why? Why not? 

• How can you use your character strengths to develop different motivational strategies that you might draw on to increase the likelihood of success? 

For example, if zest was your character strength, how might you draw on your energy and enthusiasm to create little achievable challenges for you and your partner? 

Modifying your ‘goal one -where to participate’ to use the Strava app to GPS map your route can while you participate in physical activity. 

This technology can be used to create visual artworks through the activity route you take.