Use a signature strength in a new way each day for one week
Apply one of your top character strengths to a context or relationship where you don’t normally use it.
Key takeaways
- What it is: Apply one of your top character strengths to a context or relationship where you don’t normally use it.
- Why it works: The "use strengths in new ways" exercise is the single best-tested well-being intervention in positive psychology. The mechanism is twofold: first, novelty creates engagement, activating the interest-curiosity system rather than habituated routine; second, bringing a genuine strength into a new context typically generates flow-like absorption because you are operating near the top of your natural capability in that domain.
- Evidence: Backed by randomized trials / meta-analyses.
- Avoid: Doing the exercise mechanically ("I used kindness today") without genuine engagement — the mechanism requires authentic activation of the strength, not a checkbox.
Why it works
The "use strengths in new ways" exercise is the single best-tested well-being intervention in positive psychology. The mechanism is twofold: first, novelty creates engagement, activating the interest-curiosity system rather than habituated routine; second, bringing a genuine strength into a new context typically generates flow-like absorption because you are operating near the top of your natural capability in that domain.
How to do it
- 1Choose one of your top three signature strengths.
- 2For seven consecutive days, find a specific, new situation where you deploy it intentionally. Write down what you did each day.
- 3After day seven, reflect: which applications felt most alive? Which opened new possibilities?
- 4Repeat with a second strength, building a repertoire of contexts where each strength comes alive.
What the evidence says
RCT / meta-analysisSeligman et al. (2005) ran a randomized trial of five well-being exercises; "use your strengths in new ways" produced significant, lasting increases in happiness and decreases in depressive symptoms, with effects persisting at six months.
Honest caveat: Effect sizes were moderate; self-selection into the study and demand effects may inflate results. Replication in clinical populations is less consistent.
- — Seligman, Steen, Park & Peterson (2005), "Positive psychology progress: empirical validation of interventions," American Psychologist
Common mistake
Doing the exercise mechanically ("I used kindness today") without genuine engagement — the mechanism requires authentic activation of the strength, not a checkbox.
IX Coach generates a daily "strength prompt" tied to your current goals, making the exercise concrete and trackable rather than an abstract intention.
Practice this with IX Coach →