For the full list: to get a pdf of new ways of using all 24 strengths please email me at kaye.mclaren@gmail.com or drop a request with your email address in the comments section.

Using strengths in new ways improves mood for three to six months, compared to a week or two for using strengths in ways you have before. This means more happiness and less depression for longer. So it’s worth doing.

You want to do something new for a week to get the full impact. So either choose one thing you can do every day for a week, or choose a variety of new things that allow you to do something new every day for a week. For example, you might do one thing for three days, and four things for one day each.

If you think of a new idea that could fit on one of these lists, please let me know in the comments.

Strength #4. Love of Learning: this strength is about feeling passion for finding out new things, for satisfying curiosity. People who love learning want to acquire new skills or knowledge simply for the joy of doing so, not just to achieve a specific goal. They genuinely enjoy the activity involved in learning. This strength is closely related to the strength of curiosity. However, curiosity is what motivates people to find new information. Love of learning is more about enjoying the process of finding out new things or learning new skills. So curiosity is about wanting to know – love of learning is about actually gaining knowledge. It’s also about learning more and more about a topic or skill, and gaining greater mastery of it over time.

1. Write a list of things you are genuinely excited to learn more about. They could be topics or skills you are already interested in or new ones.
2. If you’re not sure about what to put on this list, look online for a list of topics or skills and notice which ones you react to with interest and energy.
3. Sign up for an online course on a topic that interests you.
4. Try a new kind of exercise you haven’t done before from the list of different types of exercise elsewhere on this website.
5. Try playing a new board game or video game.
6. Try cooking a new dish that uses techniques and/or ingredients you’re not familiar with.
7. If you are not a confident or experienced public speaker and would like to be, join a public speaking or debating group or class.
8. Read a non-fiction book about something that piques your interest.
9. Try learning a new language using Duolingo.
10. Do an Internet search on your favorite topic and try to discover something new about it.
11. Look through a dictionary for a word you don’t know and learn the meaning. Try to use it in a sentence in your next conversation.
12. Visit a museum you haven’t been to before, or a new exhibition at your local museum.
13. After the visit, write an email, social media post or make a brief video for social media talking about what you learned there.
14. Pick a current event that interests you, then follow reporting on it on different media. Look for how different news outlets or social media platforms report it differently. Try to work out what the facts are about it.
15. Look at the TED channel on YouTube and see if a talk appeals to you.
16. Join a book club, in person or online. Goodreads is a good place to discuss books that interest you with others.
17. Keep your eyes peeled for notices of exhibitions locally.
18. Find a friend who has a skill you’d like to learn and invite them to meet and teach you.
19. See if there’s anything they know that you’d like to learn.
20. Attend a seminar, workshop or conference on a topic you are passionate about or at least keenly interested in.
21. Pick a place you find fascinating. Find ways of learning about it.
22. Make a plan to visit this place in person.
23. Look online and find the most obscure museum in your area, then visit it.
24. Look for a local factory that does tours, like a cheese or sugar factory, then take it.
25. Challenge a friend to a ‘learnathon’. Pick a topic neither of you is familar with then try to list as many facts as you can about it. See who comes up with the most.
26. If your home town has a Library of People, go along and talk to someone who has experiences that interest you.
27. Join a group on Reddit in an area of interest to you and participate in discussions on that topic.
28. Take a trip to an area that interests you and take tours and visit sites while there to learn as much as you can.
29. Pick a culture that really interests you and find ways to learn more about it – online, at the library, through visits to culturally significant areas and museums, correspondence with experts.