For the full list: to get a pdf of all 714 new ways of using the 24 strengths please email me at kaye.mclaren@gmail.com or drop a request with your email address in the comments section.

If you are interested in doing coaching to identify and find new ways to use your strengths for $50 per hour from a certified Authentic Happiness Coach please email me on: kaye.mclaren@gmail.com The first session is free.

To learn about the Map of the Hero’s Journey from Depression to Happiness, see the post of the same name further down the list of posts. If you’d like a copy of the map, there is a button at the bottom of the post that connects you to my Redbubble shop so you can order it.

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 #7. Persistence [perseverance, industriousness]: this strength involves keeping going even when times are tough and refusing to give up on valued goals. Persistence is about finding ways to motivate yourself to keep going in the face of setbacks or obstacles. A persistent person finishes what they started. They get a lot of satisfaction from finishing tasks and projects and achieving goals. Persistence involves organizing activities in such a way that it is easier to go on with them, such as taking breaks, and giving oneself small rewards for each action completed. Perseverance comes from within, rather than being achieved through outside pressure. It involves ways of talking to oneself that help to keep going when you want to give up, and seeking sources of support that help you keep going. Grit protects against suicidal thinking, although there is no research showing it protects against actual attempts. It does this in part by increasing meaning in life, and protecting against the impact of stressful life events. Grit seems particularly protective for those with unrealistically high standards.ⁱ It seems helpful for people with thoughts of suicide, especially when combined with a gratitude practice. Grit is protective against suicidal thinking for young men and people from minority ethnic groups who have recently experienced racism. People who feel hopeless but are high in grit are less likely to think of and plan suicide than those low in grit. Building grit results in finding life more meaningful and thinking of suicide lessⁱⁱ. Luckily this quality can be learned. Studies have found taking small daily steps can increase resilience – it’s not an all or nothing process.ⁱⁱⁱ

1. Assess your current resilience to see which areas you are strong in and which need work. A quick and easy test can be found at the website angeladuckworth.com/grit-scale. There are only 10 questions and it computes the scores for you and tells you how many Americans you have more grit than.^iv
2. Pick up a project you abandoned and start working on it again.
3. Consider a valued goal you have chosen. Note two potential roadblocks that may challenge you, then brainstorm ways you could deal with them.
4. Pick a goal that is complex and challenging, that you feel excited about and is meaningful to you, and keep working on it.
5. Select a skill you find challenging, and keep learning and practising it until you can do it at a basic level.
6. Watch a three minute video featuring Angela Lee Duckworth, the person who discovered grit, talking about what it is – and what it isn’t. The video is called 01 -What is Grit? and can be found on the John Templeton Foundation YouTube channel.
7. Learn skills to become more resilient from The Resilience Workbook: Essential Skills to Recover from Stress, Trauma, and Adversity by stress management expert Glenn Schiraldi. It covers how to manage emotional arousal, calm your thinking and body, self-compassion, expressive writing, gratitude, self-esteem, optimism, and active coping skills. Multiple readers say it has helped them learn how to cope better with challenging life situations. It is available as an audiobook.
8. If you feel suicidal, combine a grit exercise with a gratitude exercise. Grit has been found helpful for people with thoughts of suicide, especially when combined with a gratitude practice. Building grit results in finding life more meaningful and thinking of suicide less.^v
9. When you feel like giving up on a goal or project you truly feel passionate about, write down why you really want to do it.
10. Write about what your life will look like and how you’ll feel when you achieve a valued goal, so you feel energized and inspired.
11. When you feel you just can’t go on with a goal, take a break and do something else, something that is a real change. Set a time or date to come back to the difficult goal.
12. When a goal or project feels overwhelming, pick one small task you know you can do and do that, even for just five minutes. This will energize you to keep working on it.
13. Make a list of things you’ve already achieved on this goal or project.
14. This won’t work for everyone, but some people are motivated by people who tell them they can’t do things. If you’re one of those people, talk about your goal to someone who has made it clear they think you’ll never succeed.
15. When you feel totally demotivated, just aim to work on your goal or project for five minutes. This usually creates enough momentum to keep working. And if it doesn’t – you’ve still done five minutes work!
16. Read a brief guide called “What grit is and why it’s important” by psychologist and author Caren Baruch-Feldman on the New Harbinger blog, at http://www.newharbinger.com/blog. It comes with a free downloadable guide on how to increase grit.
17. Read Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Lee Duckworth. It covers what grit is and why it matters, why effort is more important than talent, how to become grittier as an individual, and how to help others develop grit. It is also available as an audiobook.
18. Make your most valued goal or project your first activity of the day – give it priority, even if you only work on it for half an hour.
19. Read or watch videos about people who have persevered and succeeded at very difficult tasks or goals to inspire you. Examples are: Nelson Mandela, Victoria Woodhull, Sojourner Truth, Mahatma Gandhi, Sacagawea, Ole Kirk Christiansen, Buffalo Calf Road Woman, Walt Disney, Malala Yousafzai and Thomas Edison.
20. If you know someone who has achieved a difficult victory, ask if you can ask them some questions about how they did this.
21. Find an inspiring poem or quote that makes you feel motivated and hopeful. Make a small poster of it that you see when you wake up in the morning or make it the screensaver on your phone, tablet or laptop. Look at it when you feel like quitting.
22. Write a list of difficult things you have achieved in the past. Pay particular attention to the projects you succeeded at that you initially thought were impossible and that you would fail at.
23. Tell the people around you about your goals. Look for people who believe in you.
24. Make a five year plan of what you would like to accomplish, and identify the new skills you need to learn to achieve these goals.
25. Write a few paragraphs about your life in the future if everything went as well as it possibly could, to inspire you.
26. Be on the look out for killjoy thoughts that rob you of hope, motivation and energy. Write them down and dispute them, explore whether they are factual or logical.
27. Come up with a mantra to help you persist, such as “I’ve succeeded before, I can succeed again,” or “I’m not going to achieve my goal by giving up.”
28. Create a plan to strengthen your social network, as having social support helps you persist.
29. Do a daily practice of mindfulness for a week, as this boosts persistence.
30. For a task or project you feel like giving up on, create an action plan that goes down to a very tiny, precise level of detail, and focus on ticking off actions rather than on how you feel.
31. Look back over the actions you have ticked off to see that you are making progress, even if it’s slow.
32. Pick a difficult situation in your life where you want to give up, and simply write down the facts about it (NOT your feelings!) and accept that this is how it is, without criticizing yourself or catastrophizing.
33. Think of activities that put you in a state of flow – where you are so engrossed you lose track of time. Aim to do more of these in the coming week, as this builds grit.
34. Try the free app Superbetter, which is designed to increase physical, mental, emotional and social resilience. You can choose all kinds of goals, and add nutrition, exercise, and social connection activities.
35. Read the online article called Resilience: Build Skills to Endure Hardship on the website mayoclinic.org.
36. Watch the endearing four minute video called A Very Happy Brain, on the Dr Sood YouTube channel, which outlines how to develop some of the skills used in resilience.

iZhang J, Liu L and Wang W (2021) The Moderating Role of Grit in the Relationship between Perfectionism and Depression among Chinese College Students, Frontiers in Psychology, 12: 729089.

iiKleiman E M et al (2013) Gratitude and Grit Indirectly Reduce Risk of Suicidal Ideations by Enhancing Meaning in Life: Evidence for a Mediated Moderation Model, Journal of Research in Personality, 47(5): 539-546.

iiiMejia-Downs A (2020) An Intervention Enhances Resilience in Entry-Level Physical Therapy Students: A Preliminary Randomized Controlled Trial, Journal of Physical Therapy Education, 34(1) 2-11; Rusadi R M, Sugara G S and Isti’adah F N (2021) Effect of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy on Academic Grit among University Student, Current Psychology, 1-10.

ivMejia-Downs A (2020) An Intervention Enhances Resilience in Entry-Level Physical Therapy Students: A Preliminary Randomized Controlled Trial, Journal of Physical Therapy Education, 34(1) 2-11; Rusadi R M, Sugara G S and Isti’adah F N (2021) Effect of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy on Academic Grit among University Student, Current Psychology, 1-10.

vKleiman E M et al (2013) Gratitude and Grit Indirectly Reduce Risk of Suicidal Ideations by Enhancing Meaning in Life: Evidence for a Mediated Moderation Model, Journal of Research in Personality, 47(5): 539-546.