This is the third in a series of Blogs on personal management and how to lead a life worth living and be happy.
'Strength Based' is a guiding philosophy and a collaborative approach to positive personal change. More than just cooperation, it expects the active participation and understanding by the individual in the process. As social beings so much of our success comes from collaborating with others towards shared purpose and objectives. This is equally so when we pursue a life worth living.
Strength Based – An Overview.
The strengths approach is based on values and attitudes. It is values and attitudes, rather than skills and knowledge, that are the primary drivers of processes and outcomes. Skills and knowledge are mobilised as resources to serve principles that enable change. Doing otherwise can lead you to act only as an expert in your field and can work against empowerment and self-determination.
I have used the strength-based approach as a way of working to help find solutions in the face of difficulties and to achieve fulfillment (a life worth living), learning and through this happiness. It is a guiding philosophy. It embraces positive attitudes about people and their potential, focusing on their strengths, aspirations and resources as a means of bringing change. It honours people’s potential and treats them as experts on the own lives and experiences. It is a compassionate approach.
The essence of the strengths approach is captured in the following set of core statements:
· It is a philosophy for working with people to bring about change;
· It is an approach to people that is primarily dependent upon positive attitudes about dignity, capacities, rights, uniqueness, and commonalities;
· It emphasises people’s ability to be their own agents of change by creating conditions that enable them to control and direct processes of change they engage in;
· It creates conditions that enable people to identify, value and mobilise their strengths and capacities in the process of change;
· It provides and mobilises resources in a way that complements peoples existing strengths and resources as opposed to compensating for perceived deficits;
· It acknowledges and addresses power imbalances between people;
· It seeks to identify and address social, personal, cultural, and structural constraints to people’s growth and self-determination;
· It acknowledges and addresses power dynamics, cultures and structures that are in-congruent with social-justice.
A strength based approach to happiness uses these statements to help guide personal self management as you act to bring about individual change, to lead a life worth living and with it happiness.
Reference to 'The Strengths Approach - A Strengths Based resource for sharing power and creating change' Wayne McCashen published by St Luke's Innovative Resources 2005.
The next Blog is about Purpose and Passion and visualises a world without birdsong.
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