Do you know your strengths? If you acted on your strengths, you could up your success at work, home, and school. Now, That’s positive. To start, take the VIA Signature Strengths Questionnaire?the free version. You’ll discover the strengths that could take you furthest. My top three strengths? (1) Love of learning, (2) kindness, and (3) love. My weakest strength? Humility. And I’m not ashamed to say that.

After I filled out the survey, the VIA sent me regular emails outlining various strengths, including the strength of beauty. The VIA defined beauty as not only appearance, but also skill, talent, and virtue.

That’s a definition of beauty Yahoo! could embrace: You’re a beauty if you score in smarts, skills, looks, or virtue. And if You’re all four, you tug hearts. But, if You’re just one, you can still leave a legacy of beauty: take Mother Teresa or Margaret Thatcher.

Yes, everyone’s beautiful in ways, but to celebrate beauty as a strength, let’s look to VIA’s definition. With that said, go take the VIA questionnaire. Once you know your top strengths, indulge in them. If You’re high on kindness, then give gifts and sweet words to fellow students. If You’re big on the love of learning, read nonfiction books and watch Lynda.com videos.

And if You’re beautiful?or simply appreciate beauty?then show off your smarts, buy silk suits, and do the right thing.

Barbara L. Fredrickson invites you to take the VIA questionnaire in her book Positivity: Top-Notch Research Reveals the Upward Spiral that Will Change Your Life. Yes, discovering your strengths?and focusing on them?can bring rushes of positivity. But, positivity is more than that, as Fredrickson reveals:

– With a 3:1 positive to negative ratio, we get happier, more creative, and more resilient. And the higher the ratio, the better.
– Feel the positivity in your heart and your body. If you don’t feel in your heart the positive words you express, then the disjoint triggers stress hormones. So, bask in the positive.
– Reframe your negative life events in a positive light. And bolster the good feelings you get from your positive life events. Even make the ordinary extraordinary.
– If you lose a loved one, reflect on the good times and the positive characteristics. When your grief gets sprinkled with positive reflection, you recover more quickly.
– When something good fades, don’t fret; savor it while it lasts. And prolong the savoring.
– To savor, share all your positives with the ones you love, but only if they celebrate your successes.
– Savor the acts of kindness you show others?and give thank with words and actions for the kindness you receive.
– Visualize your best possible future.
– Try to articulate your life’s purpose. This purpose will guide your everyday mini-purposes.
– Discover your strengths, and act on them. If you do, your potential for success spikes.

You might be courageous, funny, nature-loving, hopeful, and so much more. Find your top three strengths. Savor them, act on them, flaunt them. In other words, make your life’s purpose positively beautiful.