Aligning your Strengths to the Stoic Virtues (Part 2) Strengths tell us what's strong in us. Stoicism tells us what those strengths are for, and gives us the practices to live them out

After I wrote the first part of this blog - https://coachingattomd.podia.com/blog/ea9a2e15-37bb-4ed7-8fec-f4e3e3c69b8a, I realised that the table itself was not a sufficient enough explanation to give the reader the sense of what I was trying to put out there.

Hence this follow up.  The input is derived from various interactions with Claude, Gemini & ChatGPT, however the following are my thoughts based on the output of these tools.

One of the summaries I really can relate to is:

The VIA strengths tell you what's strong in you. 

The Stoics ask what those strengths are for.  The answer is always the same: to live a life that, when you look back on it, you'd be willing to live again

This sentiment goes a long way to helping understand the relationship between your personal strengths.  If you consider the 24 strengths as the way that virtue expresses itself in a person, then Stoicism provides discipline & philosophy for intentionally cultivating those virtues.  Or as Claude summarises:

If the 24 VIA strengths describe how virtue expresses itself in a person,

 Stoicism provides both the architecture and the method for cultivating those expressions intentionally - the four cardinal virtues as organising principle, and two thousand years of daily practices for the work itself 

I hope this places the table in context & gives some reflection points for you to consider.  I have the exact matchings & longer descriptions that I can share if you’re interested.

With thanks to the VIA Strengths - Free survey to find out your own strengths can be found at:

https://www.viacharacter.org/character-strengths