strength and motivation

Hello my name is Aimee and this is a real life adventure...

For an assignment in my PRM 400 class we were asked to visit a website discussing positive psychology and take a strengths and virtues questionnaire. This is what I found out.

My biggest strength is citizenship, teamwork, and loyalty. According to the survey I am extremely loyal to my team and I will work hard for the successes of my team. I think this will be extremely helpful in the field of Therapeutic Recreation. So often job requirements are that the individual attend all staff meetings, workshops, and even staff outings. By being a strong team member I will not only be enthused to participate, but hopefully I can inspire our group to work effectively and diligently with our patients to reach their goals.

My second best strength is what the website referred to as kindness and generosity. The qualities listed in this category are: never being too busy to do a favor, doing favors for individuals I do not know well, and enjoying doing good deeds. I believe it is this quality that led me to Therapeutic Recreation in the first place. I remember when I told my family that I wanted to add TR to my degree they weren't very supportive, especially when I told them I wanted to focus my work in psychiatric wards. My mentality on the subject is that we need someone to work with the mentally ill population and if I'm willing to do it, why not? Individuals in my family have had to be hospitalized in the past and if it weren't for the phenomenal staff, our family would've fell apart. I want to be a support for families like mine, dealing with similar situations.

Assessing my individual strengths has shown me the possible benefits of knowing my patients strengths. By capitalizing on things they love to do, are good at, or feel important doing I can help them reach goals they have set for themselves while utilizing their strengths in doing so. It seems that people are passionate about their strengths. For instance in my case I am a strong group member who likes to do good things for others so I want to work as part of a team to help others reach their goals. If I know what motivates my patients or what they are passionate about, I can help them do what they love while living up to who they want to be.