Thriving: 7 Psychological Traits To Reach Your Dreams
“If a good man thrive, all thrive with him.” — Herbert
Since the early days of existence humans always aimed at developing their lives by reaching new heights. This phenomenon has been observed and proved by the scientific community since the ‘60s.
That is, human beings have an inherent drive for self-improvement and growth.
This comes as no surprise, I’m sure we can all relate in one way or another. Our actions and behaviors are fueled by our desire to climb higher at the ladder, whether this translates to economic, social, or personal growth. We are only humans and we are hardwired (in a sense) to chase one thing: Thriving.
Before we dive into the 7 personality traits which allow us to climb the ladder steps easier, first we need to grasp the definition of Thriving.
Thriving can be broadly defined as the joint experience of development and success.
This definition though is still too broad to be understandable. Development and success can have different meanings for different people. So let’s break it down to specifics.
To achieve both development and success as individuals we need to perform equally well on two indicators, of well-being and performance.
Well-Being
Well-being is described as the state of being or doing well in life and can be categorized into physical,emotional, psychological and social dimensions.
High levels of well-being are important for thriving as they demonstrate the personal and social functioning necessary for development.
Performance
Performance is determined by the level of quality shown in the execution of an action, operation, or process. And can be assessed, for example, on a range of artistic, athletic, cognitive, motor, or work-related tasks.
An individual’s performance on such tasks is considered to reflect their level of functioning and if a high level of functioning is achieved, superior performance may orient an individual to achieve success.
So after we understood what Thriving means, we can state a more distinctive and final definition:
Thriving can be realized through equally effective functioning on multiple parameters and observed through the experience of a high-level of well-being and a high-level of performance.
This description captures the essence of thriving in state form(well-being) and in response to a situation(performance).
Now that I bored you to death and you regret the moment you jumped on this article(hang on!) it’s time to dive into the hot stuff.
Personal Enablers
The scientific research of thriving throughout the human life period and across a variety of contexts and domains such as during adversity, in health, the military, work, and youth have identified 7 main psychological traits that facilitate thriving, called ‘Personal Enablers’.
Personal enablers are the attitudes, cognitions, and behaviors of an individual that help him or her to thrive.
1) Positive Perspective
To explain the role of a positive perspective as a personal enabler, researchers proposed that being optimistic, having high self-productiveness, and being honest to one’s values could enable individuals to thrive. That is by helping them stay focused and engaged when faced with adversity or stressor.
2) Proactive Personality
This type of personality describes people who recognize opportunities, takes initiative, act instead of just watching, and persevere until a meaningful change takes place. Not surprisingly, research has also shown that proactive have many desirable behaviors that organizations want.
For instance, people are more likely than others to be seen as leaders and more likely to act as change agents in organizations. They’re more likely to challenge the status quo, they have entrepreneurial abilities, and they’re more likely to achieve career success.
3)Motivation
Research has shown that thriving individuals are solely motivated and energized by their talents and interests. To be more specific, an individual’s core passions act as “sparks” to fuel one’s interest in growing knowledge and skills, drive the creation of a nurturing environment and, ultimately, enable thriving through the execution of actions that are mutually beneficial to the individual and his or her society.
Experiments showed that when an individual experienced positive meaning in their work, he or she would be more likely to engage in autonomous behaviors that could ultimately lead to thriving.
In support of this experiment, another research found that employees who experienced positive meaning at work in the morning showed signs of thriving (i.e., felt more vital, had a higher sense of learning) at the end of the working day.
(Sadly, few people can say that for their job nowadays… Heck, at some point in my life I couldn’t say it either).
4)Knowledge and Learning
An individual’s motivation is important for establishing his or her commitment to learning, and this desire to learn is relevant to thriving in all populations. For example, being motivated to learn is a key internal asset for adolescents, whose academic performance is often considered a marker of thriving.
Concerning adults, learning and possessing knowledge is important for thriving at work. Indeed, within the work literature, studies have highlighted that to thrive in their roles, employees should stay current and remain aware of recent developments in their field, be knowledgeable, and possess psychological capital.
5)Psychological Resilience
Possessing resilient qualities (e.g., flexibility and adaptability), or displaying resilience more generally, has frequently been advocated for thriving following adversity or when experiencing strain.
To provide some examples, resilience was identified as important for thriving, assessed through positive future expectations and effective adjustment, in survivors of the 2008 Sichaun earthquake, and for combat soldiers exposed to sudden trauma (e.g., loss of a fellow soldier, perpetrating harm on others) and experiencing intense, unrelenting stressors (e.g., fatigue, prolonged separation from family).
6)Social Competencies
Across scenarios where an individual may thrive, it may be the case that his or her response will be affected by social circumstances present (e.g., family, friends, colleagues) and the perceived support available in that environment for the individuals.
Interpersonal exchanges with parents, for example, may reassure a young student when preparing for a challenging examination.
For example, social competencies such as peaceful conflict resolution and interpersonal/cultural competence enable an individual to retain his or her personal and environmental resources and employ them in an attempt to thrive.
7)Religiosity and Spirituality
For some individuals, religiosity, spirituality, and faith were considered enablers of thriving. For example, recent research speculated that religious coping may enable thriving and stress-related growth through one’s relationship with God and a religious social support network.
Spirituality, believed to reflect an individual’s value in moral and community identities, was directly related to thriving as a form of adolescent functioning, but also indirectly related through relationships with religiosity (i.e., participation in the practices of a faith-based institution related to supernatural power).
Personal Note
Before wrapping this up I’d like to point that these 7 traits look fairly simple at first glance, maybe you already own some of them(good for you), but it’s certainly not easy to grasp and apply them right away.
Here is a little trick I use in situations like these, Take a paper write down one of the variables you think you lack in words you understand best. Stick the paper somewhere you can see it every day (fridge maybe?!) and at the end of the day ask yourself, how different my choices would be today if I had applied this trait?
Let me know in the comments.
Best of luck and keep thriving!
Sources
Human Thriving — A Conceptual Debate and Literature Review Daniel J. Brown, Rachel Arnold, David Fletcher, and Martyn Standage.
Carmeli, A., & Spreitzer, G. M. (2009). Trust, connectivity, and thriving: Implications for innovative behaviors at work. Journal of Creative Behavior.
Donaldson, S. I., Dollwet, M., & Rao, M. A. (2015). Happiness, excellence, and optimal human functioning revisited: Examining the peer-reviewed literature linked to positive psychology. The Journal of Positive Psychology.
Maslow, A. H. (1965). Some basic propositions of growth and self-actualization psychology.
Theories of personality: Primary sources and research. New York, NY: Wiley, Mahoney, J., Ntoumanis, N., Mallett, C., & Gucciardi, D. (2014).
The motivational antecedents of the development of mental toughness: A self-determination theory perspective. International Review. Bakker, A. B., van Veldhoven, M., & Xanthopoulou, D. (2010).
Beyond the demand-control model: Thriving on high job demands and resources. Bonanno, G. A. (2004).
Loss, trauma, and human resilience: Have we underestimated the human capacity to thrive after extremely adverse events? American Psychologist, Brandtstädter, J. & Lerner, R. M. (Eds.). (1999).
Action and self-development: Theory and research through the lifespan. Bundick, M. J., Yeager, D. S., King, P. E., & Damon, W. (2010).
Thriving across the life span. In R. M. Lerner, M. E. Lamb, & A. M. Freund (Eds.), The handbook of life-span development.
