Character and Relationships: Timeless and Timely

Our mission at The Positivity Project (P2) is to empower our youth to build positive relationships and become their best selves. With everything that we’ve been through the past 18 months — and with all the uncertainty that we continue to face — we believe that our mission is critically important.

That’s because we believe that P2’s focus on character and relationships is both timeless and timely.

Timeless

Why do we say that P2’s focus on character and relationships is timeless? First, let’s look at the definition. To be timeless means that the object you’re referencing is not restricted to a particular time or date. For example, the timeless themes of love, solitude, joy, and nature.

And, I would add relationships and character to those examples.

We know that we’re social beings. We need other people around us. There’s a reason that extended bouts of solitary confinement can be considered cruel and unusual punishment. Other people matter to our ability to survive and thrive. Other people matter to our health, our happiness, and our resilience.

There is a reason that Dr. Robert Waldinger, director of Harvard’s 80+ year Study of Adult Development, explained, “The clearest message” they got from their study is that “good relationships keep us happier and healthier. Period.” And, there is a reason that Dr. Chris Peterson said he could sum up positive psychology in just three words, “Other people matter. Period.”

We also know that character strengths are timeless. That’s because of the research driving the classification of positive psychology’s character strengths.  Continue reading →