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        The research indicates that you will be more motivated and feel more fulfilled if you can use your strengths as much as possible.  That is why you should seriously consider using your strengths as a volunteer.  Of course it is very motivating and fulfilling to use your strengths in your paid employment, but employers are usually more concerned about certain things done by their employees that are directly related to the goals and objectives of the employer.  However, in volunteer activities, you can choose opportunities, or better yet, make opportunities that really use your strengths.  You have complete control over your volunteer activities because you can keep looking until you find an opportunity where you can help someone else while using your best strengths to help them.  This will give you more of an opportunity to make a difference, because you can keep searching until you can volunteer at a place where you can really use your best strengths.

        As you might have done if you had searched for a work place, or created a work place, where you could use your strengths, you must articulate your strengths before you search for a place where you can make a difference as a volunteer.  As I have said before, you will probably do the best job of articulating your strengths if you do it together with others.  Also, as I have said before, the book, Articulating Strengths Together (AST): An Interactive Process to Enhance Positivity, will probably provide the most efficient and enjoyable way of articulating your strengths. You would also benefit from engaging in one of the internet-accessible approaches to identifying your objective strengths, such as the Strengths-Finder 2.0. The combination of using subjective approaches such as the AST or the DSAP, along with objective approaches such as the Strengths-Finder 2.0, will result in the most comprehensive strengths-focused identity.

        After you have done as much as you can to articulate your strengths, you should practice your ability to communicate your best strengths and then seek volunteer opportunities where you can use those strengths.  Since you will have found opportunities where you can really optimize your use of your strengths, you will be very enthusiastic about your volunteer activities and you are likely to be very effective when volunteering.  You will really have an opportunity to make a difference, which is especially meaningful for most people.  You are likely to feel fulfilled and good about your contributions when you feel that the contributions are making a real difference in the lives of others.  These can be your most meaningful times in your life.  After years of working because you needed to bring in a certain level of income to have the life style you wanted, you may have focused too much on activities that earned the most money you could earn.  Now, in your volunteer efforts, you can forget about the money you need to make, and you can concentrate on using your best strengths to make a real difference in the lives of others.