Prudence: Being careful about one’s choices; not taking undue risks; not saying or doing things that might later be regretted. Personified for example by Fred Soper (Source: VIA Institue)
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The Noel Strengths Academy defines it this way:
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Yes, strengths can be overused…or underused
- Underuse: Sensation seeking
- Overuse: Stuffiness
Key Research:
- Rank order of Prudence in populations from:
- US : 22
- European: 21
- Asia: 19
- Latin America: 22
- Sub-Saharan Africa: 22
- Middle east: 22
- The least prevalent character strengths in human beings are prudence, modesty, and self-regulation (Park, Peterson, & Seligman, 2006).
- Popular students, as identified by teacher ratings, are more likely to score highly on civic strengths such as leadership and fairness, and temperance strengths of self-regulation, prudence, and forgiveness. Interestingly, none of the humanity strengths such as love and kindness were related to popularity (Park & Peterson, 2009b).
- Strengths that predicted GPA in college students were perseverance, self-regulation, prudence, judgment and love of learning (Lounsbury et al., 2009).
Tayyab Rashid and Afroze Anjum offer 340 Ways to Use VIA Character Strengths including these four for Prudence:
- Think twice before saying anything. Do this exercise at least ten times a week and note its effects.
- Remove all extraneous distractions before your make your next three important decisions. Take the time to clear your mind and gather your thoughts.
- Visualize the consequences of your decisions in one, five, and ten years time. Take these long-term consequences into account when making short-term choices.
- Do a risk-benefit analysis before making a final decision. Consider risks and benefits that are intangible as well as tangible.
- Taking Smart Risks: How Sharp Leaders Win When Stakes are High by Doug Sundheim and Tony Schwartz
- Riskformation: How Smart Risk Taking Will Transform Your Life by Anne Fish
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Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Second Edition by Kerry Patterson , Joseph Grenny , et al
Learn more about Prudence
Gutsy girls skateboard, climb trees, clamber around, fall down, scrape their knees, get right back up — and grow up to be brave women. Learn how to spark a little productive risk-taking and raise confident girls with stories and advice from firefighter, paraglider and all-around adventurer Caroline Paul.
Imagine being by yourself in the dead center of a 3,000-foot vertical cliff — without a rope to catch you if you fall. For professional rock climber Alex Honnold, this dizzying scene marked the culmination of a decade-long dream. In a hair-raising talk, he tells the story of how he summited Yosemite’s El Capitan, completing one of the most dangerous free solo climbs ever.
Luck is rarely a lightning strike, isolated and dramatic — it’s much more like the wind, blowing constantly. Catching more of it is easy but not obvious. In this insightful talk, Stanford engineering school professor Tina Seelig shares three unexpected ways to increase your luck — and your ability to see and seize opportunities.
The hard choices — what we most fear doing, asking, saying — are very often exactly what we need to do. How can we overcome self-paralysis and take action? Tim Ferriss encourages us to fully envision and write down our fears in detail, in a simple but powerful exercise he calls “fear-setting.” Learn more about how this practice can help you thrive in high-stress environments and separate what you can control from what you cannot.
Podcasts to feed your Prudence
Cautionary Tales: We tell our children unsettling fairy tales to teach them valuable life lessons, but these Cautionary Tales are for the education of the grown ups – and they are all true. Tim Harford (Financial Times, BBC, author of “Messy” and “The Undercover Economist”) brings you stories of awful human error, tragic catastrophes, daring heists and hilarious fiascos. They’ll delight you, scare you, but also make you wiser.
Meditation for Prudence
- Noting Your Emotions [18 minutes]
- Introduction to Meditations with Thoughts and Emotions & Awareness of Thoughts Meditation[Download]
- Loving Kindness with Meg Levie @ SIYLI
- Walking Meditation @ Greater Good
- A Loving-Kindness Meditation to Boost Compassion @ Mindful
Read more on meditation and Prudence:
- Does Mindfulness Meditation Really Make You Kinder?
- Why Loving-Kindness Takes Time: includes a 45 minute guided meditation by Sharon Salzberg
- 18 Science-Based Reasons to Try Loving-Kindness Meditation Today!
Dear Prudence, greet the brand new day
The sun is up, the sky is blue
It’s beautiful and so are you
Dear Prudence, won’t you come out to play?
Dear Prudence, see the sunny skies
The wind is low, the birds will sing
That you are part of everything
Dear Prudence, won’t you open up your eyes?
(Round, round, round, round, round)
Look around, round, round (round, round)
(Round, round, round, round, round)
Look around
Dear Prudence, like a little child
The clouds will be a daisy chain
So let me see you smile again
Dear Prudence, won’t you let me see you smile?
Dear Prudence, greet the brand new day
The sun is up, the sky is blue
It’s beautiful and so are you
Dear Prudence, won’t you come out to play?
