When we say that a strength is a pre-existing capacity, we mean…

• The strength already exists within us, whether to a greater or lesser extent
  
  
• Even if a strength is latent – if it hasn’t yet been fully developed or used – it is still there within us
  
  
• We can learn by “adding in” new things from the outside, but we can’t just pick and choose to have the strengths that we would like at any one time
  
  
• By pre-existing, we mean that there are already the pathways in our brain that represent the strength. These pathways might have been there when we were born, or we might have developed them as young children.  But the key part about strengths being pre-existing capacities is that there is something about our biological or psychological make-up that predisposes us to have that particular strength