94 Examples of Personal Qualities

John Spacey, January 28, 2022

Personal qualities are characteristics that describe how an individual thinks, behaves and feels. It is common for people to be asked to list their personal qualities in job interviews, school admissions and professional development activities. In this context, it is helpful to avoid qualities that are negative, cliche or non-specific. For example, a quality such as "capable" is ambiguous because people may think "capable of what?" The following are illustrative examples of personal qualities.

Adaptable	Ambitious
Approachable	Assertive
Assured	Attentive
Calm	Candid
Careful	Caring
Collaborative	Commanding
Compassionate	Competitive
Confident	Considerate
Consistent	Constructive
Cooperative	Creative
Curious	Detail-oriented
Determined	Diligent
Diplomatic	Direct
Disciplined	Down to Earth
Eager	Earnest
Easygoing	Energetic
Enterprising	Enthusiastic
Fast Learner	Fearless
Flexible	Friendly
Generous	Gritty
Grounded	Hardworking
Helpful	Honest
Imaginative	Independent
Industrious	Inquisitive
Inventive	Kind
Lively	Logical
Meditative	Methodical
Normal	Objective
Open-minded	Optimistic
Original	Outgoing
Passionate	Personable
Polite	Positive
Practical	Pragmatic
Productive	Professional
Public-spirited	Rational
Realistic	Receptive
Relaxed	Reliable
Resilient	Resourceful
Respectful	Responsible
Responsive	Risk-taking
Self-Directed	Sincere
Social	Sympathetic
Thoughtful	Tireless
Tolerant	Tough
Traditional	Trustworthy
Unconventional	Understanding
Versatile	Warm

Some personal qualities can be used to describe other people but not yourself as they are considered too positive such that it is brash to apply them to yourself. For example, brave, brilliant or lovely.

94 Examples of Personal Qualities

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