Flora Sanchez, Search Institute Senior Trainer
Celebrations are those magical moments—whether formal or informal—that punctuate our lives. These moments nurture our souls; they define our cultures, our lives, our loves, and our passions. Celebrations often give us an excuse to gather our families and communities, and they sometimes cause laughter, and forge the bonds of relationships. It is perhaps an artifact of our culture to wait for special “greeting card events” to celebrate. With the back-to-school season upon us, why not take a few moments out of our busy schedules to celebrate the students and educators in our lives? In my presentations and workshops I’ve found it useful to remind participants of the importance of celebration. I call it my Growing the Assets Strategy List.
1. Recognize. What asset-building do you see occurring right now—asset building that you’re doing, asset-building you see others doing, or asset-building that already exists in your organization and community?
2. Name it. Tie the action you recognize to an asset category or specific asset and call it out. Making the conscious link is important in helping to sustain the action.
3. Celebrate. Take a moment to honor yourself and refuel your own fire. Find informal ways to celebrate the work of others, as well as to encourage others to join you in gestures of celebration. As often as possible, look for opportunities to formally celebrate by creating ceremonies of respect, festivity, and rejoicing.
It might also be fruitful to think beyond the scope of celebration as you engage in celebratory activities with your families and communities.
4. Strengthen. What can you and others do to ensure that your current efforts are maximized? This will often require us to become more intentional, consistent and purposeful in what we do.
5. Expand. What more can we do? Where can we modify our behaviors in order to reach more young people? Go deeper with those we do reach? Build more of the assets? Engage more people in asset building?
However you decide to take a moment to find joy and celebrate, consider something Oprah Winfrey once said: The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.
