Celebrate! Celebrate! Celebrate!
2003 Boaz Rauchwerger
Mary came to me for guidance. She was quite upset. Her ten-year-old son, Jimmy, had just been diagnosed by school officials with ADD, Attention Deficit Disorder. The school nurse said they wanted to put him on Ritalin to control his hyperactivity.
I asked her if we had a little time. She said we probably did. The school officials wanted to meet again in a couple of weeks to discuss the matter further.
The diagnosis had made her feel strange about her son, as if he was abnormal. I suggested we see Jimmy as a very special child. Mary's assignment, for the next two weeks, was to look at Jimmy each day and say to him with all sincerity, "Jimmy, I see it in you. You are a Champion!" What did we have to lose with this approach -- nothing.
Mary did just that. The first few days, Jimmy thought his mom was silly. Then he started liking the daily reinforcement. Soon he started acting as if he was a Champion.
Amazingly, Jimmy's behavior began to improve. He seemed to be calmer at school and at home. He began to see himself in a different light. He was beginning to live up to the way his mother saw him.
When Mary reported the good news back to me, I was delighted and gave her the next assignment. Jimmy's toughest subject in school was math. It was time to start celebrating Jimmy's progress. I suggested that, anytime Jimmy gets an even slightly better grade than before on any math test, Mary and her husband should take Jimmy to a celebration dinner.
At the end of the dinner they were to present Jimmy with a little trophy with the following engraving: "Congratulations Jimmy. You're a Math Champion!" The date of the presentation would also be engraved on the trophy.
Champions in sports get trophies. Kids like to emulate champions. Why can't kids feel like champions for as simple an accomplishment as getting a slightly better grade in math?
Mary started celebrating Jimmy's slight improvements in math while she kept telling him he was a Champion every day. Amazingly, his grades in math started improving. His parents continued to celebrate his achievements and his dresser got more and more crowded with Championship trophies.
At last report, Jimmy never had to be medicated for ADD. His grades in math improved to an excellent level. The next year Mary called and excitedly told me that he had won the school spelling bee!
Celebrating achievements, especially small ones, is very important in life. It is such special moments that help motivate us to make the effort to get to the next level.
Celebrations are important everywhere -- at home and at work. Speaking of work, Southwest Airlines has become a major player in the airline industry for a number of reasons. One of them is the fact that Southwest's company culture promotes happy employees, fun spirits, and spontaneous celebrations.
In a great book about the company, called "Nuts!" this spirit of celebration is clearly described by authors Kevin and Jackie Freiberg: "Celebrations, even small and spontaneous ones, can recharge people's batteries and leave them feeling refreshed. When people feel renewed, they think more clearly and their attitudes become more positive."
"Laura Runge, employee communications representative at Southwest's headquarters, told us about a spontaneous celebration in 1995 on the Friday afternoon before the Fourth of July. People at headquarters were busy working when, all of a sudden, there was a lot of noise outside their offices."
"Employees flooded the hallways to see what all the commotion was. The entire Finance Department, dressed in patriotic costumes, was marching through the halls and riding makeshift floats pulled by bicycles. It was a Fourth of July parade! "It was a perfect example," Runge says, "of how our people can take a tough, serious workday and make it fun by giving everyone an unexpected break in the routine and some laughs."
Isn't it time for you to break your routine, celebrate something, and have some laughs? Take someone you care about to dinner for the express reason of celebrating your relationship or your friendship. Give someone a trophy for just being a special friend or an incredible husband/wife/child.
Or, you could look into a child's eyes and say, "I see it in you. You are a Champion!" You could be looking into the eyes of a future spelling bee champion.
A Daily Affirmation of Celebration
I enjoy celebrating small achievements along the way!
Article reproduced with permission from Boaz Rauchwerger. You may reprint any of these articles in any publication or Web site so long as you credit Boaz Rauchwerger as the author and include this Web site address, www.Boazpower.com.