What Kids Need to Succeed

Marching Band (Photo credit: TPapi)

One of my earliest memories is attending sales meetings with my 20-year-old father, then a distributor for Kirby vacuum cleaners.

They weren’t ordinary meetings — they began with singing.  When someone made a sale there were wild, noisy celebrations with the whole team parading around the block with cymbals, drums and noisemakers.  I was too young to have any idea what they were so happy about… but “the singing meetings” made a lasting impression and probably had something to do with the both the made-up holidays my family had to endure later in life and my comfort with direct sellers.

Lots of families celebrate big events like birthdays and graduations and weddings…  but how do you incorporate the spirit of gratitude and enthusiasm into your day-to-day life?

• little stars on a chart
• a special, colorful plate at the dinner table
• the privilege of choosing a movie for the family to watch together
• The Feast of the Corn Goddess
• an official ‘most awesome kid’ plaque from the local trophy store
• balloons or flowers for “no good reason”

There are lots of ways to mark even the smallest life events.  And we know that celebrating small “wins” can put us in a better frame of mind to go after the big ones!