Celebrate the Journey Not Just the End Result

This past week I have been sitting in the stands at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon watching the Olympic trials for track & field.  Those of you who know me personally, you surely have visions in your head of me being starstruck as you think of my love for track and field.  I love track and field not for the sport itself, but for the way it exemplifies some of the beliefs and values I hold in highest regard, ie. delayed gratification, growth, and the pursuit of excellence.

On the final night of the first session, I watched a star studded field in the women's 800.  (Click here for video).  To spare you the step by step commentary, the last 150 meters of that race have not left my mind since I witnessed the dramatic finish.  It ended in remarkable fashion and had the ingredients of tenacity, adversity, heartbreak (for most), and elation (for only a few).  Brenda Martinez and Alyssa Montano, the favorites, were caught up in a fall and did not make the US Olympic team causing internet message boards to light up.  As I read and reflected on the race and all the posts fans made, I brought it back to my other passion - Education.

These athletes have spent the last 4 years at least, training 8 hours a day or more, for this one race that lasts less than 2 minutes.  The hard work they put in and smaller races/performance along the way has inspired thousands of track fans.  However, I couldn't help but find myself wondering if those track athletes, who rarely get much press, know the respect and admiration that thousands of us have for them after the clapping and cheering has ended at the race.  This is where I started thinking about schools.

**Do our students know how we really feel about our their hard work and growth?  Do we celebrate this as much as we should?  Is our focus on smaller achievements and daily work, or do we only 'cheer', at the time of that one high stakes test?

We have limited opportunities to teach our youth the skills, mindset, and habits they will need to be competitive and successful in a global market.  One of the mindsets we must instill in our youth is to  'Embrace the Journey'.  Not everyday will be that Olympic trials performance, 99% of the time you must put in the work without celebration.  Our job as educators is to find ways to 'coach' our students and motivate them.  Our job as teachers is to be the fans in crowd cheering as our students grow and learn to reinforce to them that life and learning both are processes...long processes.  They both require much more hidden work than anyone will ever see.  
This year, I going to challenge myself to finding ways to celebrate the daily achievements of our students. I believe that this is an action that is necessary to encourage our youth to embrace the grind and delay gratification.  I also believe it is one of the foundations of the students developing a healthy self-esteem by learning to recognize their achievements in life will not always be 'Olympic Medal' caliber.