Last week we started to dig into reflection, the Camp Fire way. We teach young people how to examine, interpret and learn from their experiences, because we want them to thrive. Not to get too meta on you, but we also want them to be able to reflect on thriving itself!
Quick refresher: What’s thriving? It’s the life-long process of making progress toward your potential. Thriving is ultimately doing good in the unique ways only you can.
Social scientists have identified thriving indicators—skills and attributes that are key to living a thriving life. Camp Fire focuses on six of these indicators and uses them to measure our impact on the kids and teens we serve.
- Social Skills: Playing well with others. Tools for relating, interacting, and navigating relationships. There are two very important components:
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- Inclusiveness: Embracing others and their differences.
- Empathy: Understanding others’ feelings.
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- Life Skills: Getting stuff done. Practical techniques needed to attack our goals, succeed at our jobs, communicate well, and just get through the day.
- Conflict Resolution: Peacemaking. Ways to process disagreements using creativity, kindness and respect.
- Confidence: Earned boldness. Trusting in your ability to reach your goals.
- Purpose: Motivation. Knowing your reason for being…or at least for getting up this morning.
- Appreciation of Nature: Your place in the (wider, wilder) world. Drawing inspiration from and caring for the environment.
There are tons of ways to help kids and teens bring these big attributes into a manageable focus. Here are some questions our insightful staff and volunteers pose to encourage thrive-centric reflection. Use them to jump-start thriving reflection with the kids and teens in your life!
SOCIAL SKILLS, INCLUSIVENESS:
- Have you worked or played with anyone new lately?
- How did you introduce yourselves?
- What did you talk about first?
- What was one thing you learned about them?
SOCIAL SKILLS, EMPATHY:
- Share a time when you helped one of your classmates/teammates/friends who was struggling.
- How did you help and encourage them?
- Do you think your actions helped them succeed or feel better?
LIFE SKILLS:
- Name a new life skill you’ve learned recently.
- What did it teach you?
CONFLICT RESOLUTION:
- What is one way that you would like your friends/team/class/family/siblings to work or play better together?
- See the Infographic: 11 Tips for Better Conflict Resolution
CONFIDENCE:
- What’s the toughest challenge you’ve experienced in the past year?
- How did you overcome it?
- What did you learn from this challenge?
PURPOSE:
- When is a recent time that you’ve felt really powerful?
- Did any adults in your life support your power?
- How can you use your power in the future to influence your community?
NATURE:
- What parts of your natural surroundings do you find soothing?
- Which of your senses do you use to experience that feeling of calm?
- How often do you get to experience it?
- How could you increase nature’s soothing effect in your life?
After reflection, is there one aspect of thriving that you particularly want to work on? Comment below!
