Pick an Issue for the Silver

"Dissatisfaction is a great starting point,
for it is right there that we have
the most power, strength, and energy
to push change through."
                                - David DeNotaris, motivational speaker

I'm thinking about our Silver Award Training tonight, and came across this quote in my inbox. (Thank you Rick Ruiz!)  And it seems a good one for the day.

We have a piece in the training about, "what's the issue?"  And we talk about how the girls need to look around themselves to see what's in their community.  Maybe another way to express that is to find where they are not comfortable? or where they aren't satisfied with the way things are going.  It's that dissatisfaction that could lead to investigating an issue and learning more about it.

As the quote says, identifying that "thing" that makes the girl uneasy, dissatisfied or plain angry is a GREAT starting point for coming up with a Silver Award Take Action Project.  Remember, 65% of this aged girl, nationally, is likely to speak up and just know that she is correct.  She holds strong values and opinions, and she doesn't mind sharing them.

That's a very powerful position to be in!  Our job as advisors is to guide the girl to harness all that certainty and power, identify what she wants to change, and then let her go do it!  If she has the passion for her issue, she will be more likely to succeed than if she is just going along with someone else's idea.

At training last week, we had a leader talk about how she thought three girls were going to do a group project...until she heard them talking about how diverse their interests really were. So now, she has three projects!  The first thing we all encouraged her to do was to GET HELP!  Enlist parents and other project advisors!  Spread the wealth around!

These girls can do it! We may have to nudge, okay nag, to get them started, but with their certainty and abilities, they are poised to do wonderful things!