One of the amusing challenges in working with Emerging Adults is navigating how to sprinkle a dose of reality into their lives without destroying a professional dream. In one classroom assignment, students are expected to create a personal budget for a first-year employee with a bachelor’s degree for their aspiring career field. It’s fairly simple to determine who actually read the instructions and invested their time well because these students at least provide a somewhat-realistic base salary. For the other students, I have to break the sad news that in their first year out of college, they will not be hired as an NCAA-DI Athletic Director for their favorite team with a hefty income.
Now, the reality for me as professor, is to attempt to navigate guiding our students who live in a culture where their job title might not even exist yet, so they may not be able to find an appropriate salary to use; however, there are only a few examples of amassing great wealth, recognition, and power without first experiencing what it means to Be A Spoon. Students aspiring to enter the sport industry might find they resonate more with the book From Mascot to Agent than to Day’s example in It’s Not Your Turn, but the concepts are foundational if there is a desire to flourish in any career.
In attempting to express the importance of setting step goals in order to reach stretch goals, Day not only explains the SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely) acronym, but offers, “The more your brain exercises this [belief] muscle, the heavier the goals you will be able to lift. One small step at a time. I want you to start thinking small.” To illustrate this idea, we are encouraged to Be A Spoon. Day shares this story from one of her students who starred on Broadway, “’I was a spoon in Beauty and the Beast,’ she said. Later she would go on to get bigger roles, and eventually for one show, she got the role of Belle. ‘But the thing about show business is you don’t deserve to be Belle if you weren’t willing to be a spoon.’” How many of us are willing to be spoons?” Or in the sports world, how many of us are willing to wear the mascot suit before we lead from the front office?
Through encouraging students to invest Relational Equity in creating connections with mentors, my desire is that during these encounters, their eyes will be opened to how many of the professionals, who hold titles they hope to one day possess, first had to gain experience by Being A Spoon. Attempting to communicate this idea of being intentional about the need to gain essential skills in all seasons of preparation, of setting step goals and starting small, I ask students to view and reflect on a Life Calling presentation that I created years ago after reading Ken Costa’s Know Your Why. In the presentation, students are asked to view a graduation speech that aired on the television show Madame Secretary, and students often react to my emphasis that many of the careers we choose will ask us to do much of our work out of the spotlight. Often, it’s diligently fulfilling the jobs completed in the dark that allow us time to Be A Spoon, to gain those essential skills, to “be okay when it’s not your turn” to shine in the spotlight.
Most of us who are more seasoned at life, who are essential in serving as mentors for emerging generations, understand that with power and leadership also comes responsibility. And as Scripture points out in Luke 12:48, “When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required.” So, how do we equip emerging generations to start small, to Be A Spoon? Please share your ideas in the comments below.
References:
Costa, K. (2016). Know your why: Finding and fulfilling your calling in life. Thomas Nelson.
Hunt, J.R. (2017). From mascot to agent and everything in between: Career guidance from 11 sport executives I met during my journey into sports. J.H. Strategists, LLC.
Powell, J.A. (2017, October 10). Life Calling. [Video presentation]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/plLaYcnxxfc
Flourishing @ Life 
Julie – Well done. Extremely well done! I’d take it a step further and encourage your students to be willing to be the entire table setting (spoon, fork, knife, napkin, etc.) before they even think about stepping up to the plate. (Couldn’t resist the sports pun.)
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Thank you for writing all of these blogs but this one in particular because it hit me a little harder than some of the others. I have heard my whole life to aim for the sky when setting my goals but in reality to even think about starting the process to meet those goals I have to start small. Starting small is hard for me because all I want to do is skip to the end where my life is where I want it to be. I think one thing that we can do to encourage future generations and my generation now to aspire to be spoons is to emphasize the aspect of being patient. Trusting the process of life and learning to take the jobs that we might not want to take because they are low on the status pole is essential. Learn to do the hard work so that one day when you do make it to where you want to be you can look back on the hard days and be more than thankful for them.
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I really enjoyed this blog post! All too often we are pushed by parents, friends, and co-workers to be in the spotlight. Sometimes God’s plan for us doesn’t involve being the star or the center of attention. This article really resonated with me as it reminded me of some important values that I need to consider in each moment of the “baby steps” that I’ll use to get my degree and hopefully someday my dream job. It isn’t always easy being the person who is not the center of attention. There are so many moments that we just want people to notice us. Sometimes the most beautiful things are accomplished by those who are working in the background. Unnoticed people have such an important and critical role even if it isn’t always recognized by others.
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