When Do You Feel the Luckiest?

St. Patrick’s Day is often associated with luck such as four-leaf clovers, pots of gold, and good fortune. But if you spend your days working in schools, you know that what looks like luck is usually something much deeper. It’s a connection you made.

It’s the moment when a student who never talks suddenly opens up.
It’s when a parent thanks you for listening.
It’s when a student who was struggling walks back into your office smiling and says,“I tried what we talked about.”

Those moments can feel a little like luck.

But they aren’t accidents. They happen because of something you do every day. You notice students, you listen carefully, and you ask questions that help them see possibilities in themselves.

So tomorrow, on St. Patrick’s Day, here is a simple question to ask yourself:

When do you feel the luckiest as a school counselor?

Think about a specific moment...

• What was happening?

• What were you doing that helped that moment unfold?

• What did you notice about the student?

• What difference did that moment make for them?

When we reflect on those moments, something interesting happens. We begin to see that what felt like luck was actually a series of small choices we made, to pause, to listen, to believe in a student when they were struggling to believe in themselves.

Those moments are clues.

They show us what works.

And they remind us that our work, even on the hardest days, matters more than we sometimes realize.

You might even try this same question with students this week:

“When do you feel the luckiest at school?”

You might hear answers like...

• “When a teacher notices I did something right.”

• “When I understand the work.”

• “When someone sits with me at lunch.”

• “When someone believes I can do it.”

Those answers are powerful. They help students recognize the moments when things are going welland they give us information that we can share with their teachers.

That’s the essence of the solution focused approach: always looking for what is working and helping it grow.

So tomorrow, take a moment to reflect on the times you feel lucky in your work. Chances are, those moments didn’t come from luck at all.

They came from something far more powerful - your ability to see possibility in the students you serve.

And that may be the greatest gift a school counselor can give.

🍀 Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all of you who make schools better places for students every day.

PS: This can be a sharable post for your teachers! Just change out “school counselors” for “teachers,”

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