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Celebrating Assist Leaders
“We rise by lifting others.” Robert Ingersoll
Caitlin Clark is one of the reasons the University of Iowa women’s basketball team will be in the NCAA Final Four this weekend. What we admire most about her is not that she is a prolific scorer, although she is number three in the nation in that category, but instead that she is the assist leader for all collegiate women players this year.
An assist, in basketball and other sports, is the act of making a pass to another player who then scores. The player making the assist often gives up a chance to score herself to allow her teammate (who she thinks has a better shot) to score. Assist leaders are unselfish, which is why we celebrate and admire Caitlin Clark. We also want to give a shout-out to Marquis Nowell of Kansas State, who broke the single-game assist record in the men’s NCAA basketball tournament this year. Excellent work, you two!
Alas, this is a column about health and wellness, not basketball, but you might already have guessed the connection to wellness in our focus on assists. In our work as therapists, we have been honored to meet countless assist leaders—people who make the decision every day to support the well-being of others. Some of these people are family members who care for loved ones, some are people who help in some way in their communities, and some help others when they are at work, and the list goes on. These people, who often don’t get the recognition they deserve, are the real stars of the game of life.
On our Wellness Compass podcast this week, Scott talked about another related crucial aspect of well-being, and that is that of knowing when to ask for assistance ourselves. We all need the assistance of others to be our best, and knowing when to ask for help is critical to our health and wellness.
So here’s to all the assist leaders in our lives. May we celebrate them, and may we be inspired to imitate them.
Making It Personal:
Who do you know right now that could benefit from your assistance? How specifically might you offer that assistance this week? Is there some help or assistance you need right now, and who could you reach out to ask for “an assist?”?
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Holly Hughes Stoner, LMFT and Scott Stoner, LMFT, are both licensed marriage and family therapists who are partners in life and in work. They are the Co-Directors and Co-Creators of the Wellness Compass Initiative, a non-profit initiative that crates preventative wellness materials for adults, families, and teens. They live in Madison, Wisconsin and are the parents of three adult children and are blessed with two grandchildren, as well.