Assets and Asset Building

YOU MAY FIND yourself wondering, what exactly is an asset? Well, for starters, according to the Search Institute of Minneapolis Minnesota, an asset can be anything; they vary depending on the person. But defining an asset is a little easier. An asset is something that holds value to you, a desirable thing. Assets are different for everyone. For some people church, volunteering or maybe even a creative activity youth program is an asset, for others it could be family. But no matter what it is, it's still important to you. There are two main types of assets, External Assets and Internal Assets.

External Assets are things that have value to you in a physical sense; your surroundings and environment. If family is an asset to you, you'll value their opinions and what they think more than you would for anyone else. Let's say you decide to do something that seems a little nerve-wracking, like singing in the school talent show. You practice in front of your family and they say you're great, you sound awesome! The more they give you support, the better you'll feel because you know that they're being honest with you, they're helping you. Whereas if you practice in front of your music class and they say you sound wonderful, you still may have that nerve-wracking feeling in the pit of your stomach, solely because they aren't necessarily an asset to you, you don't value their opinions as highly.

Or, another external asset could be volunteering for some people. Volunteer work is a huge help in any community. If you volunteer, even for 10 hours a week, you're helping out a lot of people. Volunteering is a great way to get to know people. Let's say you put in hours weekly to help out at the Ambulance Bay… you may go on calls and help people who need it, in fact, you may even help save lives! Or volunteering for the Fire Department, Police Station or at the local Making A Difference Resource Center. Volunteering is a great way to put effort into your community and to show people you care. Maybe you could even ask a friend to come along, help spread the love of selfless acts!

An Internal Asset is something that holds value to you in a mental, emotional or even spiritual sense, something intangible; those are personal assets. If you value learning in school and you want to take a harder course, then you'll begin building that asset. The more you work on your skill and love of learning, the more it holds value to you. Honesty is another internal asset. Some people may look at honesty as an asset. The more honest you are with other people, the more you're building that asset.

Asset building is another part of having assets. If you build those assets, they become more important to you, they hold more value than usual and the more you work on them, the better you'll feel. If you value family, work on having family time, work on pulling your family together and making strong relationships between each member. If you value honesty and integrity, work on those on a personal level, don't lie, don't be dishonest to yourself, be willing to be open and make sure that you're willing to take blame where blame is due, or credit where credit is due. In order to have stronger assets, you need to work on them.

There are a million things to consider assets and a million ways to build them. Assets are unlimited, but in order to build them, you need to have willpower. An asset is valuable and strong only if you work on it. In order to have an asset, you need to figure out what's important to you and what's not, what you love and what you don't love or what you enjoy and what you don't enjoy. Remember, assets can be a sport, family, a friend, honesty, integrity, responsibility or even creativity.

For more information, check out the Search Institute webs ite: www.searchinstitute.org/asset s.

Emily Baraw is a senior at the Northfield S.T.A.R. Program.