Sometimes the hardest part when thinking about having more balance between home and school is having to let go of the things you know aren’t working because it’s scary and uncomfortable to think about other options. 

This is the tenth post in a series about how to make teaching feel like a more SUSTAINABLE career.

The focus of this post: SUSTAINABLE

Let go of what isn’t working.

I’m guessing that right now, you're trying to balance work with everything else in your life but it’s frustrating to always feel like no one is inconvenienced but you.

But you fear that trying to shake things up and make a change may end up in some kind of confrontation with your partner, kids, colleagues etc. and you’re not a huge fan of confrontation. Plus, you don’t want to let anyone down.

But this gets to the root of why it can feel like things are off balance for you. When you put everyone else first all the time, it doesn't allow time for you to do the things you want to do which makes teaching at your current pace AND “doing life” feel really hard.

What I’ve learned, through my own burnout is that to make teaching feel more sustainable you have to be willing to let go of what's not working and some of what’s not working is you not having time for yourself.

You’re doing everything for everyone else, probably overworking and maybe overextending yourself.

Maybe you didn’t used to mind so much, but you’re getting tired and it’s all catching up with you. 

And so the question becomes:

How exactly do you let go of what's not working, without feeling like you’re not doing your best (because not doing your best feels like failure)? 

Action Time. Let’s do this right now.

Open a blank doc or grab a pen and paper. We’re going to make a list and it’s going to be simple. Draw a line down the center of your page. 

On the left: List things that AREN’T working in your life right now. 

On the right: List things that ARE working in your life right now. 

Take some time with each side of the list.

• Maybe you’re grateful for your supportive partner

• The Saturday mornings you spend with your kids, hanging out and relaxing.

• You’re happy with how you have your Math course set up

• Your regular walks.

  These are things that are working and you want to keep ‘em!

On the flip side:

• Maybe the hours you spend in the evenings on school stuff like grading is draining you

• Your (lack of?) meal planning

• How you have your Social Studies course set up

• You wish you had more date nights

• And you don’t feel organized the way you’d like to. 

It’s important to be clear about what’s working and what’s not. If it’s “sorta working” you get to decide which side it lives on. Is it almost working or just barely? If it’s working sometimes, you can put it in the “working” column and maybe it just needs some streamlining to make it feel more supportive for you. 

The thing is, until you say, “This isn’t working for me anymore” and are willing to try something different, nothing’s going to change. 

Whether that’s in terms of: 

• Your relationship

• How you spend your money

• How you use your prep time at school

• How you deliver your curriculum or plan your material

• How many hours you work

• How you spend your time when you’re not working

• Your diet and exercise plan

• How you spend your time with your kids

• How much sleep you get

The list goes on and on. But once you admit that something you’re doing isn’t working and you make the decision to let it go, everything expands. 

Everything opens up and you have to look for new and better options because THIS - THIS isn’t working anymore. 

Trying to make teaching feel more sustainable is about how you spend your time at school, obviously. But it’s more so about how you’re integrating all the parts of your life with work. It usually feels unsustainable because you end up spending too much time on the school stuff and you feel like other areas of your life suffer because of that. 

So, you need to be specific about what isn’t working and then take steps to do something different. 

If you’ve got your list, then you’re ready for the next step which is to take that list and turn it into action steps.

And that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about in the next post.