Rest. How people define that word varies wildly. Rest for a college student might mean binging the new season of Stranger Things. Rest for a stay at home mom might mean taking her time cleaning when the baby is napping. Rest for a teacher – never. Just kidding – although it does feel like that doesn’t it? For those who are coming into the profession (just as I had been just a short year ago – although it seems like a decade), please heed this articles advice. Start forming good habits about your own health and rest so that you are able to stay within the profession in a healthy manner. I tried to tackle a lot of things my first year. It came as sort of a surprise to me because in my last job I had just learned to say “no” so I can focus on things that really matter. However, my attraction to people-pleasing got the best of me and I still said yes to more things than I anticipated. It wasn’t just in teaching, but in life as well. I have to remember that I am a human being with limited resources.
A colleague of mine was the first one to bring to my attention of “filling the well.” You cannot pour into others if you yourself are not poured into. You will run out. I do not like doing a poor job of things, but I know that if I take on too much other parts of my job or life suffer because of it. “Do Less, Better” has become a sort of personal mantra for me in the past year. I need to take a step back and reflect on my time and experience and strike out the empty (another reference to the same colleague). People with a tranquil sense about them seems to calm the people around them almost supernaturally. When we take time during instruction to be “300 like the romans” (to quote Kanye) aka calm, cool, and collected – the students will take notice. We can then introduce the strategies suggested in the article to make time for bring mindful of rest.
I thoroughly enjoy the time we spend together. I enjoy the work set before us in reading, responding to classmates, discussing, presenting an inquiry topic and all the behind the scenes work going into these things. I also appreciate the time given to us just to be us and write how we would like to write. While words are suggested for prompts, we are allowed to dive deep into our experiences and thoughts to wrestle with them on paper without fear of assessment.
Paul's Postings 
Paul,
People-pleasing is also one my biggest weaknesses. My people-pleasing is directly connected to my ego and self-esteem, which is unhealthy. When I people-please, self-care goes out the window. I’ve also learned that my people-pleasing excludes one person, me.
Thank you for mentioning “Do less, Better”. That is how I operate at my best, but I always seem to forget this. It seems that people-pleasing and “Doing less, Better” conflict with one another. When these two are in conflict, my mantra becomes “Do more, Worse”.
I appreciate that you are so willing to share your experiences as a new teacher. I will be entering my first year teaching soon and I will certainly keep you suggestions in mind.
Thanks,
Alan
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I am such a people pleaser! I say yes to literally EVERYTHING! It gets overwhelming. I will definitely heed this article’s advice! I know I attempt to do too much, and because of the high standards that I mandate for myself I end up exhausted from being 100 ALL THE TIME! Well, in everything except self care. I over extend, over do it, over think! My daughter says I’m extra, I just think I am overcompensating for my lack of self confidence. If everything looks good outside and I can keep things running smoothly – then no one will realize how inept I feel. Wow…that was real! Sorry friend, that may have been a little heavy. Anyhoo – rest, relax, read, and take care of myself! ADVICE TAKEN!!
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Paul,
One of the many reasons I appreciate you– you are always a person I can count on to tell me I’m “doing too much”. A people-pleaser to the extreme, I’m horrible at saying “no”, but sometimes I need to. You do a great job of checking me and reminding me of that (even though I tend to do things anyways… and then completely stress out… and then you help level me out again….and only say “I told you so” sometimes lol).
My point is this: I need to do a better job of returning the advice. I respect the experiences you’ve had in your past career, and the lessons you’ve learned from them, and I recognize that you need the space to say “no” (even when the vision is truly fantastic). I’m excited for our partnership with Leadership next year. We bring so many different strengths to the table, and I think there are many things that we can help each other to remember… this being one of them.
Fill your cup, my friend.
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Paul,
I tend to fall back on the phrase “you can’t pour from an empty cup” but that doesn’t offer much in terms of what that LOOKS like. If my cup has already been emptied, or is rapidly emptying… then what? So I really liked the idea of “Do less, better”. Instead of feeling like I am failing every time I say NO to somebody or something, instead I will shift my mindset to HONORING my existing commitments and doing them BETTER, since I am doing LESS (rather than feeling like I am always letting everybody down and as a result I do everything poorly). Thank you!!!
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