Episode 71: Do You Treat Your Self Care Like Tylenol Or A One-A-Day Vitamin?

Your day starts before your alarm goes off.

You wake up early because you are stressed out about a meeting that you have that afternoon.

Your phone starts dinging with texts from two teachers calling off sick.

The snow has stopped, but the parking lot needs to be plowed. 

You are going to open on time, but the guy that plows your parking lot just called and says that his truck has a dead battery.

You haven’t even left your house yet and you are thinking “Here we go again……”

Then you arrive at school.

You must respond to every email, return every phone call, attend every meeting, handle every discipline problem, motivate and inspire every teacher, retain every student, beat last year’s test scores, come in under budget and keep every parent happy.

Now, when you’ve done all of that, when you’ve nailed it, when all that is done, please be sure to prioritize your self care, maintain a healthy work/life balance, watch what you eat, get enough sleep, exercise and don’t be a jerk to your family and friends.

Day after day, week after week, year after year.

Think about the cumulative effect of all of those decisions.

Think about the cumulative effect of all that stress.

Many private school leaders find themselves so caught up in the day-to-day demands of running a school, that they neglect their own self-care until a crisis hits. 

I want to challenge that approach and encourage you to think about self-care differently.

On today’s episode of the Private School Leader Podcast, I want to ask you a VERY important question: Do You Treat Your Self Care Like Tylenol Or A One-A-Day Vitamin?

Everything that I mentioned above can lead to you feeling tired, discouraged and stressed out. I’ve been there. That’s why I created THRIVE Academy just for you. THRIVE Academy is a digital course that will help you get out of survival mode and get back to feeling energized at school. CLICK HERE to learn more or go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/thrive 

Thank you for taking me along with you when you are walking the dog, driving to school or running errands. I appreciate you and what you are doing for the lucky kids and teachers at your school. 

Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference!

Mark Minkus

Being a private school leader is a VERY difficult job. You have to make hundreds of decisions every day, and you have to keep everyone safe, increase enrollment, keep the parents happy, keep the board happy, motivate the teachers, deal with student discipline, beat last year’s test scores and come in under budget.

That can lead to you feeling tired, discouraged and stressed out. I’ve been there. That’s why I created THRIVE Academy just for you. THRIVE Academy is a digital course that will help you get out of survival mode and get back to feeling energized at school. CLICK HERE to learn more or go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/thrive 

THRIVE Academy is an online course with 39 lessons, over 9 hours of video content, and 86 page workbook with guided notes, reflection questions, calls to action and more AND you get live office hours on Zoom for the first 6 weeks.

I really believe that THRIVE Academy can change your life. You don’t have to make all of the mistakes that I made. Let me teach you how to go from surviving to THRIVING.

Check out THRIVE Academy at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/thrive

I want to say thank you for listening to the podcast by giving you a FREE GIFT. It is called The 7 Steps To Having Successful Meetings With Upset Parents. This guide is an 11 page pdf that gives you a step by step plan to have better meetings with the parents at your school. Every good coach has a game plan. Every good teacher has a lesson plan. Too many private school leaders don’t have a plan when they sit down to meet with an upset parent. Well, now you have a PLAN! You can grab this FREE GUIDE at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/meeting

I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide

I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week!

Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode71

If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then head over to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1.

Please write a review of this podcast and help the algorithm push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at mark.o.minkus@gmail.com Thanks!!

I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!