Release the Pressure Valve

Apr 1, 2018

Sometimes deadlines converge, which can be painful. It feels like a series of tidal waves approaching that you can do little to stop. This is a common sensation in schools around this time of year – with after-school duties, grades, meetings, report cards – and these are just our work responsibilities.

How appropriate today is Easter, as for the last forty days I feel as though I have been wandering through the desert just trying to keep up. Serendipitously, last night, just before midnight, I emailed the book I’ve been writing to the editor. It is finished. [I told my wife I assume the book writing process is somewhat like pregnancy. Towards the end, I didn’t care what it looked like, I just needed it to be out of my body.] Trying to balance teaching, presenting, writing, and sleeping was quite the challenge.

My takeaway? Just as with air filling a balloon, if you don’t occasionally take a break and let the pressure out, you will explode. I can’t tell you what that looks like for you, but for me, I did as much as I could, and then stepped away for brief periods to regroup and recoup my energy and sanity. [Which is why I have 102 emails sitting in my inbox] With two months of school left, find ways to regularly open the valve and release. Trust me, no one wants to see the result of pent-up crazy with nowhere to go. It’s not a pretty sight.

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