Description: How is it possible that there are only 90 days left in 2021? This week, Dr. Boogren challenges the Squad to do some reflection and preparation for these last 90 days to better prepare for living our best lives in 2022 and congratulates Brittany Spence and Paula Kalter Gervia for their dedication to Self-Care September!
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Transcription: Hi, and welcome to episode six of season two of Self-Care for Educators. I'm your host, Tina Boogren, and this week's invitation--I teased a little bit of this last week. This week's invitation is I want you to spend a little bit of time thinking about, reflecting upon, and preparing yourself whatever that looks like for the last 90 days of 2021.
I just can hardly believe we're approaching the last 90 days of this calendar year. In some ways, I guess I probably say this every year, in some ways it feels like it just flew by. And, in some ways it feels like we've had 20 years for every one calendar year. These days, this is, this is an idea that I've played around with for the last few years.
There's lots of ways to do this. If you look this up online, there's different challenges, different groups, different ways to approach this. There's a lot of people out there really thinking about the last 90 days. I think there's something just, I don't know, really satisfying about being purposeful about planning how we want to end the year.
Now, some reminders. We know we're moving into a really hard time of year as educators. If we're not there already, we're quickly, quickly approaching most of us, the disillusionment phase, which is the hardest phase of the year, where we're just struggling. We're exhausted. We're overwhelmed. We're overworked. It's starting to get cold outside. It's starting to get darker. All of those things start to come into play. We have the holidays, we start thinking about gatherings and responsibilities. Good stuff but hard stuff. And, I know that the holidays are really hard for a lot of us in a number of ways. There's so many more temptations, especially when we try to make choices aligned with our health goals.
It's so easy to get bounced off track. And, of course we need to enjoy some treats, but if we start having treats for Halloween and then continue all the way through, we tend to feel really terrible. I think that approach, asking ourselves how we want to feel for the start of 2022 and then working backwards, so that we can be really purposeful about these last 90 days.
So do we want to feel calm? Do we want to feel healthy? Do we want to feel energized? Do we want to feel excited? Grateful? Maybe all of the above? But, then asking ourselves, So how can we set ourselves up to feel that way for January 1st? What do we need to put into place? Do we need to put some workouts on the calendar so that they actually get done? Do we need to really think about what is worth indulging in food-wise, and what is actually something that we'd feel better if we said no to? What days really are the indulgent days? And, what days do we want to feel better by staying on track and keeping our healthy habits? In other words, you know, I know a lot of people will say Thanksgiving Day, no holds barred. I am just enjoying everything. Yes. But, maybe that's just one day, Thanksgiving Day rather than the day before Thanksgiving, and then all the days after Thanksgiving.
And, that's up to you to each that are on there. Really thinking about if we want to feel connected, right? That's a that's a term that we use a lot of times and thinking about relationships and what can we put into place? Can we put some things on the calendar to connect with people that we love if being with family is really hard over the holidays, how do we set some boundaries around that? How long do we need to be together? Can we find some time to carve out space for--in the midst of, even in the middle of a big, huge party--can we make sure that we're committing to going to take a walk or just spending some time on our own or checking in with a friend?
So, that's what I want you to think about this week. That's your invitation. I want you to think about the last 90 days of 2021 and how you want to feel as we ring in the new year. And then, work backwards. Set some goals. Maybe you want to break it into kind of 30 days challenges. So, a challenge for October, a challenge for November, and a challenge for December.
If challenge, isn't the word that appeals to you, maybe it's commitment that you want to make for October or invitations that you want to set up for yourself or small, bite-size goals. We certainly want to enjoy the last 90 days, but we also want to feel good and not totally perhaps go off the rails, so that we're not starting from scratch on January 1st.
So, in order to feel that way and in order to approach the new year, that way, that means spending some time now is worthwhile to set ourselves up for success. I'd love for you to jump over to the Facebook group and share how you're approaching, these last 90 days. What works for you? Are you taking it month by month? Are you taking all 90 days together? Are you really focusing on describing how you want to feel and then working backwards? Do you have really specific goals? Are you going to use a tracking sheet? Like do tell, do share. I would love, love, love to know.
I am personally still kind of thinking through what I want to do for the last 90 days. There's some habits that I've built that I want to keep in place that I really want to hold onto. Especially when things get crazy busy. There's some habits that I definitely do not want to lose. And, there's also ... I'm really thinking about there's some things that I want to add to really help myself kind of saver these last 90 days. I most likely am going to engage in some sort of photography challenge. I've rediscovered my passion for photography. I've been playing with ... I got a new camera, a mirrorless camera, that I've been playing with. And so, that's something that really brings me joy. So, I'm thinking I want to make sure that I capture specific moments of these last 90 days and just kind of figuring out how to do that.
So, that's it. You guys, that's what I want us to think about as we closed out our Self-Care September, take some of those ideas of inspiration, perhaps, and help that carry us through as we think through this last chunk of 2021. Believe it or not. How do we want to feel in 2022? And, how can we set ourselves up for that starting?
Also, I just wanted to give a huge congratulations and shout out to our Self-Care September challenge winners--Britney Spence and Paula Kalter Gervia. I hope I'm saying that right. So, Brittany and Paula, we're so grateful for you. You showed up every single day in September and inspired us by showing us how you are living your very best life. So grateful for you. Thank you to everyone that participated and stay tuned, because we will be doing something similar in November.
As always a huge, huge thank you to Brooke for making this happen. Thank you to Solution Tree Marzano Resources for this job I get to do. And, as always, an incredible huge thank you and just such immense gratitude for you, my bad-ass Self-Care Squad. Thank you for showing up on the Facebook page. Thank you for showing up for each other. Thank you for showing up here week after week. Thank you for sharing this with others so that we can invite more people to join our squad. You know everyone is welcome here. Have an amazing week.
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