Teachers in Transition

Teachers in Transition – Episode 246: The Anti-Burnout Toolbox and Moving from Doubt to Determination

• Vanessa Jackson

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Feeling overwhelmed? You're not alone. In this episode of Teachers in Transition, Vanessa shares practical tools to combat stress, avoid burnout, and build your future—one pause at a time. Learn how to manage your energy, set boundaries, and prepare for career moves during uncertain times. Plus, don’t miss the announcement of two FREE workshops: one on resume writing (May 3) and one on optimizing your LinkedIn profile (May 4).
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“A Certain Degree of Determination, Daring on a Different Course”  ~Neil Peart

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The transcript to this podcast is found on the episode’s homepage at Buzzspout

Are you a teacher who is feeling stressed out and overwhelmed? Do you worry that you're feeling symptoms of burnout - or are you sure you've already gotten there? Have you started to dream of doing something different or a new job or perhaps pursuing an entirely different career - but you don't know what else you're qualified to do? You don't know how to start a job search, and you just feel stuck. If that sounds like you, I promise you are not alone. My name is Vanessa Jackson; and I am a career transition and job search coach, and I specialize in helping burnt out teachers just like you deal with the overwhelmingly stressful nature of your day-to-day job and to consider what other careers might be out there waiting for you. You might ask yourself, What tools do I need to find a new career?  Are my skills valuable outside the classroom?  How and where do I even get started?  These are all questions you deserve answers to, and I can help you find them.  I’m Vanessa Jackson. Come and join me for Teachers in Transition.  

***Hi!  And Welcome back to another episode of Teachers in Transition. I am your host, Vanessa Jackson – I’m a career transition and job search coach who specializes in helping educators translate their experience in order to search for a job and change careers.  I taught middle school for 25 years and working in the world of staffing.  Now, I work to help other teachers escape their toxic situations and to find something more meaningful somewhere else.   Today on the podcast we are going to talk about how to deal with stress, overwhelm and burnout.  Ideally, we’d like to prevent that altogether, but since most teachers are already there, we’ll work on reducing it. And then we’ll talk about something we can do when the economy crashes and burns, and the job market looks bleak.  We build.  

Today, we're going to start by addressing stress, overwhelm, and burnout. I think it’s been a very stressful week and a half outside of school, and I’m sure it’s been stressful inside schools as well. When you have too much stress, you feel overwhelmed. When you’re overwhelmed for too long, it turns into burnout. So, we’re going to talk about ways to combat that, break some cycles, and approach this thoughtfully - especially as many of us are heading into testing season and, of course, the "spring crazies."

There are a variety of strategies, and you should think of them as tools in a toolbox. You can’t treat every problem as a nail, because then the only solution you have is a hammer. Different situations call for different solutions, so consider what’s most appropriate for yours.

You also need to consider the root cause of your stress. It’s easy to throw your hands up and say, "School is stressing me out!" or "Politics is stressing me out!" But there’s usually something very specific behind it. Maybe it’s that one class—the kind that makes you question every life decision that led you to that moment. Or perhaps it’s a particular student, administrator, or  deadline you have no idea how you’ll meet.

I’ll remind you of something I often say: You can do anything, but you can’t do everything. One strategy is to set boundaries. "No" is a complete sentence. Find one thing you can say "no" to - or if you can’t back out entirely, at least pause it for a bit. April and May are relentless, and May is doubly relentless, especially if you’re a parent. All the end-of-year tasks pile up, demanding your attention. Find something you can pause or something you can say “NO’ to. 

So, let’s start by making a promise: We are not adding any new projects to our lives in May. We’ll focus only on what’s already in progress and already planned. 

Strategies to Combat Stress

  1. Harness the Power of the Pause
    When someone asks, "Can you do [insert thing here]?" pause and say, "I need to think about that and get back to you. I can’t answer right now." If they insist on an immediate answer, the answer has to be no. You control your schedule.

Many of us (myself included) say "yes" habitually because we don’t want to let people down. We’re People Pleasers. But one of the hardest lessons I’ve learned - and still struggle with - is that it’s just as important not to let yourself down. You have to live with You for the rest of your life. You deserve to be a priority.

Set boundaries. Block off time in your calendar - literally draw a box in your planner - and protect that time. You’re busy for You. And that’s enough. You don’t have to justify it. 

  1. The Five-Minute Timeout
    If you’re at home, set a timer for five minutes. Go outside, feel the grass under your feet, look at the sky, and just breathe. If you’re in a classroom, you might not get the full five minutes, but you can try a "slice of peace" (a moment of quiet). I used to joke about calling it a "piece of peace," but the goal is simply to close your eyes, breathe, and be present. I convinced my students to buy into it by telling them that we were going to close our eyes and see how far we could listen.  Silence isn’t silent you know, it’s just the small sounds magnified.  I forget who said that. 

One of my most challenging classes eventually craved this moment of quiet because it helped them focus later. Start small  - 20 or 30 seconds - and gradually increase the time because students are NOT going to be able to focus for an entire minute at the beginning.  

  1. The Yes/No Algorithm
    Inspired by The Big Bang Theory (where Sheldon created a friendship algorithm), I developed a decision-making tool based on key questions in my life
     
    • Is this necessary for my health? (We often neglect this.)
  2.  
    • Is this work-related?
  3.  
    • Do I want to do this? – often I don’t. 

    • Does this honor a relationship with a friend or family member?
  5.  
    • Can I afford it? 

Your questions may vary, but the idea is to prioritize thoughtfully. One of my personal rules is not scheduling past 75% of my capacity on any given day or week. Yes, sometimes you’ll have to push beyond that, but if Herculean efforts become the norm, exhaustion and burnout follow.

Burnout makes you stop caring. You might find yourself lying in bed, doomscrolling, unable to face tasks. Procrastination grows, and eventually, you rush through work, telling yourself, "This could’ve been better if I’d had more time." But the truth is, it’s not about time - it’s about mental space. Exhaustion robs you of the focus needed to do your best work.

  1. Morning Exercise (The Counterintuitive Trick)
    This one seems very backward: Get up and move in the morning. Go for a walk, get your heart rate up, then start your day. You might think, "If I wake up earlier and expend energy, I’ll just be more tired," but the opposite happens. It’s heart-healthy, boosts energy, and builds resilience against stress - a little like putting on a suit of armor. 

Try one of these tactics and see what works for you. Small changes can make a big difference in managing stress and avoiding burnout.  Did you try one of these?  How did it work for you?  I’d love to know – reach out and connect with me at Vanessa@TeachersinTransition.com or leave a text or voice message at 512-640-9099.  

And moving on to our job search segment. It’s time to get real.  Given the state of our economy right now, the job market is commensurately whackadoodle—which, yes, is a technical term. Thank you for wondering. 

But because the job market is so bad, it actually leaves us with different kinds of opportunities. It’s like that old saying: When the weather’s too bad for the fishermen to fish, they stay home and mend their nets.

So, this is absolutely the time for you to be making nets, repairing nets, and building.

Here’s what we build:

First off, we’re gonna build on that network. You need to reach out to people you already  know, people you used to know in school, people who - people who perhaps have the very job you’d like to have one day (maybe even from your university!) - and start making those connections.

You can also be building your resume: create your resume template, polish it up, and work on optimizing your LinkedIn page. (Stay tuned to the end of podcast for details on a workshop on how to do that, or check the show notes!) 

But here’s the other thing I want you to really think about: this is such a powerful time to pause and contemplate what it is you actually want to do.

Because the opportunity to do something different often comes when things feel the most uncertain and when there are voices that tell us that we can’t or we shouldn’t. 

Take John Gurdon, for example. He won the Nobel Prize in Medicine—let me say that again for the people in the back—the Nobel Prize in Medicine. But when he took his science exams as a student, he ranked 250th out of (wait for it!)… 250. His teacher actually wrote, “His report was disastrous. I believe he has ideas of becoming a scientist. On his present showing, it is quite ridiculous. His scientific ambitions are a waste of time.”

Now, yes, this was in a very different time and in England, but still - can you imagine the outcry if you gave feedback like to anyone? Can you imagine getting feedback like that? It would just crush your soul. And perhaps you did get feedback along those lines – someone somewhere made a comment that made you think that you couldn’t.  Or you shouldn’t.  But back to John. John Gurdon is now a Nobel Prize Winner in Medicine.  His expertise is in nuclear transplantation and cloning. His “ridiculous” scientific ambitions just needed time to come to fruition.  

But what happens if that voice of doubt comes not from outside, but from inside? Vincent van Gogh addresses this.  I stumbled across this quote recently, and it feels so applicable.

“If you hear a voice within you saying, ‘You are not a painter,’ then by all means paint—and that voice will be silenced.”

So whatever it is that you're interested in doing, being, becoming - do it. The voice inside you that makes you doubt whether you can or whether you should will  quiet down.

Learn all you can about it.
 Immerse yourself in the things that spark your curiosity.
 Build those nets.
 Your time is coming and you’ll need to be ready. 
 
 I am so happy to get to announce a spring Resume Writing Workshop  AND LinkedIn Writing Workshop– Both opportunities are completely free for you – and anyone you happen to forward it to.  These workshops are geared towards teachers, but the basic principles are sound in case you have a friend who isn’t a teacher but might also benefit from it. 
 
 The Resume Workshop will be on May 3rd at 2:00pm Central Time. 
 The LinkedIn Optimization Workshop will be on May 4th at 2:00pm Central time.  
 
 You will need to register for each separately, but there is no fee to do so.  I think the term is Free.99.  I will have a link in the show notes or you can head over to TeachersinTransition.com and find the links to register there.  In addition to learning how to build your resume, you’ll leave with a template for your resume and a checklist for your LinkedIn page to help you build those tools. 

That’s the podcast for today! If you liked this podcast, tell a friend, and don’t forget to rate and review wherever you listen to your podcasts. Tune in weekly to Teachers in Transition where we discuss Job Search strategies as well as stress management techniques.  And I want to hear from you!  Please reach out and leave me a message at Vanessa@Teachersintransition.com  You can also leave a voicemail or text at 512-640-9099. 

I’ll see you here again next week and remember – YOU are amazing!