You are listening to episode number 125 of Wife, Teacher,

Mommy, the podcast sponsored by Educate and Rejuvenate.

And today, we are going to have our life coaching panel, how to create

an intentional life as an educator. So you do not want

to miss this. I have 4 incredible coaches

on this panel and then myself as well. I share some tips here and there.

So we are going to be talking all about the different ways we create an

intentional life. So let's go.

Welcome to Wife, Teacher, Mommy, the podcast. I'm Kelsey Sorensen, a

former elementary teacher and current homeschool mom. And, even though I've been a

resource creator since 2014, I've realized that printables alone

aren't all you need order to thrive as a teacher or homeschool parent. That's

why I also created this show and got certified as a life coach

to help you finally kick burnout to the curb and feel confident with whatever

challenges come your way. With the right mindset strategies and new teaching

inspiration, you're going to be well on your way to your best teacher

life. Now let's go.

For this awesome panel today, we did this live panel yesterday

as of when I'm recording. We had a great audience with us with some

engagement, but the reason we did this panel was to put it on the podcast.

So I'm really excited for you to hear from 4 incredible coaches who I

just adore. These 4 incredible women, I met each of them on my coaching

journey. Chrissy is the coach who, when I wanted to add coaching to wife teacher

mommy club, I stalked her and added her onto our coaching

membership before I had even certified as a coach. You can hear that whole story

near the beginning of the podcast, the first episode I did with Krissy. And then

Francini, I met next. I met her at a coaching event with Jody

Moore. She just happened to be sitting next to me, and I just loved her.

And I was like, you know what? I already have a coach, but someday I'm

gonna look for other coaches, so keep me in mind. And then 2 years later,

here she is on our coaching panel. And then I met

Cammy and Bonnie during my own coaching certification. We

went through coach training together. So it was really fun to come all

together, and this is the first time we put a full panel here on the

podcast. I put a partial panel on the podcast a couple of months

ago. We had done a panel for our club members,

and I put part of that on the podcast while I was writing my book.

So today, we decided to do another panel. It was so much fun, and I

think we'll do this just on different topics every now and then. So today, what

we're talking about is how to create an intentional life, because I know a lot

of educators, especially at the end of the year, when you're feeling a little burned

out and overwhelmed. You're feeling like, okay, something has to give.

I'm just feeling so much fatigue. I just need to make it to the end

of the year. But maybe you don't wanna just be surviving at the end of

the year, or during the summer, or as you go into the next school year.

So we're talking about how you can create an intentional life right now,

and enjoy it more. We talk about how each of us creates our schedules. You

see there are a little bit of differences in the way we think about it,

but also a lot of similarities too. So I want you to listen to this

panel, take what works for you, leave what doesn't, and just

figure out what, from this panel, you're likely gonna get

some great inspiration of what is going to help

you create an intentional life. Because at the end of the day, what is going

to work best for you? And as coaches, we are here to help you

uncover that for yourself. We're not necessarily here to tell you what

to do. So I'm really excited for this panel. We're gonna just jump right

into it.

We are so excited to be here for our

live coaching panel today.

So welcome, welcome, everybody. How is everybody

today? How are all of our incredible coaches here? Awesome.

Glad to be here. Snow good. It's sunny out. It's sunny in my area, and

it's not usually sunny, so I'm loving today. I'm so nice here

too. Okay. Well, we are going to we have a really

fun panel today. This is going on our podcast as well in a

couple of weeks, but those of you who join us here on

this stream on Facebook, you'll get to see it first.

So lucky for you. Okay. So let's start and just have

each of the coaches introduce themselves quick, and we can

start with, Bonnie's the first one on my screen. Are we

all seeing the same one where it goes Bonnie, Chrissy, Francini, Cammy?

Perfect. Okay. So, Bonnie, let's go ahead and have you start.

Yeah. Hi, friends. I am Bonnie Whiskum. I am a life and business coach. I

help content creators and coaches start up their business, and I'm also a mom of

10 kids. I homeschool 8 of 8 of them

with the help of a tutor. So I'm all home things homeschooling, and I love

education too. So glad to be here.

Hi, everybody. I'm Chrissy Nichols, and I am a life

coach for teachers and also in a

beautiful place where more and more teachers and learners are

coming to me for executive function. So learning about my own

brain, learning more about my own ADHD means that

I am the executive function coach as well for educators and anyone

out there who just wants to get their shizzle done. So,

Bonnie, with those 10 kids, come to me, my beauty.

It's really wonderful to be here. Thank you so much, everyone at wife teacher

mommy, but I love teachers. I love learners. I love

everyone in between. Hi. My name is

Francini Estes, and I am a life

coach for mamas of struggling children, including those

with ADHD and autism, fetal alcohol

syndrome, anxiety, and all the

challenging behaviors in between. I help mamas

feel better so they can help their children thrive.

I'm also a mama. Actually, I went from 3 to

5 this last year. We got a bonus child, and we are

fostering to adopt a new baby. So we're super

excited. So I'm a mama, a wife, and a

former formal teacher. So I'm super excited to be here.

Hello, everyone. My name is Cammy Bissen. I am a

certified life and wellness coach. I help moms

lose the weight for good through focusing on wellness as a

whole. We cannot be well in

our body, right, unless our mind is well. So we don't need another

diet plan. We just need to figure out. I help

moms figure out, like, why are we not taking action on the

nutrition or diet plan that we have been avoiding? I

also am a homeschool mom. I have 4 kids ages

2, 4, 7, and 8, And I'm from the

northwest, so I love hiking, anything outdoors.

I love spending time with friends. I also really love

audiobooks and podcasts, and I am happy to be here.

Awesome. Thanks everybody for introducing yourself, and

we're just gonna have such a great time. Really quick, if anybody doesn't know

me, I'm Kelsey Sorensen. I am also a certified life coach and

the owner of wife, teacher, mommy, and educate and

rejuvenate. So we're all excited to be here. All of us are life

coaches. All of us can work with you. Bonnie, Chrissy,

Francini, and Cammy all have their own private as well, but they also

coach inside our club community too.

So, really excited to all be here together for this panel that

is for the podcast, but we thought we'd go ahead and do it live, kind

of like the live podcast recording. So much fun. Okay.

So next question. We today what we're talking about is

how to plan our intentional life.

And because a lot of educators right now, teacher or

homeschool, whatever you're teaching, feel burned out, lots of end of year

fatigue right now. And so many of us just keep overloading our

plates, like more and more. What I want each of you to answer is how

can our listeners stop the constant cycle

of overwhelm and burnout. So we'll

start with Bonnie again, and the next time we'll go the other way. How about

that? Yeah. Sounds good. Okay. So, yes, totally

can relate to this one. I think what happens is by the end of the

school year, we've added so many things to our plate for good reason. Right?

We wanna do this fun thing with our family and this fun thing with our

class and then and volunteer here and help with this. And then in addition to

that, we have obligations piled on top of us that we didn't ask for maybe

from admin at school or maybe from, you know, a community organization you're a

part of somewhere else. So I think the most important thing to remember at this

time of year is that we are still in control of our lives. Nothing has

gone wrong. We have just accumulated so many wonderful things in our lives that

all of a sudden we're feeling a little bit tapped out. And we know through

working on with the model that there's a reason why we feel tapped out because

we're thinking thoughts that are yielding the result of overwhelm or

or something else that that yields stress. Right? And so we get

to, number 1, take a look at what we are still in control of. There

are going to be things that you wanna keep on your plate. You probably wanna

keep your job. Right? Probably not gonna quit at this time because you feel overwhelmed.

You probably wanna keep your family and your home and the most important things, but

there are so many things that you could still let go of. What around the

house could you let go of? Right? Step into that power and acknowledge that I'm

still in control of my life here, and there are going to be things that

I'm gonna keep the next month or 2 until things calm down for summer. And

there are going to be things I can also let go. And that might look

like some household obligations, maybe some relationships you say, hey. Can we touch base

again in June? Right. We just kind of look at the things that we still

have power over. Love it, Bonnie. Okay, Chrissy, go for

it. Yeah. So the question about how to really keep

our power, I love what Bonnie said is that just

reminder. And I want you to remember that that

is re smallredashmind,

capital m, capital I, capital n, capital d to remind

yourself that you choose and that you are

powerful. As Bonnie said, towards the end of the year, we get overwhelmed, we

get stressed, there's testing, there's all sorts of,

assemblies or new things in our school life that come and hit our plate.

But I think just using the powerful words I

choose. Right? I choose this. I choose this

moment. I choose this phone call. I choose this grading time. I

choose this time with my husband. I choose to look at my

students in their eyes. I choose to take a nap.

I choose to say yes to a request. Anything

that you are feeling like you wanna have more power

about, it starts with those two words I choose. And I challenge everyone

listening to this right now to remember, even in their daily life

in the smallest moments, I choose to stand up right now. I

choose to go to the bathroom. I choose to go into the faculty room.

I choose to have this conversation that might not serve

my time, but it might serve the relationship bank with this

colleague. I choose to say no. I choose to say yes. Just

practice those words, I choose. And I really think you'll

start getting your power back if you're feeling less

powerful. When I think about burnout, I just we are

fostering a child out of state, and we're trying to adopt him.

And then I think about Brenau, I think about packing up

his our bags to go on a we go have to go out of

state every month. So we go from Texas to California every month. So that

reminds me a little bit of burnout every time they have to back pack

that bag. And the first time we went to from

Texas to California, I packed that bag so full because I was

so afraid that I was going to forget something when I need something

really bad. And so that had that bag was so packed. And

sometimes I feel like we do that. Right? Like, our lives is

this beautiful journey, and we're carrying this backpack

on our back. But if we don't really take the time to

think about what we're putting in our backpack, Sometimes we're gonna be

carrying weight, extra weight that's really not

needed. And sometimes it's not even about the weight itself, but

why we perceive certain things. So sometimes we think that we burn out because

of the number of things that we have to do, but sometimes it's not so

much about the the number of things, but how we perceive them

and how we think everything is so urgent and so important.

So the first step, I would think it would be, like, have a mindset

makeover. Like, just take a minute and check it out. Really

just even dumping everything on a piece of paper and just what is all these

things that's in my mind that I think it's so urgent, so important,

and then really think about your priorities and your

values and see, is that really aligning with

really it's important? So I I

really like to think about the that mindset makeover and

then, of course, having an effective system that supports

me and that, and that

journey of just, like, really scheduling the things that really matters and

being friend with my calendar because we have this thing sometimes.

At least me think that my calendar was my boss, and I'm

feeling controlled by it. So it's really important for

us to see the calendar is like when you go on a hike.

And we have a navigation system. And sometimes we feel

like, oh, this this thing is telling me where to go. Stop telling me we

don't say that. Right? We want the navigation system to tell us where to go.

That's our calendar. We put it at there. Right? We put the things that's

going on on the calendar. So take a minute, put everything in a piece

of paper, and then find out what really matters to you, that what aligns with

your values, what really aligns. So the mind, I think

the mind chatter and the noise and all of that, number 1,

just slow like, it just goes way down. You'll be able to

stay more present because I think by now it comes with it because we have

such a hard time being present because our mind is just like, oh, forget that,

and remember that you have to do that, and that's really important. Remember this is

urgent. So just being able to sit down, put everything on a piece

of paper, figure out what you want, and then what really actually

matters because our brain thinks everything is urgent, and then just

loving that the navigation system because number 1,

what you're gonna put in that calendar is me time. And I know it's hard

for us sometimes to think about that, but put me time there and

just start having your calendar as your friend

and not your boss. It is your

futuristic companion. Oh, I love that, Francini. That's so good.

Kikiomi, you're up next. Yeah. So

I I would like to ask what like, for the teachers, what are

you thinking that's leading to this burnout? You know, I know a lot of

times we always wanna look externally, like, what's going on? We

have test at the end of the year. You know, we have all these papers

to grade. But really sit down and check-in what is going

on internally. Right? Like, we know that there's a teacher out there that

has, like, 30 rowdy kids feeling very

overwhelmed, just going crazy every day. Right? But we also know

there's a teacher out there who has the same 30

rowdy kids, and they might actually be, like,

enjoying the challenge. Like, they're enjoying those wild spirits.

So it's like, what is the main difference there? And it's what

the teacher's thinking. Right? So teacher b, who's enjoying

the wild classroom, is probably thinking thoughts

like I was made for this or I

enjoy this challenge. And teacher a, who's

feeling overwhelmed, is probably thinking things like this is

too hard, these kids are super obnoxious, like I don't wanna

do this. So whenever you're feeling overwhelmed, if you can just

take a moment, get your journal, pen to paper. There's

something about pen to paper, like, sure, we can think about

it, but you gotta journal on it. Go inside internally

and ask yourself what's going on with me? Like, what am I thinking right

now? How could I make today more

fun? How am I like the perfect teacher

for this classroom? And then as you continue to do

it, you will be shocked at how fast your mindset will

shift. Not overnight, of course. Don't expect it to happen overnight.

It'll take a little bit, but soon enough, you're gonna be like, wow. Like, I'm

playing a little less overwhelmed. I'm feeling a little more calm. Calm

down. And then another thing to remember, I like to

teach my clients is the 3 d's, which is

whatever you choose to do, delight in it or delegate

or delete in it. So if we're gonna choose to do

it, actually delight in it, enjoy it, do

quality work, do the best that you can, have fun doing

it. And if we don't wanna do it, totally okay

too. Right? We're just gonna strategize. Who can I delegate this

to? Maybe I wanna hire an assistant. Maybe I can get

another TA. Maybe I can ask a team member like,

hey. I need help with this. Can I do something for you and you can

help me with this and delegate it to someone else? Or we can

also do the last option, which is just delete it.

Delete it entirely, and we can choose that. I know a lot of times it

seems like we can't, but we can totally choose that. For

example, is your laundry piling up at home? Is it just taken

over? We can absolutely choose to not do it. We can choose

to wait until next week, or we can try to get one of our kids

to do it, of course. But we can literally can just choose. Like, nope. I'm

not doing the laundry. I'm not gonna do it for 30 days. Done. And

then just have zero guilt in it. But if you're gonna do that laundry,

enjoy it. Put music on. Put a podcast on. So just

remember the 3 d's, delay, delegate, or

delete. I love that, Cammy. And I talked a bit about that in my upcoming

book as well, but I mean and it's important to remember there are certain things

that as teachers, like, okay. We do have to do this, but it's kind of

like you said, we do have to do our laundry. Right? I guess we could

not do the laundry, but I think most of us would be, yeah, I want

clean clothes for myself and my family. So we can find a way

to enjoy it more even if it's like, okay. Yeah. I do need to talk

to those parents or I do need to do this or, you know, just finding

a way to make it more fun. Okay. Our next question

is and this is a really fun one because what I wanted to

look at is how each of us plan out our week and

kind of see the similarities and differences. Because whatever each of us say you

can take what works for you and then leave what doesn't. And you'll see that

we probably all do some things the same, but others different. So

I just thought it would be really cool for each of us to share how

we plan our week. Let's actually, I'm gonna mix it up because Cammy was

just talking, but Bonnie has been starting every time. So, Chrissy, do you mind if

we start with you? Alright. Let's go for it. Not at

all. I love this topic. And in our upcoming

educate and rejuvenate, I wanna talk about time strategies,

especially if you feel like you're

scattered, smart but scattered. That's how I kind

of came to my own journey of just my own

attention deficit and how I was compensating with so many strategies and

actually how smart my brain was in and out of the classroom

despite feeling kind of all over the place. So how do I plan for the

week? The very first thing is I know what I need for

my daily care. I know that I need water. I

need to do my thought downloads and maybe do a model or

2 every morning. I need meditation. We need to do some

kind of light stretching. Doesn't matter what it is. It could be 2 minutes or

a few downward dogs, but maybe a cat cow or

2. But I know that I need that for my daily care, so I

make sure I block that in. I look at daily goals, weekly

goals, and then 2 weeks out. For me, monthly, sometimes

that seems long term. And so I really focus on the daily,

the weekly, and every 14 days and what I wanna see. I go

through, and as Francini was saying, I plan for my own

self care, my own self time, and make sure I get those in the

margins. That kind of starts to already dictate my day. I

know if I need that stuff in the morning, if I have to wake up

maybe half an hour earlier, 6 instead of 6:30

or whatever your time frame is, I'm gonna make sure I'm getting to

bed the night before. So just like in teaching using backward

design or starting with the end in mind, I start with my

day in mind the night before. And then I just

really get very clear about kinda

using divergent and convergent thinking in all of

our brain research. The divergent thinking is the blue

sky kind of pie in the sky. What do I want for myself?

And if I had unicorns and rainbows, what would I do to

get there? The conversion thinking then is once we do all that

brainstorming, it is taking all of that and really penning it

out. Okay. How much time do I need each day? So for my big goals,

I really go through that process, but I make sure that I make

myself proud with my daily goals, with my weekly

goals, and then with my 2 week goals, and keep myself

on track that way. I love that, Chrissy. And, also, by the

way, Chrissy is such a champ being here today. She texted this morning.

She's like, I'm going sick. I'm not sure I'm going to make it. And, again,

I told her if she couldn't, it was totally fine, but she's here.

I'm so happy you are because I just always love everything you have to

share. Thank you, everybody. That does that

does explain my amazing voice and very dripping nose. So

if you hear a lot of the, just know this is real life. This

is Real Coach Life. Thank you for your patience. Oh, like

we said, it's just that, like, sexy voice. Right?

Okay. Francine, we were all chatting before we got on here live, so that's

where that came from. Okay. Francine, you're

up. Awesome. My days are a lot like Chrissy. It

used to before the baby.

We yeah. With the with our new baby, things changed a little bit.

But I like to think about when I think about scheduling,

I like to think about mindset, systems, and

habits. I am I have a

little bit I was never diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, but I

did diagnose myself a little bit because, yeah, my brain's, like Chris said, a little

scattered sometimes, and I have the tendency to just I used to

have the tendency to hate being scheduled because I felt really

controlled, So I resist it a lot. So that's the

reason when we first started this, for those that were not here when we first

started, I talk about be befriending your calendar

and seeing the navigation system as your friend

because you don't want to put the address there to help you find the address.

It's not making you go to the destination. You don't want to

put it there, and it's gonna help you get there. So

that was very important to me. It's just before I tell you my system,

I want to make sure that you don't feel like that's

impossible. That's not for me because that's what I thought. Like, when every time somebody

said to to me, oh, schedule, I'm just like, not for

me. So if you wanted, though, you are one of those.

Like, I was one of those. I had really to

become a friend be friend with my

calendar, and it took me a while. And how it

did help me was scheduling me time first. And

when I say that, I know you're gonna say, what are you talking about? I

don't have time for that. I decide to go back to college, so I'm a

college student. I have my own business. I work with bar teacher mommy.

I have 5 children, and

we are fostering, adopting 1. Yeah. If you think about all the number of

things, yes. We do. We all do. Like, I'm not competing with you. I bet

you have a 1,000,000,000 things just like me. But guess

what? You still have time for me time. I promise you do.

Because sometimes we think with me time, we think about we have to go to

the salon and get our nails done, but and that's great.

Just do it. If you have time and you love that, do it. But when

I'm talk when I talk about me time, sometimes it's just like I work from

home. So instead of eating on top of my computer, I sit in front

of a TV and I watch out a show on a TV, and

it's on my calendar. So if I have to get a call during that

time, I said, I'm sorry you have an appointment. I have a commitment, and

that commitment's me. So, yeah, I learned how to log my calendar.

So what I do in the morning, I declutter my

mind. I put in everything on a piece of paper. I do schedule. I

try to schedule for the month and even for the

year sometimes because when my mind is cluttered with

all this stuff that I have to clean, the cabinet under

whatever, I put it on the calendar maybe for 6 months from now.

So I do have some things that I put it on a calendar. And when

the when the branch other comes, remember they have to clean that cabinet? I was

like, yeah. It is scheduled for, you know, September

21st or whatever. But I really do put it on a calendar.

And sometimes when it get closer, I change it around or not, but it does

help me reduce the noise in my brain of remember that

you have to do this and remember that you have that under

the staircase. It's a mess. And I'm just like, yeah. It's the end of

the year, new grading, and you have to finish writing IEPs.

And you I'm like, the under the staircase is

not that important right now. So, yeah, my system is in the

morning, I declutter my mind. I used to do some yoga poses because I

love doing that, not so much with the baby right now. But I do put

everything on a piece of paper. The things that are important goes to the

calendar either for today, tomorrow. I try to do,

my calendar in my calendar in, Monday

early early early morning, and so the before the baby's

up. So I try to do 4 AM. I calendar my

whole week. And, again, just be be found with your

calendar. Put it right there, all you me first,

and then put it. I put it all the rest of the things. I am

flexible, so I have a flex day. So Fridays is my flex

day. So all the things that I put it in a calendar but couldn't not

get done for some reason because I have kids and they have needs. Right? I

get the phone call that I have to pick up a child that's struggling at

school or all the things. So that thing goes to

my flex time on Friday, and that brings me some,

helps me feel good about it. Because I was like, it's not that I have

to do. I have this flexibility. Right?

So I schedule for that. There are things that has to happen, and there are

the things that I know. But once you make friends with your calendar,

you feel confident. So you feel like you don't feel like, oh, I'm

gonna procrastinate on this, or you don't have so

much of that brain chatter anymore. You just

you said, no. No. I put it on that day. It's fine. I'm gonna do

on Friday. So that is

basically how I schedule some some

flex time, but most very, very scheduled,

beloved. My calendar has it's

my friend, so become friends with your calendar.

It's worth it. I love that whole concept behind befriending your

calendar. That's what I try to do as well. And the other thing I love

that you touched on is just, like, different seasons. Like, a few times you mentioned,

oh, I did this before the baby, or I did this, but now with the

baby or whatever. And just realizing that sometimes what it looks like is going

to shift and change over time. So for example, if you have a baby

or, like, you're dealing with a health issue or you're helping aging parents or

whatever is currently coming up in your life, you might have to make adjustments

depending on that. So I think that's a really important thing to keep in mind

that we might come up with the perfect schedule for a

time, but that doesn't mean it's the perfect schedule for

forever. I I love that. Okay, Cammy. You're up.

This is wonderful because I'm loving what everyone is saying, and I'm

noticing a similar theme. So far, I agree with

Christy and Francini. You know, we gotta take care of ourselves first.

I'm always advocating for that. Take the first out if you can,

half hour to an hour for yourself, parents, teachers.

It's only 2 to 4% of your day, so we really gotta make it a

priority. And I love what Kelsey was saying too about

different seasons. I plan my schedule so differently now that I have

children, obviously, than when I didn't. Same thing when I was working

at a hospital, my schedule was different. Excuse me, than it is than

it is now as a life coach. So it really is just honoring

what season you're in. It it just that's how you gotta do it.

Right? We don't wanna, like, schedule for a life we don't have. That doesn't even

make any sense. We're just setting ourselves up for failure. So

right now, in my current season, you know, as a mom, homeschooler,

business owner, when I sit down to plan my weeks, I

consider all of that, and I plan for the interruptions, and

I plan for the challenges. You know, I expect it to

most likely be inconsistent, maybe go for b

minus scheduling. As long as I can get majority of my stuff

done, I'm doing okay. And just to be okay if and

when challenges do come up because when we get mad

and we're upset if our children or students interrupt us,

what good does that do? That doesn't do it. It doesn't do anything. It doesn't,

like, make your task that you're working on suddenly get done. It

just adds on an extra layer of negative emotion. So we

just need to know that's gonna happen. We're humans. We're gonna

have human experiences. And

just continue to plan for it. For example, I have a 2 year old

who suddenly doesn't wanna nap. He's a pain a lot

of the time. He's going through that phase, which is a little bit annoying

for me because I really like the hour for

whatever I need to do around the house. I like to write my emails during

that hour. So when he naps, I'm like, perfect.

This is great. Got everything done for the day. But on the days he

decides he's not gonna nap, which seems to be more often than not lately,

I will do what like, Francini was saying, and I also it's

funny she said Friday because that's my flex time too. I prefer to

not work on Fridays, but if things don't get done, I open

that up and I'm like, okay. I'll just get that done on Friday. No big

deal. And then you're not so upset when things don't go as planned during that

day because you allotted for it. You planned for it at the beginning of the

week. This is when I'm gonna get it done. And

just that would be my biggest recommendation. It's just really, I guess, go

with the flow the best you can. Like, do your, like, be intentional,

obviously. Plan your weeks. Take care of yourself. But part of

taking care of yourself is, like, setting yourself up for success,

knowing that there's gonna be challenges, and just being okay with it and just moving

right on. Yes. I love what you were saying, Cammy, about just,

like, how to expect the unexpected. I feel like as teachers or

parents or whatever type of educator we are, we

all know the unexpected is going to happen. So we need to make sure that

we leave room for that. And that's why I love the idea behind flex time,

and I know that Francini and Cammy mentioned Fridays. But if

you're a classroom teacher, it might look a little bit different depending on, like,

when I taught, we had we did have a bit of a shorter day on

Fridays, but then we had, like, PLCs and all that. But

you can still find it. Maybe it's, like, in the evenings or maybe it's in

the mornings or on the weekends. Like, you can figure out take whatever we're saying

and figure out how to make it work for you in your schedule as

well. Vanessa said she loves the idea of flex time.

Andrea says harder to have me time with kids. Schedule is so crazy these

days. They are busier than me. And I think a lot of us,

I'll touch on that for mine, actually, and then Bonnie will go to you. And

this isn't even what I was planning, but I think a lot of us, we

do. Like, for those of us who are parents, which are a lot of us,

whether you're a homeschool parent or you're a teacher and you have kids, because me

right now, running my kids to all their activities after I'm finished with my

work. It's like, okay. I'm done, but now I need to run my daughter to

her theater class, and now I I need to run my kids to their choir

or to their soccer practice and all of that. Think about how is it you

can make that me time. Like, we might have this picture in our mind of

what our me time needs to look like. But what if it's you turn on

a podcast while you're driving your kids to their activities?

Or while they're playing their soccer game, you take a few minutes to

meditate or do whatever it is that fills your cup. It can be like

2 minutes. And sometimes in a phase of life, let's say you just had a

baby or your kids have a tournament that week or whatever is going on,

it can be little pockets of time. It doesn't have to be like a full

even half hour all at once. It might look different, but

just when you make that priority, whatever it is, it it makes a

huge difference. It might look different in one face than another,

but just finding that time, whatever it is, is so so

important. So, Kate Vonnie, I'll let you go next.

I love that you said that, Kelsey. Actually, I've been known to take a book

and either nap or read my book in the car when when my son's at

jujitsu because I just don't have it in me to go inside and watch. I'll

be like, I'll be out here in an hour, son. This is mom time, so

I don't die. Okay. So my 2¢ is this. Anytime we

wanna do something and we put it on our calendar, like, early Monday mornings, it's

almost like January 1st. Right? I'm gonna get all the things done and slap it

all on there. It's gonna be amazing. And then we forget that by Wednesday afternoon,

we're exhausted. By by Thursday evening, we're, like, ready to just quit. Whatever. And

so I I try to remind myself that there are only 2 main reasons

why I don't wanna do something. Either it's a physical reason,

like, it's actually in my body as a sensation, or it's an emotional

reason that comes from my brain. Right? And this is the same thing in in

eating healthy, meeting our goals, anything. Right? There's there's either a body that's

stopping us or our brain that's stopping us. So, when I go to let's say

that on Thursday afternoon, I have something scheduled, an appointment or something that I'm supposed

to be doing. I and I don't wanna do it. Then I need to ask

myself, is this a a physical thing? Is this something where I am

just so tapped out I'm exhausted? If I don't get a nap, I'm I'm gonna

be a terrible person? Then I'm gonna set it aside and I'm gonna go take

my nap. Because if you're not caring for your body, eventually, it's gonna give out

on you. Right? You're not gonna be able to show up for your obligations. If

it is an emotional thing, if it's a I just don't want to, then I

take a look at it. And sometimes I honor that. Sometimes I think, no. Actually,

I think I prioritize this when I shouldn't have. I'd rather be with my family

right now. I'd rather take something else on. Then I can tackle that at that

point. But very often, especially as a business owner, it's something I don't wanna do

because it's gonna require something hard. It's gonna require me to feel uncomfortable. It's gonna

require me to do something that that is a little bit awkward or, you know,

get on a panel in front of a bunch of people, and I'm feeling and

thinking things about that. Right? So that's a really good play way to

check-in with yourself. Is this something is this a sensation in my body that I

need to take care of? Like, am I actually physically hungry right now? Do I

actually physically need a nap? Do I actually physically need some silence right now because

I'm going a little bit crazy? Or is my brain chattering about this

saying, do you really wanna do that thing? Is that really gonna be you know?

And then you can take a look at it and choose yes or no. But

sometimes differentiating those 2 can be really, really powerful to acknowledge both our body and

our mind are getting what they need, and we're not allowing ourselves to say no

to something just because it's gonna be a little bit uncomfortable. So

good, Bonnie. I just think it's so important

for us to prioritize that self

care. And what Katie just said here. She said it's so hard to take care

of oneself first. That was what she typed while you were talking there, Bonnie. So

I wonder if we could all take because we have a little more time than

I initially planned on. So we can start with Chrissy. I wonder if we could

all just take, like, a quick little nugget to

share. Why is it so important that we do take care of ourselves

first? Yes. Are you there, Kristin?

Yeah. No. I'm good. I'm I'm I'm good. I just wanted to

say what Bonnie said was so important and also what Francine

said about befriending your time. I want you to

I want everyone to really remember to set themselves up for success. And like

Bonnie talked about, sometimes Monday, and in our coaching

life, we call that sort of Monday hour 1 of setting up our entire week

to get to Friday hour done or whatever feels

right to you and good to you. It sometimes feels kind of like, oh, I

wanna do this and this and this. I know for me, I wanna do all

the things. But I think using floor and seal

and ceiling goals for me really helps. Like,

for sure, I look at my calendar or a whole the whole list

that Francini talked about, and I'm like, for sure, I can

get 20% of these things done. And that's my floor goal.

But it feels a little bit like extra credit or, like, icing on the

cake if I can get something else done. The other guiding

thought that I think really helps me when I wanna

befriend my calendar and talk about my girl time

and just be like, my best friend time is thinking,

I just don't wanna do that to myself. Right? I just don't wanna

move from client to client to client to client with no

rest in between. Or I just don't wanna move from transition

to transition to transition without taking care of myself.

So I just think about, like, my future self and how to care

for her. And I always think the thought, like, I just wanna

be kind to her, and I just wouldn't be

mean to her by packing it in and

making her feel like she's on a hustle struggle bus.

So think about befriending time as if she's your very good friend,

and think about her like my girl time, my girl future,

my best friend 15 minutes from now.

And I just wouldn't do that to her. I just wouldn't put all

that on top of her. So that's kind of my piece that I

gleaned from all of you that I really loved, and I just really want our

listeners too. And our teachers out there, right, Just

don't use your calendar as another whip. Don't use your time

as another way to beat up on yourself. Really

befriend that future you, that higher self you.

And what would she want for you? She will, like, calm and, like

Fanny said, to take a book. I think it's also

helpful to think about it doesn't have to look a certain way. Sometimes I meditate

when I'm driving. I'm not closing my eyes, my friends, but I used to

have the whole thank goodness. For the drivers out there,

I used to have this whole thing. Well, okay. Meditation needs to be on my

Zafu cushion, and I have to be wearing a beautiful kimono or

a beautiful something. And I have to be in this, like,

crystals everywhere, and it has to look I mean, that's, like, 3

hour setup. It looks like a movie scene. No. I do my 9

minute meditation. Sometimes in the car, I get the gist. I'm, like,

breathing. I'm meditating. I'm still driving. So,

right, Bonnie has the thought, I don't have to go into all

the time. I'm not a bad mom for not doing it. I'm a great

mom because I'm gonna be better when my son comes out of jujitsu

because I've read a book, because I've taken care of myself. So ease up on

yourself, befriend your girl time, and say,

I'm just not gonna do that to myself. I

love that, Chrissy. And along what you were saying and what Bonnie was saying,

we want to take care of like, you were saying your future self, or you

could even think of, like, self as, like, when you were a young child or

whatever, and taking care of yourself because we matter.

And one thing that while I was writing my book that came up is

a lot of us, we worry about being selfish. Like, we don't wanna set boundaries,

or we wanna people please because we wanna make people happier even if that people

pleasing us with our kids, like, whether we go in with them or not.

We think that we don't wanna be selfish, but when you look up the definite

definition of selfish, it's putting your needs

first at the expense of somebody else.

And that's the key word, like, that it's at the expense of other people.

But if you're doing it because it's like, you know, that would be like you're

like stealing their money or you're like taking things away from

them like doing something malicious. But if you are just

trying to take care of yourself so you actually have more to give to your

students or to your children, like, that is what we

wanna do. And the opposite of doing it at the expense of other people will

be doing it at the expense of ourselves. So really, we just need that good

in between of, like, how can I take care of myself and

take care of other people? K. Who wants to go next? Can I

can I go next? Okay. I you said the

word selfish because that's exactly I was thinking about when every time that I have

a mom that's having a hard time is because they think it's

selfish. And the way I like to think about that

is every time that I'm not taking care of

me, of my own needs, actually, I'm being

really selfish because I show up so needy to my kids.

Like, after I do something for them, it's like, oh, really? You're not even

saying thank you. I'm just like, I can see

how I'm being selfish because I'm not I'm not being able to

show up the way I want because I didn't take care of

myself. So taking care of

you is the most unselfish thing

you can do for your children. That's what I do in my business. I help

moms feel better so they can help their

children thrive. That is the only way to help your children

thrive is if you are in a good place. So that

is the most unselfish thing that you can do for your children

is take care of you. Believe me. You will see

when you need take care of you is how you show up to your children

every time. Another very quick

thing is I think sometimes we tie our

self worth with productivity, and that's the reason sometimes we have a very

a hard time with our calendar and with the things getting done

because I think if you don't get this certain amount, some number of things

done, we're less than. We're not worth.

You know? So we have to be careful with that. That's the reason I always

talk about mindset first. What is going through your mind

or your belief system before you do that.

So just those very quick things. And, Kelsey, I think,

recorded I don't know if it's a podcast or it was inside my,

wife teacher mommy, but she talked about minimum baseline. That

is very, very important. I think that would help you if you're

having a hard time setting up your goals or

working or putting scheduling yourself or having being friends with

your calendar. That's what helped me. Having a small

manageable action that you can commit consistently.

And even if it's 5 minute walking at

lunchtime while you're pushing the baby in the stroller. 5

minutes. Okay. What is 5 minutes? 5 minutes is gonna do anything. It

will help you feel confident knowing

that you do what you said you're going to do

even though you didn't feel like it. Like Bonnie

said, you didn't feel like it, but you committed

to yourself so you have your own back. I love that, Francini.

And what she mentioned about minimum baselines, I just love

that concept. She referred to when I was talking about it. I talked about it

during the self love challenge, and then I also did a full call about

it for the club as well. So if you're in the club, you can find

that replay. But what I love about it is when you're creating a minimum

baseline, it's what Francine was talking about, like, that minimum standard.

You want it to sound pointless. Like, well, that's not gonna do

anything. But that's the whole point is that it sounds pointless that it's

so easy that you can do it no matter what. Even if you're feeling terrible,

even if you have a cold. Like, you can still do it and

you're keeping that momentum. You're keeping that promise to yourself, and it's what

Chrissy called it floor and ceiling. Right? Same concept. It's

like, I'll do at least this much. Like, for example, one

that came up, and I'll I'll end in just a sec, but is,

like, reading to your kids at night. That was one that came up recently and

asked a coach. Like, I just have a really hard time doing that. I'm so

exhausted by the end of the day. I feel bad that I'm not reading to

my kids. So what I told that member is what if you make a minimum

baseline of just reading 1 page reading 1

page to your children? And chances are a lot of

nights you're going to go beyond that, but, you know,

that's all you have to do. K. Cammy, you're up.

I'm loving this, though. I feel like we can dedicate a whole hour to

how we need to take care of ourselves. Right? Like, this is so important,

and we're also guilty of putting ourselves last.

Moms, teachers, we think it's virtuous to put ourselves last. We

don't wanna take care of ourselves, but it's like taking care of

us is taking care of the classroom, is taking care of the children. We

got it a little bit backwards. I just think if we can remember

that and, like, the cliche saying, you know, you can't pour from

an empty cup. We've all heard it a 1000000 times, but it's so true. Like,

take a empty cup right now. Turn it upside down. Tell me if you get

anything out of it. You're not gonna get anything out of it. So

just to remember that you really can't. And

if you don't have, like, your health, mental, and physical health, you have nothing.

Right? We all think, like, we have a bajillion problems going on, and

we really think we do until we're sick. Then we realize we

actually had one problem. Now we have one problem, which is, like, you can't

do anything if you don't have your physical health. Don't neglect it. It's more

important than anyone thinks. So take care of yourself. Fill those cups.

Okay. So go grab it. Body. Yeah. So to to to piggyback on

Cammie's empty cup analogy, I talked about this in my old podcast all the time

because we had a parent parenting podcast. We would talk about filling that cup, and

in our minds, we're filling the cup until it's full, and then our kid needs

something. We pour it into his and into hers and into her, and by the

end of the day, our cup is empty again. So instead the analogy we like

to use is that we are constantly filling up our cup, so that it

overflows all the time, and our cut our kids cups are at

the bottom just getting all the overflow. If we can keep that in mind,

then throughout the day, we are taking whatever is necessary to keep

that cup full. It's like all my kids converge on me at the same time

and are all screaming they need something. And I'm like, please hold. And I go

to the laundry room and I lock the door and I sit there for a

minute because if you give me 5 more minutes of being screamed at by all

of you I'm gonna lose my ever loving mind and I'm gonna start snapping at

people. So, I'm gonna go fill the rest of my cup, and I'm gonna come

out and just overflow loving patients everywhere. And, sometimes it requires more than a

minute in the laundry room, sometimes it requires 30 minutes in my bedroom, or going

on a walk all by myself, whatever it takes, but constantly throughout the day. And

this is especially important for teachers in the classroom because you have

30 cute little yipper yappers coming at you and needing

something all the time. Right? So that analogy I loved so

much. Whatever it takes to keep that cup full. And then the other thing I

was gonna say is I'm gonna pick on a couple of you in the comments

that are talking about how hard it is to take care of yourself because it's

very easy for us to be like, you're right. It is hard, but as coaches,

we're not gonna do that to you. Instead, we're gonna say, no. Self care is

neutral. Taking care of yourself is neither hard nor easy. There are

examples we can find anywhere of it being hard and it being easy. That's how

we know it's not a circumstance. Circumstances are neutral. Self care is

neutral. It being hard is a thought. So, an example I want to give you

is right now I'm in a really good place with my exercise. I make time

for exercise almost every day. Why? Because it's easy. I

found a routine and something I like to do, and it is not hard for

me to get up and exercise every day. But for probably 20 years of my

life, it was hard because I made it hard because I and

also other circumstances were different. So I chose to home and take care of my

baby instead of going to the gym, for example. But the thoughts I'm choosing to

think every morning when I wake up is I cannot wait to get to the

gym. It's my favorite part of the day because it fills up my cup and

I'm able to come home. And my productivity and my kindness to my children is

through the roof on the days that I work out versus the days I don't.

So what in your life is easy? Ask yourself that. Is it easy to

shower? Maybe. Maybe not. Is it easy to drink water?

Is it easy to get to bed? There's probably something in your life that is

easy to take care of when it comes to self care. Pick one of those

things and ask yourself what you're thinking about it. I'm probably for most of us,

we wouldn't go a day without brushing our teeth. It's probably pretty easy to get

up and put a toothbrush in our mouth because we've just it's become a habit

and it's nonnegotiable. We're not gonna be like my kids just needed me so much

I didn't have time to brush my teeth. Okay. That happens sometimes, but for the

most part, we are thinking thoughts like, I'm not going downstairs and opening

the door until I brush my teeth. That's gross. Right? So, ask yourself,

what are the easy things? How can I make a few more things become easy

because it's that important to me? So, just pushing back a little bit on those

thoughts that we have. Okay, Bonnie. I'm just over

here, like, yes, mic drop with that one because

I feel like that is the big thing. We're telling ourselves it's hard, but

we can find ways to make it easier when we, like, really look at it

and really question it and figure out maybe the way you're trying to do it

isn't what's going to work for you. Maybe you're doing what somebody else is. You

know, if for my workout routine, for example, I've recently realized, like, you know, what

was hard for me was getting up and trying to do really tough, really intense

workouts every morning. But now I start doing yoga, and

I look forward to it every single morning. So what is there even just a

little shift you could make that would make it easier for you? And then

also, you could even do the mind training around, you know, if you wanted to

do the intense workouts too. But it there's shifting your

thoughts and then also being like, what is working or how can I make

this thing more fun? Like, I just wanna get exercise. Do I care which

way it happens? Right? Or take

something that's easy like brushing your teeth and tie it in with taking some

deep breaths while you brush your teeth. You know? So

have it stacking. I could talk about this all day long. I'm sure all of

us could. Right? But it is about time

for us to finish up. So what I want us to do is I want

each of you to go through and just share where our listeners

can connect with you outside of this podcast. Also, I

will plug real quick that all of these incredible coaches are a part of wife

teacher mommy club if you make the choice to

join us in the club and work with all of these incredible

coaches here. K. Now let's go in and

start that everybody sharing where to connect with them. So, Bonnie, you can

start. We'll go around in the circle. Yeah. Like I said, I

am a predominantly a business coach. So anybody's interested in starting a side hustle or

wants help starting a business, that's what I do. You can find me at my

website, bonniewiscum.com. I also have a podcast for

Christian entrepreneurs, and that is called burning brightly. Hi,

everybody. This is Chrissy. Oh, sorry, Kim.

This is Chrissy Nichols. You can find me over at the

Chrissy concept.com. I have a lot more over

there for executive functions, so how to get it done,

how to just take any big project and whittle it down

to chewable bites, how to create

loving time strategies for yourself. And please, if

you're not already in, tune in to educate and rejuvenate

because I'm gonna talk way more about if you have

ADHD as I recently, at a beautiful

49, I found out, oh, that's been my issue the

whole time. It's been a game changer, and it shows me how well I've been

compensating. Also, over at the Chrissy concept brand new hot off

the press, I'm featuring a amazing mindfulness

retreat in Provence this summer and next September.

So this is a bespoke custom small

group, really combining coaching and

mindfulness and sacred starts, as we've been talking about here,

with also the beauty of Provence. So for all my French teachers out

here, it's a linguistic jump start. So

fun, Chrissy. Oh, wow. Yes. Come to educate

rejuvenate. All of us gonna be there. I'm super excited about

it. So I'm Franciniestas. You can find me at Franciniestas

dotcom. It's my website. And I actually create

an ebook just about mastering your schedule and

living the balanced life you deserve just for this.

So go there, and it's gonna be on the menu for you to

get download a free ebook on mastering your schedule and living the

balanced life you deserve. I am a

life coach for mamas with kids with challenging behavior

and special needs like autism and ADHD

and me having ADHD too. I know a thing or

2 of how to handle some of that. So

if you are looking to help help yourself

so you can be in a place to help your children thrive, Come find

me at mommentalgym on Instagram, mommentalgymfresenieses.com,

my website, and, Fresenius is going to on Facebook.

Okay. And my name again is Cammy Bissen. I didn't put my last name

in your, I noticed. So if you wanna come stalk me on any of the

social medias, it's b I s s o

n. And I finally have my Facebook back, you guys. I've had it

hacked for 9 months, so this is great. No one else cares except me,

but I love it. Finally back so I can be in this group. And then

what else? If you can find me on coach kami.com.

And I'm doing a podcast. It's not quite published yet, but you're gonna have to

come check out the Kami show. You guys are the first to know about it,

so that means you're very special to me. So come on in. And then

in the meantime, you can, subscribe to my weekly

email. We also could do if you want any one to one

private mentor sessions, come and schedule with me. I think I have room for

2 or 3 more, so we gotta get going before we have to add you

to the wait list. Otherwise, of course, like everyone else said, I'll be

at the event. We'll be around and looking forward to it.

Okay. Thank you so much, Bonnie, Chrissy, Francini, and

Cammy. I just love I handpicked all of

these coaches, all these incredible women to be

part of this panel, part of the club, and I just love and appreciate

all that they do. So please follow all of them. If

you are in the club and you've been following me, please follow them too. You

can't get too much of this goodness and inspiration in your social

feeds and in your inbox, so just definitely do it.

Oh, and we have some incredible comments here. I just wanna read out really quick

before we go. So Jennifer said, I'm a member and don't always post, but it's

the best choice I made for me. I love that,

Jennifer. Thank you so much for sharing. And Katie

says join club, invest in you, save your time.

Love it. And then, yes, I love just seeing what you all

have to share here about the club. We just love having all of you here.

Hannah says joining the club was the best decision I made for myself.

Thank you so much all of you for sharing these incredible planning tips.

Any of you, any last news before we go? I just wanna

I wanna say we're all so proud of you, Kels. Speaking of hard

work and getting it done with your book, and just

that was a huge, it's a huge offering

that you're putting out to the world. So it will always be there. It'll

always be in print. It'll always be a resource for all of us, and

I know that was a lot. So way to go. Congratulations.

Know. Thank you, guys. That's so sweet of

you, Chrissy. I'm excited for the book.

I will keep you all posted when when it's releasing. Well, thank you, everybody,

and we will see all of you soon either in the club or at

educate and rejuvenate or, you know, go to all their websites,

follow all of them. They're all amazing. So

we'll chat later. Thank you. Thank you.

If you enjoyed this podcast, be sure to hit subscribe so you don't miss an

episode. And if you are ready to take the next step, I would love

for you to purchase a ticket to join me live at educate and

rejuvenate summer 2020 4, the education event of the

year happening on July 16 17th this

year. We have 2 incredible keynote speakers, Gaspar Van Dazzo,

who's a teacher and stand up comedian who was featured on Netflix

on the show The Trust just recently, and Christina

Kuzmic, who is an incredible best selling author,

video creator, influencer, mom, amazing

person who was also our keynote last year. She's back. Everybody

loved her so much. We have an incredible lineup of additional speakers

teaching on topics such as math, language arts, reading, social emotional learning,

classroom management, homeschooling, and tackling burnout. This year we have a

super clear teacher track and a parent track for homeschoolers.

And your ticket gets you access to whichever track you'd like, We could even

watch sessions from both if you want to. We will start the day altogether with

a workout each morning. We'll have panels with the speakers. Plus, you'll get to

join me for some live live coaching as well as with some of our

other club coaches. It is the best professional development you could ever

attend. There are prizes, lives, thousands of

like hearted educators all coming together. And all of this is

happening from the comfort of your own home. So go to educateandrejuvenate.com

now to learn more about the 2024 event. Or if you're listening to

this later, that link will show you what is up next as we'll continue to

do events like these. And I hope to see you at the next

one.