Have you ever really sat back and wondered why the typical career span of educators was 1-5 years, and after that 5th year, they leave? Have you ever seen a video of a teacher exploding on a student and losing their job afterward? Have you read an article about another teacher being arrested for an inappropriate relationship with a student? Have you ever felt drained and depleted physically and emotionally after a day at work? When educators don’t set healthy boundaries in place, we set ourselves up for ruin.
I am Javian Johnson, an education prevention coach and administrator who suffered a major depression from personally not having healthy boundaries in place. I was the administrator who never asked for help, and instead of letting others take care of their responsibilities, I ended up taking that off their plate because I wanted to perform at high levels. I knew that if they did something, it wouldn’t be done to the level of care needed most. So in 2021, I had completely lost myself to the job and ended up hospitalized because I wanted to kill myself.
But during that transition back to finding myself, I learned and mastered something significant that I was never taught growing up. Even in schools, we don’t teach this ever-important concept to its fullest. And the drum roll, ladies and gentlemen, that concept is boundaries. Since we do have individuals that are constantly learning, I am going to provide you with some background information on boundaries. Boundaries started to become popular around the 1980s in the self-help industry and quickly gained the attention of clinicians and therapists. Personal boundaries can be thought of as limits we set with others, what we consider acceptable and unacceptable behavior towards us. So I want to paint a picture of the type of boundaries that we know the most. We know our physical boundaries with people and our personal space. We are taught the concept as a critical skill: people shouldn’t be in your space or touch you without your permission. So the question you should be asking yourself is, do I have emotionally, professionally, and personally, and do my boundaries lead me to peace of mind of ruin?
If you are being honest with yourself, you probably don’t. If you are on the fence, you probably have rigid boundaries (boundaries that keep anyone from getting in) or loose boundaries (boundaries that people can cross). So you can see how this plays out in your profession and leads to burnout. Educators without boundaries are like riding a rollercoaster without a seatbelt; you a destined to fall and hurt yourself ample time. Don’t despair, though; it is never too late to implement boundaries regardless of age and current conditions. You have given away your power at once, but the great news is that you can quickly get it back. The first thing is that you decide the game's rules and how the other characters will treat you in life.
You don’t have to be drained by people, your time, or your efforts. When you put these boundaries in place, you will see the world of difference in your lives and your professions. I want you to take a second and imagine a life where you are constantly feeling positive energy and flow in life. You operate so that people know how to treat you and them in a way that is enriching instead of invasive. You have limits on the amount of time you spend with particular individuals that allows for a peaceful partnership. You can have that life, and you deserve that life. I don’t want anyone to get to the point where they want to commit suicide because life seems to be too heavy with work, and it feels like hell you will never escape. But you aren’t stuck; you just haven’t formed appropriate boundaries.
If you need extra interventions in forming boundaries, contact me at johnson.createmystory@gmail.com; we offer individual and community coaching backed by our 3-month money-back guarantee for your best results. But, of course, the worst you can do is nothing, so keep following us for future content and more educator burnout solutions.
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