LOOKING AFTER WELLBEING - WHERE I'VE STARTED.

 As part of this study sabbatical, I've prioritized learning more about how I can better look after myself with a particular focus on wellbeing.  Towards the end of 2024, I was burnt out.  I felt incredibly unwell physically and mentally drained.  I didn't realise it until the year had ended and work stopped. 

As a woman in leadership, I know about the importance of self-care.  We hear about it and talk about it all the time in our principal groups, and at conferences and workshops.  So I found it difficult to wrap my head around the fact that I hadn't taken in all that I'd learned in this space.  The question is "What works for me? How can I look after myself better?".

This year I intend to find that out, to help me become a better leader in my community.   As part of this learning, I'm reading to add effective tools into my kete that work for me and I'm starting with the book "Atomic Habits" by James Clear.  What a great place to start!  This book is a great window into understanding habits, making and breaking them, and reflecting on how I manage my life both professionally and at home.  As I read, I highlighted the lightbulb moments that gave me motivation and affirmation of what I'm already doing and what I can do better.  These are a few of the gems I took from this book:

•  1% better every day and how the effects of small habits compound over time.
• Forget about goals, focus on systems.
• Three layers of behaviour change - outcomes, process, and identity (Identity being the most important - habits matter because they help you become the person you want to be).
• Design and environment of success - this matters more than motivation (make cues of good habits obvious in your environment and cues of your bad habits invisible).
• Prime your environment to make future actions easier.
• We imitate the habits of 3 groups - the close, the many, and the powerful.  We soak up the qualities and practices of those around us (join a culture where your desired behaviour is the normal behaviour).
• Life feels reactive, but it's actually predictive - you are endlessly predicting what will happen in the next moment.
• Reprogramme your brain to enjoy hard habits - imagine changing just one word from 'have' to. You 'get' to.
• Make it easy for habits to happen - the most effective form of learning is practice, not planning. 
• To build a habit you need to practice it (action).
• Focus on action, not being in motion - being in motion is planning and strategising but they don't produce results.  Action is the type of behaviour that will deliver outcomes.

So, what have I learned from these gems and what will I do differently?  

• Walking...I'm not saying daily because I don't want to beat myself up if I miss a day.  So I'm going to aim to walk 4-5 days per week and cover 5-6kms per walk.  This is manageable because I've now got the time to do it...and a dog that needs walking.
• Skincare.  This is something I've never been good at nor consistent in and it's one thing that is noticeable to me.  I always think I'm too tired or too busy to think about looking after that side of myself, so a visit to a skin care clinic and the purchase of a few products to make a habit of looking after my skin more consistently is important to me.  Prioritising this particularly before I fall into bed each night is one habit I want to focus on.
• Creating an environment to make these two things happen - walking gear ready to go the night before (the first thing I see when I get out of bed), and skincare products at the ready in the bathroom.
• Eating...no more processed food purchases - particularly my kryptonite (potato chips and ice cream).  Change out the junk for fresh whole foods e.g: carrots and humus or nuts for snacks.  I also love to juice so will get back into my juicing routine.

Well...I'll reflect back on this post halfway through the year and see how these initial habits are going.  

STUDY AND A BIT OF SELF-CARE.

I have been blessed this year to have been granted study leave to do my Masters of Educational Leadership.  What a privilege! I am humbled to have this opportunity with the support of my whanau and school community and a little guilty to be walking away from my school for the year.  I spent just over a week at school at the beginning of this month (Jan) prepping my office for the Acting Principal (Deputy Principal stepping up).  We also had 3 days working together doing a handover for him to access everything he needs.  I am fortunate that I have an amazing leadership team who love our community. I have full faith that they will 'stay the course' of the strategic direction, maintain the community's expectations, and continue to go above and beyond for our students.  

We agreed that it's best that I completely step out to ensure continuity of communication and decision-making.  This is a big call for me because while I'm not a control freak and I don't micromanage, I'm so used to being the decision-maker that I'm already feeling FOMO.  The Acting Principal and I will meet off-site every 3 weeks or so just for a coffee and a catch-up so that he can fill me in on everything and keep me in the loop.  I am available 24/7 by phone for him and he is aware of the 'no surprises' rule.  I'm also obviously still available by email (out-of-office auto-reply on) and am on all school lists so I get to see what's happening communications-wise.  Staff will go to him...I'm out for the year.  

So, what will this year mean for me then?  While school will always be in the back of my mind, the Masters papers will be at the front.  I'm looking forward to the learning and what it will bring to my kete of knowledge and experiences in leadership.  It's a little nerve-wracking getting back into the assignments and lectures again, especially at Masters level, but my nerdy self thrives on it, so I'm nervous and excited.  

I think the thing I'm most looking forward to is having room in my headspace for me.  Having time to focus on just me and my whanau.  In the busy world of Principalship, I admit that I struggle with leaving work at work...in fact, ask any principal and it's near impossible to do.  Even when you're not at work, you're thinking about it; checking emails, or doing a multitude of tasks that you just didn't quite get to while at school.  So I'm excited to be spending time with my whanau being truly present.  It's a skill that I intend to develop and practice while on leave.  I'm also excited about going overseas for an actual 'holiday'.  It will be nice to get cheap airfares and catch up with family overseas.  I also intend to read a few books, which I generally do anyway but these are books that I'm hoping will help me better manage my self-care when I do get back behind the desk in 2026. I will be writing more about those books as I read them...just a review because I can.