Going thru a rough patch?

[Inspired by Reggio]

The burnout potential in this field is HIGH ... even many people who invest $15,000 or more dollars getting a degree in Early Childhood Education typically do not STAY in the field for more than 5 years as it is an emotionally and physically draining job and maintaining that focus on the rewards and passion for why you wanted to go into this in the first place can be a challenge to say the least!

Good news it is not impossible to maintain your passion ... it is a skill like anything in life ... it takes goals, maintaining motivation and reflection of how its going

I have been in the field since 1988 ... I made it to 2002 before needing to 'take a break' and a year working in a factory with others was enough to remind me that THIS is the career for me - working with adults in a mundane job is not my forte

My keys to success are ...

• Eating well and making sure my diet is high in Vitamin B, D and essentail fatty acids they are key to emotional health and when I am low in these I tend to get 'pessimistic' about things and have to reflect on WHY I love this field more
• Regular exercise to prevent strain and exhaustion - repeative bending and lifting leads to pain in your body and pain makes it hard to feel passionate
• Making sure to make time for ME each week where I am responsible for meeting no ones need my MINE ... a hobby or something 'fun' to do outside the home helps
• Networking with peers in my field who have a basis for understanding - both online and IN PERSON cause there is a different level of 'sharing' that can take place offline that leads to deeper 'rejuvenation' of ones spirit!
• Having reasonable expectations and goals for your program .... children need time for FREE PLAY there is nothing wrong with spending portions of your days just sitting back an OBSERVING their play and interests so you can plan things to stretch and enhance those experiences for them and take their free play 'deeper' for them .... this can actually help you reconnect with the MAGICAL way children see their world even the mundane things we take for granted ... you do not need to entertain children every minute of the day and plan every minute of their day for them to be engaged and thriving - in fact IME quite the opposite is true ... more free repetitive play results in deeper learning and more creativity and imagination on part of the child - skills we need if we want to maintain our growth as a society
• Make sure you find at least ONE thing to celebrate about your day with your crew ... during afternoon snack time I play the 'best and worst' part of the day with my crew ... we all share one thing we wish would could have done better or different in our day our 'goal for tomorrow' so to speak (worst part of our day) and than we all share the best thing that happened for us that day something we loved, were proud of and so forth ... helps to reflect that we have control over those 'worst' things by setting goals for tomorrow and it is a way to end the day on the positive note with our reminder that it was not ALL BAD! Somedays instead of doing our own reflections I change it up a bit and get them to give feedback to peers - name one thing X could have done better today and one thing they did really awesome to help children learn to think of others and support others!

Hope that helps - your feelings are normal for sure and honestly children are human beings with personalities that vary and just like we do not LIKE all adults we do not LIKE all children who grow up to BE those adults .... however we do not need to LIKE someone to work with them effectively as long as we can respect them and have empathy for why they are 'harder' to like than others and put steps in place to help us focus on the things we 'do' like about them ... there is good in every person