❤️ Your Tuesday Email: Protect Your Energy

Hello Reader!

Exhaustion is a system signal, not a personal failure.

By February, many educators start questioning themselves.

Why am I so tired?
Why does everything feel harder than it should?

Here’s what I want you to hear clearly:
Exhaustion is not a personal flaw. It’s a system signal.

Teaching and leading require constant emotional labor — regulating yourself, supporting others, making decisions, absorbing stress. When energy drains faster than it’s replenished, the issue isn’t resilience. It’s sustainability.

Where Energy Leaks Happen

Energy loss rarely comes from one big thing. It comes from:

• Too many micro-decisions
• Unclear expectations
• Carrying emotional weight alone
• Saying yes when your capacity is already stretched

These leaks are invisible, until they’re not.

Protecting Energy Without Guilt

Protecting energy doesn’t mean disengaging. It means recognizing limits before burnout forces them.

Try asking:

• What drains me most right now?
• What could be simplified, shared, or released?
• What boundary would preserve my capacity this week?

Podcast:

• This week: Planning Less, Teaching Happier with Judith and Lorena, teachers in The Netherlands. Ever wish planning felt lighter, clearer, and actually energizing? We sit down with Judith and Lorena, the educators behind Roma Planners, to unpack how a simple PYP-focused planner grew from a personal survival tool into a global pilot and a living community of practice. Their story starts with a familiar challenge—too many frameworks to juggle and no single place to make sense of them—and lands on a planner that turns priorities into visible action while reducing the daily mental load.
• Next week: Place-Based Education with co-authors, Whitney Aragaki and Kirsten Milks​
• Last week: When You Realize Your Students ARE Your Work and Other Moments of Realizations in Mental Overload with Christine and Tammy.

Listen to the pod on all the platforms like Apple, Spotify, iHeart Radio and YouTube. Now you can follow us on Instagram.

Resources:

• ASCD: The Power of Educator EQ​
• Journal: Illuminate Journal from Sybill Hall (who was a guest on the podcast!)
• Podcast: The Energetic Teacher​

Sometimes the most professional move is rest, clarity, or asking for support.

If you’re ready to explore energy boundaries, individually or as a leadership team, this is work we support through coaching and workshops designed to reduce overload and restore focus.

You don’t need to push through February. You need systems that hold you up.
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Yours,

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P.S. Forward this email to colleagues who you think would enjoy the connection and resources.