I’ve been hearing from a lot of my clients and my friends in the industry lately about the immense sense of sadness that they won’t be able to see out the school year, see their students move on, and generally say goodbye to another chapter in the normal way. This unusual time has brought up a lot of emotions, but this is a crushing one that so many teachers and school leaders are dealing with.

For a lot of people, this situation is manifesting itself as grief, saying goodbye to the end of the year before they were ready. And what’s worse, because we didn’t get a chance to prepare, allowing ourselves to experience these emotions is extremely difficult, and instead, we find ourselves resisting, which only makes things worse in the long run.

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As a principal, balancing work and home life has always been incredibly tricky. But now that we have found ourselves working from home, this balancing act has become pretty much impossible. Even when we get some sense that we’re moving in the right direction, something always seems to come up and we feel misaligned.

This is even worse when your own kids are involved. You’re trying to engage your students in learning, and you have your own children in the background who have their own needs, and feeling like you’re taking care of both of these areas is a tall order. So, what can we do about this?

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With all the stress and uncertainty around the coronavirus and its impact on our work in the field of education, as well as life in general, it’s incredibly important that we do everything we can to keep moving forward and avoiding the misery that, if left unchecked, we could find ourselves in.

It can seem like planning heavily for the future right now doesn’t make much sense, but honestly, how you think about the future will shape the experience you have in the present. And if you can expand how you think about the future, your capacity to have a positive experience in this moment will expand in ways you couldn’t imagine.

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Welcome to the latest episode of this month’s series on empowered school leadership during a crisis. As a school leader, whether you’re brand new or a veteran, you’re likely experiencing a lot of uncertainty around your job. Whether it’s figuring out how to set up Zoom, getting meal services to kids, or how to set up homework and interacting with your staff and boss, everyone is having a different experience.

The truth is that we’ve all always had problems. You had issues in the past that felt like the biggest hurdles to move past, and this will be the case in the future too, once the pandemic is over. There is always a 50:50 balance that exists between the positive and the negative, and my goal is to help you see how embracing the 50% that might not be ideal right now can allow you to enjoy the 50% that is good.

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We are certainly going through some testing times at the moment and the coronavirus has had a profound impact on our schools and all of our school leaders. So, I’m going to deviate from my original episode schedule to bring you some help with navigating this unchartered territory we find ourselves in.

I truly believe that the situation that we’re going through is the absolute best opportunity to put into practice and perfect the work of self-coaching. Managing our thoughts and emotions and coaching ourselves is the best strategy for any challenge you face as a principal, and dealing with the Coronavirus is no different. Our thoughts determine the actions and results we yield, and we can’t afford to get caught up in problematic thoughts right now.

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