Ep. 33: Reflect on the School Year

This past academic year has been a beast! Since summer’s just beginning, here’s your chance to take stock of the past school year. This episode will help you reflect on what’s been working well for you, what hasn’t, and what you want to change so you can create a more satisfying and sustainable life and career.

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Transcript

YWU Podcast Episode #33

Do an End-of-School-Year Reflection

Hi writers! Hopefully, it’s starting to feel like summer break. 

Things might be slowing down, you’re allowing yourself more rest, and there are fewer things like classes and meetings where you have to show up and be “on.” 

In the last couple of episodes, I talked at length about burnout—what it is, the role your work and workplace might play in it, and what you as an individual can do about it.

What I do know is that even if you are not officially burnt out, you’ve reached your breaking point, are exhausted and truly need a major reset this summer.

When you’re an academic, particularly if you’re teaching multiple classes, when the school-year ends you just want to drop everything and veg out for at least a week!

And then you try to get back into research and writing.

But either you’re still too tired to do this kind of focused thinking or you’re trying to catch back up on important life things like traveling, medical appointments, exercise, eating well, spending time with your family and other loved ones, etc.

And then August sneaks up on you, you don’t feel you’ve accomplished everything you wanted to.

Plus, you need to dive back into course preparation and you start worrying about how crazy things are going to get during fall semester. Can you relate?

So, since summer’s just beginning, here’s your chance to take stock of the past academic year and consider what you want to leave behind and what you would like to take forward with you into the future.

It’s the perfect time for you to reflect on what’s been working well for you, what hasn’t, and what you want to change so you can create a more satisfying and sustainable life and career.

You can find the full transcript of this episode at YourWordsUnleashed.com/33.

10 Questions to Help You Reflect on the Past Year

Let’s get going.

To start off, it’s really clear to me that this year has been a grind for academics across the board!

ChatGPT swept in like a tornado and radically altered how people need to teach and evaluate.

Many of my friends and colleagues are faculty members, and I’ve never heard so many of them talk about how unengaged students were in class this year.

Most people have been stretched too thin and haven’t been able to prioritize their writing or well-being enough, so there can also be some real feelings of regret about how you used your time.

I want to remind you, though, that there’s a lot to celebrate as well. 

I feel like if you made it through in one piece, you’ve accomplished a great deal!

So in the questions to follow, I’m going to ask you to acknowledge your successes, reckon with your lowest points and greatest stressors, and come up with ideas about how you want to live and work moving forward.

This isn’t an evaluation of your productivity, mind you!

It’s a true reflection that will be most helpful to do when you’re feeling calm and have enough mental bandwidth to look back on the year with some objective distance.

So pull out a notebook and a pen, and go sit down in a comfortable and quiet place, maybe outside in nature.

Start by closing your eyes and taking five deep breaths. Breathe in slowly through your nose and exhale slowly through your mouth.

Now do it again. And again.

And when you’re feeling more relaxed, listen to the following questions. 

After each one, I encourage you to stop this recording and pause to reflect for at least a couple of minutes.

If you find that you’re still reacting quite emotionally to your experiences—like you feel angry, really disappointed, ashamed, sad, etc., you’re probably not yet ready to do this reflection. 

No problem! Put this away for a few days or even weeks until you feel calmer, steadier, and more rested.

But if you ARE ready to move forward, let’s get started.

I’ve grouped the questions into three main thematic areas: what’s gone well, what’s been challenging, and what lessons you want to take with you into the future.

What’s Gone Well

1) So the first question is, what are three things you accomplished this year that you are most proud of, and why?

Now, those of you who have very strong inner critics might be tempted to not give yourself ANY credit for things you’ve done this year.

I have many clients who say things like, “Well, I was able to publish an article but I didn’t make progress on my book like I had planned so I didn’t really achieve my goals.”

It takes what could be a proud moment of acknowledgement and hijacks it so you feel bad or unworthy.

Why do this to yourself? This is a moment to politely ask your inner critic to step to the side for a moment so you can actually see everything you HAVE done.

I just want to make two points here. 

The first is that this is not just about things you DID do.

You could give yourself credit for things you chose NOT to do because they’re not in line with your values.

For example, maybe you declined a number of professional requests because you wanted to focus on work that’s more meaningful.

You might have mustered up the courage to talk to your chair about doing less service.

You may even have pulled out of good scholarly opportunities to create space to write your book.

The second thing is that these accomplishments do NOT have to be professional. 

Maybe you learned how to ski for the first time in your life like one of my clients. 

Maybe you took a long-delayed and well-deserved vacation with your family.

Maybe you finally caved in and hired someone to clean your home and you’re loving it! Etc., etc.

But it’s important to think about WHY these things stand out to you amidst all the other craziness of the year.

When you can isolate the why, then you have a much stronger sense of your own values and priorities.

2) This leads into my second reflection question: what is something you did that went BETTER than you thought it would? What does this say about how you’ve grown as a person this year?

Again, this could be either professional or personal (or both)! 

Think about something you really stressed out about or felt dread about doing.

Maybe you started a new job or taught a new class or moved to a new city. 

Maybe you were rejected by someone or from something that you really wanted, but realize now that it was for the very best.

Could be anything.

In my case, I’ve now been running my own business for the equivalent of a full academic year because I left my professorship at the end of last summer.

And I would say that the transition into a completely new career path has definitely gone better than I could have expected.

Looking back, I recognize how much I’ve grown in confidence as well as competence in both coaching and my ability to run a business—which is not something I ever imagined myself doing even five years ago.

3) The third question is, what aspect of your work has brought you the most joy and/or inspiration? How will you prioritize this part of your work moving forward?

So this is specifically asking you to think about your job. 

Rather than thinking about what you enjoy the most in a general way, I encourage you to get down to the nitty gritty details of what has inspired you this past year.

Maybe you’ve enjoyed talking with your colleagues or your favorite students about your research ideas.

Maybe you are running an institute and making big changes on your campus that will impact things for years to come.

Maybe you enjoy doing public talks on your work that engage a general audience.

The point here is to think more about the specific things you can accomplish with relatively little effort because you’re naturally skilled at it and have a strong interest in it. 

For me, I’ve really enjoyed running workshops for various universities this past year.

As much as I love private coaching, there is nothing like feeling the power of a group and bearing witness to peoples’ challenges in community with others.

It’s the closest I get to teaching now, and I gain a lot from the experience.

So, I’m going to prioritize doing more of them moving forward. 

And if you want to know more about my workshop offerings, please check out my website at YourWordsUnleashed.com/workshops.

This Year’s Challenges

So now we have reflected and celebrated what has gone well. 

It’s time to consider what didn’t go as well as we would have liked so we can think about how to make intentional changes.

1) The first question I have is an obvious one—what were your biggest professional challenges this year? How did you face these challenges?

And again, it’s important to write down really specific scenarios.

So rather than something really broad like, “teaching sucked for me this year,” think about the particular aspects of it that sucked.

Were your students completely unengaged? Could you not get them to talk to each other?

Did you have to totally revamp your assignments to factor in AI and they didn’t work?

Or, when it comes to writing, maybe you weren’t able to consistently commit time to your book. 

Or you set non-feasible goals and deadlines you weren’t able to meet.

And then think about what these trying situations have taught you about yourself. 

2) This leads to my second question on this theme: What was the biggest mistake you made this year? How can you avoid making the same mistake in the future, and why is this important to you?

This might or might not overlap with the answers from the last question.

But it’s asking you to reflect on how you bounced back after disappointment that may have come out of your own actions or inaction, as the case may be.

And if you haven’t bounced back yet, what will you do this summer to help yourself recuperate?

It could be to reach out to friends and colleagues for their support.

You could go on a meditation retreat or trip to a national park and get back in touch with nature.

It could be just recognizing that you’re a precious human being who is just as flawed as every other human being and giving yourself some grace.

But trust me here that ruminating, beating yourself up, and continuing the cycle of feeling bad is just going to deplete you of energy.

There’s a popular adage that says, “what you resist persists.”

So if you keep resisting what happened, it will continue to live on in your mind and in your body until you make the choice to accept it full stop.

You know I’m a huge fan of mantras, and one that I use often is, “Mistakes are an opportunity to grow. I did the best I could.”

So perhaps you can use this to quiet down your inner critic and extend yourself some compassion.

And then think about what you can do differently to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Moving into the Future

So all of this is a good segue way to start reflecting upon how to take all of these lessons and apply them in the future.

1) My first question is, looking back at your year as a whole, what was the most valuable thing you learned about yourself?

It may very well be about being pushed past your limits and knowing you need to instill stronger boundaries with your work and/or certain people in your life.

Is there a difficult conversation you’ve been putting off having? 

Maybe it’s time to rip the band-aid off and just do it if it will help you feel better in the long run.

Also, what core value do you most want to feel and express now?

Some common core values for my clients are things like freedom, autonomy, impact, fun, learning, growth, community, relationships and connection, and peace.

Once you’ve identified this value, write down three specific ways you can amplify it for yourself this summer and in the next academic year.

Think about how living into this value will keep you from repeating the same problems you experienced this past year.

2) And my final question is, knowing what you know now, what is the best advice you can give yourself moving forward? Imagine that it’s six months from now and you are stressed out beyond belief. 

Jot down 3 or 4 reminders to yourself that you can read during these times.

So on top of writing coaching, I’ve done a lot of career coaching over the years with academics who are seeking more clarity or to change direction.

At the end of our sessions, we always do a recap of what they’ve learned and how they’ve grown over the course of our time together.

Here’s some great examples of the sage advice my clients have given themselves:

·      I’m my biggest supporter. I will show up for myself when things get hard by using the tools I’ve learned.

·      Hard moments are not wasted time. They are necessary. No regrets. 

·      When stressed out, pause and ask myself, “What’s important to me in this moment?” Then look at what’s happening and see whether it corresponds to what’s important to me. If it doesn’t, then what can I let go of? 

·      Remember how much you value having down-time before you say yes to something. Ask yourself: what are you saying no to in your own life if you say yes to this?

·      Remember that I don’t have to do anything that I don’t really want to do.

·      Remember that at the end of the day, this is just a job.

·      I need to trust my gut and my instincts, and if I do that, I can maintain my integrity.

·      When I’m feeling fear, I will ask myself what I would do if I knew I would be successful. I don’t need to let fear control me. 

·      When I’m stuck, that is the time to share my work with others. I will lean into those relationships of support.

·      Make sure I have time for exercise. Cook more and take good care of my health.

·      Figure out what my heart wants to do before I respond to other people’s expectations and desires for me. Why do I want to do it?

·      Remember that everything will be okay and you don’t have to give 100% to everything.

Wow—all of this reminds me of how amazing my clients are!

Summing It All Up

So let’s sum it all up.

There’s not a ton to sum up here. 

I’ve given you some prompts for self-reflection so you can bring this last chapter of life to a close and open up to the next with more clarity.

I hope you take some needed time off from work without guilt or shame or the sense that you’re falling behind.

You are not!

We are not machines who are meant to work all the time. 

Don’t fall for that capitalist mentality.

Have a good rest, and I’ll talk to you again soon.