Welcome to The Flourishing Teacher’s Field Guide.

Let’s take a moment to pause, breathe and find our focus.

This week, we’re thinking about how valuable it can be to structure your resilience strategy, and how having a ladder can help you scale the heights of wellbeing!

Let’s jump in…

I Was Stuck In A Teaching Rut

I love being a teacher, but being a teacher didn’t always love me.

For many years, I worked hard helping everyone around me to grow and flourish, and spent nowhere near enough time working on myself.

And, if you’re anything like me, you’ll have had times in your life when you feel the same.

And you might even feel that way today.

The problem was that by prioritising everything that comes with the whirlwind of a typical teaching term, I lost sight of two things…

Looking back, those were two sides of the same coin.

I couldn’t see who I was, other than a teacher, and because I worked so hard to make it my identity, I rarely acknowledged the need to take responsibility for sustaining my personal and professional lives.

I wasn’t growing as a teacher or as a human being, and at the heart of that lack of progress was the way I viewed challenges.

I think I viewed them as failures.

I frequently felt guilty for both not achieving the things I felt I should, and for the inevitable mistakes I made along the way.

I never saw the ability to cope with and learn from challenges as a positive thing. I just wanted to remove the challenges altogether!

Now I’m older and wiser (kind of), I can see just how valuable a strong resilience strategy is for preventing burnout and emotional exhaustion.

So, if you’re struggling with identity or resilience, or simply want to find a structure you can use to learn and grow, look no further.

Here’s the Marigold Teachers Resilience Ladder…

A Resilience Ladder Helps You To Flourish

I’m going to guide you through the process of setting a wellbeing goal and breaking it down into achievable steps. It’s this sense of structure and reflection that makes it so beneficial for boosting your sense of resilience.

After all, developing resilience is a process. It doesn’t necessarily come naturally, and the more we work at it (or, at the very least, view it as a science rather than an art), the more resilient we have the potential to become.

Not only is that of huge benefit to us as teachers, but it’s also a great quality to model for our students.

Here’s what the first four steps on the resilience ladder look like…

Getting Started

Reflect on a specific area of your personal wellbeing you want to improve.

Remember, this is about you as a person, not just a teacher.

As you think about which aspects of your wellbeing you’d like to develop, it can be easy to quickly become overwhelmed with feelings of guilt, frustration, or shame.

Try to remember that those feelings are being generated by the part of your brain that doesn’t really want to change. Try to view them like an outside observer, without any judgment or emotion.

And just pick one specific goal.

It might be to do with exercise, nutrition, mindfulness, life/work balance, playfulness, intellectual or spiritual development and so on.

Get really clear about what you want to achieve, and why.

Resilience Steps 1-4

Once you’ve got your goal, you’re ready to take the first 4 steps on the resilience ladder.

Answer the following questions, as clearly and honestly as you can:

1. My wellbeing goal is: This could be something as simple as “Practice mindfulness for 15 mins daily to reduce stress/burnout.”

2. My resilience mantra is: This is a phrase that you repeat to yourself regularly throughout your journey, and it should inspire you with the confidence and self-belief you need. A good example might be “I have the patience for this journey.”

3. Along the way I might feel: This is where I tend to focus on my previous experiences and emotions, so I tend to write something like “Nervous, doubtful, liable to forget why the goal is important and as though giving up is a better option.”

4. But when I achieve my goal I will feel: This is the benefit you’ll feel by achieving the goal. So, you might write “Focused, calmer, more authentic and able to manage the demands of my day more peacefully.”

By spending some time identifying not just your goal, but the mindset you need to achieve it, you make success far more likely.

Resilience Steps 5-7

5. My action steps are:

Now, break down your goal into small, concrete action steps. I usually identify between 6-8 steps that I might need to take to reach a goal.

They might be practical, organisational, emotional or educative, but big and small, all are equally valid.

Here’s a few examples:

1. Find some guided meditations I like

2. Do 5 mins per day for 1 week

3. Increase to 10 mins per day for 2 weeks

4. Increase to 15 mins per day ongoing

5. Make adjustments if struggling with the time commitment

You need to make sure these are specific - they’re your roadmap to success.

6. My potential challenges are:

Now identify the potential roadblocks or challenges you might face. You’ll need to be realistic about these. They might be internal factors like your sense of self-discipline, or external, like journeys you need to take or resources you need to acquire.

Here’s a few examples:

• Lack of time due to long work hours

• Lack of energy from teacher burnout

• Prioritising student/family needs over self-care

• Negative self-talk preventing you from starting

• Feeling unmotivated or hopeless about change

7. I will overcome these by:

You also need to identify actions you’ll need to take to overcome or avoid these roadblocks, and that means being extremely honest about yourself…

Perhaps you’ll identify strategies like:

• Make adjustments to my timeframe if I need to

• Repeating daily affirmations

• Making my goals achievable

• Adapt my morning schedule to take account of the time I need

• Partner with a friend or colleague to share progress

• Set phone reminders or use a calendar app

Resilience Steps 8-9

8. My action step rewards are:

If you’re anything like me, you need a reward structure when you’re attempting something challenging. From a nice cup of tea to a Sunday morning swim, it’s incredibly effective to give yourself a little reward for achieving each action step (5).

They don’t need to be extravagant, and they shouldn’t be detrimental to your health or wellbeing (I’ve learned not to use sugary foods or glasses of wine as rewards).

They should be for you, not for someone else, something that is easily achievable, and brings you genuine pleasure. A treat.

9. I will celebrate reaching my goal by:

Talking of rewards, you also need to plan the best way to celebrate your achievement at the end of the process.

This is vital for two reasons. Firstly, having a clear celebratory goal - a night out with friends, a trip, a purchase - gives you some external motivation to match your intrinsic desire to improve your wellbeing. There’s no denying that this helps.

Secondly, and even more importantly, a celebration planned in advance and communicated to others holds you accountable during the process.

And when others share the celebration, however small or subtle, you’re far more likely to maintain the changes you’ve worked so hard to establish.

Resilience Step 10

We’re not islands, and a big part of our Marigold Teachers ethos is the need to communicate with and support our colleagues.

That’s why our resilience ladder has an extra step…

10. I will share this resource with:

It’s so important to live your wellbeing journey authentically, but it’s just as important to share what you learn with others. That’s how we grow.

And if you’ve found the structure of the resilience ladder works for you, then you’re in the perfect position to guide a friend, colleague or family member through the process as well.

Most important of all, exercise some self-compassion.

If you want to improve your wellbeing, then it should be a healthy, gentle and sustainable process. And those come with ups and downs.

You won’t get there in a perfectly straight line. But if you treat yourself with kindness and view your goals with perspective, you will get there!

You can download a PDF of the resilience ladder and use it to plan your own wellbeing journey here:

What Are You Waiting For?

We believe that teachers achieve extraordinary things under challenging circumstances and that we all deserve to be valued, supported and celebrated.

That’s what this newsletter is all about.

If you haven’t subscribed yet, why not join the Marigold community? You’ll get weekly strategies for sustaining your wellbeing, avoiding burnout and flourishing as a person, not just a teacher.

And best of all..?

It’s free and always will be.

You can find out more about what to expect in this weekly newsletter here, or just go straight to our sign-up form.

Thank You For All You Do

In the spirit of support and celebration, we both want to say a huge thank you for the inspiration, knowledge and compassion we know you share with your students and colleagues every day.

Not everyone can do it. But you can, and, if no one else tells you so this week, you’re awesome at what you do. Never forget how much you’re valued, especially when it doesn’t feel that way…

You need to value yourself too, so remember the key takeaways from today…

In next week’s issue, we’ll give you an exclusive sneak-peak at our new rewards resource, and share the best motivational strategies for boosting your happiness!

Until then, remember, you’re more than your marking, your lesson observations and your planning.

You’re you. And that’s all you need to be.