Recently I was talking with a teacher in a one-on-one session, and she mentioned that she’d like to regain her sense of possibility as a teacher.
Afterward, I kept coming back to that phrase: sense of possibility.
And the more I turned it over, the more I realized that a sense of possibility is, in many ways, the opposite of burnout.
So, let’s talk about what it actually means to have a sense of possibility, and how you can hold onto it (or get it back if you’ve lost it).
There’s an image I keep coming back to when I think about having a sense of possibility as a teacher.
In my third year of teaching, I moved from fourth grade to high school, and I was genuinely excited about the change.
One of the things I knew I wanted to do in my first high school classroom was decorate my bulletin boards to look like tropical sunsets.
I took yellow, orange, and red bulletin board paper, cut it into wavy lines, and layered the pieces on top of each other so they looked like a sunset. Then I cut palm trees out of black paper and set them in front. The whole board ended up looking like one of those postcard silhouettes — palm trees against a sunset.
I can still get back into the mindset I had while cutting out those palm trees.
Obviously, it was harder than just putting up a solid-colored bulletin board.
But it felt worth it. I wanted to put in that effort.
That’s why a sense of possibility is, in many ways, the opposite of burnout.
Burnout is the sense that most of your energy goes toward things that don’t matter.
Either because they don’t match your goals or values, or because they don’t make a real dent in the work you know you have to do.
On top of that, or maybe because of it, you struggle to find the energy all of it requires.
A sense of possibility is just the opposite.
When you have a sense of possibility, you feel like you’re working on something that matters—and that your efforts matter in the bigger picture.
You also feel like you’re working on something that responds to your best effort, so it’s not nearly as hard to find the mental and physical energy the work requires.
Why the Bulletin Board Is Such a Good Example
I want to break down a few specific reasons this story captures what a sense of possibility feels like, and then talk about how they apply to your teaching.
It had an end.
The bulletin board project took effort, but it wasn’t never-ending. You could probably do a set of bulletin boards in an hour; this one took me about four. But I was done by the end of the day, and I walked out with a real sense of satisfaction. That satisfaction was in sight the entire time I worked on it. It was a small enough, bite-sized task that I could picture the end result and feel myself getting closer to the finish line.
It stayed done.
There’s a real difference between putting effort into something that’s finished once you’re finished with it, versus something like dishes — done today, but back again tomorrow. With a project that has an end, you know that once it’s done, it stays done.
Another word for this is “leveraged work.”
With leveraged work, you put in effort up front, and it makes your future life easier or better.
It’s motivating to feel like the effort you’re putting in is leveraged work.
With the bulletin board, I knew that once it was finished, every time my students walked in, they’d see it on the wall and sense the effort I’d put into making the room look nice. It was a small gift to my future self that kept on giving.
The timing mattered.
The beginning of the school year is a special time — you bring your past experience with you, but you’re still working with a blank slate. You haven’t made mistakes yet. You haven’t locked yourself into routines you don’t want. Nothing has gotten in the way of your best intentions for the year. A fresh start doesn’t guarantee a sense of possibility, but it sure opens the door to one.
If it’s not the beginning of the school year for you right now, there’s nothing to be done about that — but it’s worth remembering that the rhythm of the school year is full of mini fresh starts: coming back from a break or a long weekend, wrapping up a class project, finishing a unit. Each of these offers just enough of a pause, just enough of a restart, that you can use it to rev up your sense of possibility if you’re looking for one.
Rest was part of it.
A fresh start also implies you’ve had some chance to rest, which brings me to the last element.
When I think back to that day of cutting out palm trees, I don’t remember feeling tired.
The project required energy, but it required a kind of energy I actually had. If my energy had been spread too thin for some other reason, I wouldn’t have taken it on.
It would have felt like too heavy a lift.
Four Ways to Bring This Into Your Own Teaching
1. Find the finish line.
If a task in front of you feels overwhelming, look for some piece of it that’s bite-sized enough that you can see the end. Break it into smaller pieces, each with its own finish line. Ask yourself: at what point will I be able to go home with a sense of satisfaction?
Related to this — if you’re hauling a huge tote bag of unfinished work home every night, only to leave it by the front door and never touch it, it’s worth setting a goal to just stop bringing that bag home. This is especially true if you’re not actually working on it once you’re there. If nothing’s getting done at home, what is that tote bag doing besides getting in your head and making the day’s effort feel like it meant nothing?
2. Know what you’re signing up for.
Any time you say yes to something new—even if it’s your own idea—get clear on whether it’s a daily task you’re adding to your routine indefinitely, or a one-time project. And if it’s a one-time project, is it leveraged work? Is it effort up front that makes your future life easier or better?
Each of these have their place.
Not everything needs to be leveraged work. Sometimes a project is just a project. When it’s done, it’s done, and you can feel good about it even though it won’t save you work in the future.
And there are times you genuinely want to add something ongoing to your routine, like exercise.
But what you don’t want is to say yes in a moment of excitement and then realize you’ve signed on to endless maintenance long after that excitement has faded.
So say yes when it makes sense. As long as you’re clear on which one you’re saying yes to.
3. Use natural fresh starts as a launchpad.
When there’s a break in the school year, or you and your students finish something big, use it as a chance to reboot—whatever that means for you.
This doesn’t have to mean a huge overhaul. But if something in your classroom feels a little stale, this is your opening to say, “All right, we’re doing something new now.”
4. Protect your energy.
To the best of your ability, take care of your physical energy and mental bandwidth. It’s hard to stay excited about anything when you’re tired, hangry, or so overloaded that finishing everything on your plate feels impossible.
If you’d like more help making your teaching career and life feel more manageable, check out my courses in the Maintain and Stay Sane program.
But for now, I hope you found something in here that can help you get excited about teaching again.
You deserve it.