Description: Remember me? It's your 21 for 2020–2021 list calling from episode 7! This week, Dr. Boogren challenges the #SelfCareSquad to do some reflecting, rethinking, and revising as we think about the new calendar year.
Resources:
1. Check out Gretchen Rubin's printable version of this week's initiative below.
2. Get a sneak peak of Dr. Boogren's 21 for 2021 below!
Listen Now:
The Self-Care for Educators team cares about the content-accessibility for all educators. If you have trouble accessing the audio for the podcast, the transcription has been provided below.
Transcription: Hi, and welcome to episode 27 of Self-Care for Educators. I am your host, Tina Boogren, and this week, we're going to revisit something that we've already talked about but with a slightly different lens. So, this week I want to dive back into the 21 for 2021 list idea. Way back at the start of the school year, I mentioned this and suggested that you play around with creating a list for the school year. And, some of you did that, and this would be a great time to check-in kind of getting close to the midway point of the school year—which, that just blows my mind if we can believe that—so, it's a good time to revisit that list.
Oftentimes we make the list, we get excited ... We put it away somewhere. We forget all about it. So, here's your friendly reminder to go back and pull that list out. If you haven't listened to that episode or you didn't do it, then I'm going to encourage you to consider revisiting this or maybe making a new list for the actual calendar year.
The idea behind this comes from Gretchen Rubin, and you all know I'm a huge fan of Gretchen Rubin, and here's what she says. So, she says, "Tired of making new year's resolutions? Looking for a new creative way to identify your aims for 2021? Then try making a 21 for 2021 list." The thinking here is that you list 21 things that you want to do by the end of the year. They can be easy or ambitious. They can be one-time undertakings, or they can be habits that you want to start that maybe stretch for a number of years. There's really no right or wrong way to do this. Just think about what you want and then jot it down.
You guys, I love making these lists. I love them so much. I created an 18 for 2018 list and 19 for 2019 list, a 20 for 20 list ... You get the idea. And, I'm already starting to think through my list for 2021. So, this episode is going to come out the week of December 28th. And, most of you have a little break, maybe a little bit of a little respite, for some quiet reflection time, maybe the 15 minutes that you're going to allow yourself to take today or at different times during this week ... It's going to be thinking about sitting down and tackling your list ...
I want so badly for you guys to do this and to share. I think there is nothing more fascinating than reading each other's lists and kind of getting a ... Gosh ... It's such a peek into people's souls, if you will. You can write down things that you want to do at school or professionally, you can have things that you want to do outside of school, things for yourself, things you want to do with your family ... Maybe you sit down, and you do this as a family. I love sharing this. So, I have three of my girlfriends that we all love to do this together and share with each other and kind of check in at different points. There's something just so great about saying your list out loud, or at least some of them, maybe some are personal ... So, share the ones that, that you feel comfortable sharing, but there's a little bit of accountability there and, just a way to support each other as we move into the new year. I love this. This is just so different to me than setting a New Year's resolution. Especially, because for so many of us use resolutions to set us up for feeling miserable when, when the resolution doesn't happen ... I don't know. What's the statistic where we're done with resolutions after just a few weeks. I don't know. It's terribly depressing. So, this feels very different than that.
This is the idea. It could be like 21 intentions. Something else to consider is choosing a word, a guiding word or phrase, or maybe even a guiding question that you want to think about for 2021. Again, a lot of you probably did this for the start of the school year and maybe check back in. Has that stayed in your mind or did it not maybe stick and you want to choose something else? You have the freedom to do that. Maybe you want to think about ... Gosh ... How do you want to feel this year, especially as we put a bow on 2020, which was a really, really, really hard year?
And you know, it's tough because we're going into ... It's not like January 1st, the whole world's going to turn back to its magical self. Once again, we know we're in for some long months and a good portion of 2021 is still going to be fairly challenging. What you might think about is how do you want to feel on the other side of this though as life starts to slowly but surely work itself back to how it looked maybe in 2019? How do we ... How do we want to show up on the other side of this? And, could we set some intentions or record some things on our list to help get us there?
Be careful when you make your list that it's not things that feel icky. I think there's something about ... Put some things that feel really good on there, things that you really look forward to ... Things that seem doable. Maybe you've got some big grand adventures in there, too, that you want to write down, too. I mean, really, there's no wrong way to do this. You guys, I've just found myself in the past because I've done this for a few years ... That I've written down, like, all that ... just crap stuff, to be honest, that I needed to get done. And, I just put it on my list, and that doesn't feel very good. Or, if you do do that, just have it for a couple of them, not all of them. Also, have some things you're going to look forward to, to treat yourself. Think back through ...
Okay, this is week 27, So many of you have been with me for the beginning of this podcast and you've engaged in 27different acts of self-care. What has stuck? What do you want to continue or maybe you want to revisit? Maybe ... I know quite a few of you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Those that have my books or have attended workshops with me and you've got a whole slew of things that you've thought about.
Maybe it's a 21 for 2021 self-care list. What are commitments that you're going to make for yourself, to consider how you can feel as good as you possibly can moving into this new year. I'm going to put a template for this into ... In fact, I'll give you Gretchen Rubin's template. We'll put that in the show notes, and then, oh my gosh, I would just love ... I think there's nothing more fascinating ... If you would just snap a picture, I think is probably the easiest, and share your list so we can share ideas with one another ... something super inspiring to read each others'. If you don't feel like sharing the whole thing, put your hand over the ones that are totally private and personal for you, but if there's some you'd be willing to share, oh gosh, how helpful that will be.
So, I cannot wait. I will share mine. I'm working on mine. I will share mine, too. I promise, and then ... And then, we can check in at various points with one another. If 21, by the way, p.s. feels like way too many, you guys break the rules. You do you. Maybe you want 10 things or, yeah, 10.5 things or make it work. There truly is no right or wrong way to do this. In fact, what I love is when people tell me all the creative ways that they're utilizing the list. Maybe ... I'm just thinking of this ... Maybe you want to write down 21 things that you cannot wait ... that you are looking forward to in 2021, like, I don't know, hugs, shopping without a mask ... Oh my God. Right? Not being worried about toilet paper ... Oh, my gosh. That's awesome, too. So, possibilities are endless. You guys are the creative ones. I cannot wait to hear or read what it is that you come up with. So go start your list!
As always, a huge thank you to Brooke for making this happen. Thank you, thank you, thank you Solution Tree and Marzano Resources for this job I get to do. And, as always, my goodness, you guys, this bad-ass Self-Care Squad. You are incredible. I am so grateful for you.