Description: Dr. Boogren reminds us that she's walking alongside us on this self-care journey.
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Transcription: Hi, and welcome to Self-Care for Educators. I'm your host, Tina Boogren. This is season four and episode 28, and this week's invitation is to focus on consistency. To focus on consistency. As, as you know, by now, I record these as a way to hold myself accountable, that what I'm inviting you to do is what I'm working on for that particular week. Again, I always like to remind folks that I am not standing at the top of some imaginary mountain having figured this all out and bestowing. You know, my wisdom upon you. Oh, no, no, no. I am very much walking beside you on this journey and working through the same challenges that you are. And, what I've really been focusing on is consistency.
I kind of feel like I'm at a place where I know what I need to do for my own self-care. Think back to last week's episode where we talked about the difference between self-care, self-comfort, and self-indulgence. That was in episode 27. And so I kind of, really feel like at this point I've got a pretty strong handle on what I need for my own self-care. Now, what I need to work on is keeping consistent with that. I went to kind of a wellness retreat last week that was incredible and one of my main takeaways was this idea of turning our motivation into consistency. That really hit me because, you know, there's that feeling that comes around for many of us on January 1st, right? Or, we decide Monday, you know, our famous, famous word starting Monday, we're going to do this. We're going to try this new thing. And, that motivation, ooh, it gets us going for a little while. And then, for all the reasons that, that I talked about and have talked about before, mainly around decision fatigue, that motivation can fizzle out pretty quickly. Or, it can be a slow fizzling out, but at some point, typically that motivation starts to go away.
And then, that's when we need to double down on consistency. It might be a little bit boring, but that's how we get the results that we want. Consistency, consistency. So, you know, I'm a self-proclaimed research nerd, and I always like to go look up what are the experts saying, right? What are some, what are some of the voices in the field saying? And, there's a, a couple of tips that, that I found that are going to be no surprise, but I'm going to say them again. In order to stay consistent, we need to plan ahead. You know, we need to prepare. We need to pause. So, think back to episode, what was that 26, two weeks ago where I talked about the power of the pause. So, that consistency might come after we pause and ask ourselves, okay, what do I really need in this moment.
I almost said want, but when we ask ourselves what we want will most often for me personally, end up revealing a response that is more related to self-comfort or self-indulgent. But, when I pause and say, what is it that I really need in this moment that can help me stay consistent, right? It can also be really helpful for us to be prepared for those kind of loopholes that show up or landmines or challenges with the, if then statement. So, if this happens, then I will do this, right? So, let's say that we are planning every single day after school, we're going to go for a walk around the track every single day. That's what we're going to do. And then, we know, okay, what, what could happen that might throw me off and, um, not allow me to stay consistent. Okay, what if it rains? Okay, so if it rains, then I'm going to walk the inside perimeter of the building instead, right? So, we set ourselves up for success by anticipating what could happen that could get in the way of our plan and then make a plan for that, right?
So, plan ahead, prepare, the power of the pause, Setting up if-then statements for ourselves, right? And then, really thinking about what our non negotiables are. You've heard me talk about this. I did a whole episode on our BAMs, our Bare Acceptable Minimums. I like to put a different A word in there that's only three letters, but I won't say it. Bare Acceptable or Bare mmm Minimums of what are those things that we are committed to that we're going to do and keep those small. Again, go back to the advice of James Clear in that 1 percent so that we can't not do them. So, for me, this is drinking that stupid water, right? Moving my body every single day. I have a non negotiable to stay consistent with my bedtime of what time I need to be in bed, right? When the phone needs to go down, when I need to pick up the book, all of those things, right?
So, really thinking about, what does consistency look like for you? How can you keep some consistency on the weekends? You guys, this was a huge A-Ha. My health coach was reminding me that you know, the weekend makes up almost a third of our week. And so, if we like keep consistent for five days, but then totally blow it for two of those days of the week, man, it's hard to see the results that we want, or to make that forward progress. And again, we have got to have time for self-comfort and self-indulgence, but oof, how can we stay consistent every day including the weekend? One of the things that we know in terms of our sleep hygiene is going to bed and waking up at the same time every day. I know, I hate it, too. I'm just reporting what the research says. This means Saturday and Sunday.
That the idea that we can get caught up on our sleep on the weekend actually doesn't really play itself out, and the best thing that we can do for ourselves is keep a consistent sleep and wake time, even on the weekends, even on the weekends. So, I want you to spend a little time thinking about what consistency means for you, how you might be able to turn your motivation into consistency. What might you need to do to plan ahead and to prepare? What are some if then statements that you can utilize to help keep consistent? I want you to think about if you feel different when you stay consistent, and my guess is like me you do. It's kind of boring and it can be hard in the moment to think about what we need rather than what we want. But, if we're chasing after some goals and some feelings and some intentions, consistency is going to be the key, without a doubt. Consistency. I'm cheering so hard for you, you guys. We've got this. We're doing it together.
As always, we love you, Brooke. We're so grateful for you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for doing all the behind the scenes work for this. Thank you to Solution Tree and Marzano Resources. I love my job. And to you, my bad-ass Self-Care Squad. Consistency. Consistency. Consistency. You've got this. Make it a great week.