Episode 124: How To Overcome The “Sunday Scaries”
The Private School Leader Podcast
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Show Notes
Has this ever happened to you?
- You’re having a nice weekend, hanging out with friends and family.
- You are getting some things done around the house and running some errands
- On Sunday (late afternoon, early evening) you start to feel weird, you feel off.
- Your stomach feels off, you feel a little anxious, stressed, maybe you have a headache, You might even feel irritable and restless.
Unfortunately, you have come down with a case of the “Sunday Scaries.”
According to a recent survey from LinkedIn, 66% of all employees regularly feel this way on Sunday evening. This is true even if they love their jobs!
On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, we are going to talk about How To Overcome The “Sunday Scaries”.
Thank you for listening to the podcast every week. You are making a difference in the lives of the students, teachers and parents at your school. I know that what you do is difficult, exhausting and lonely. Your hard work inspires me to keep making weekly content to try to encourage and inspire you as you serve your school.
Thanks for all you do,
Mark Minkus
Are any of these statements true about you?
- The "tyranny of the urgent" controls my day, and I start working on my important tasks when the school gets quiet.
- I feel discouraged, lonely, exhausted and stressed out. I'm not sure that my job is sustainable.
- My school invades every part of my professional and personal life.
- I want to have a long and happy and fulfilling career as a private school leader.
- I feel called to do this work, but I am not sure how long I can keep doing it if nothing changes.
I have felt that way many times during my career. That’s why I created the PSL Pro Membership
PSL Pro is a membership community that helps Private School Leaders go from feeling stressed out, discouraged and lonely to feeling energized, fulfilled and supported.
You will have access to a thriving community of school leaders who actually "get it" and "get you"! We will go live every month for a Masterclass, a Success Path Coaching Session, two "We Get It" Roundtable Sessions and a live Q&A about anything and everything related to Private School Leadership.
The PSL Pro Success Path is a Step by Step Plan to get you from where you are to where you want to be as a leader. Different Levels: The Overwhelmed Drifter, The Intentional Architect, all the way to The Fulfilled Mentor. After you choose your level, you will be guided, step-by-step, through the content in THRIVE Academy. This content, along with my guidance and the support of other leaders, will take you from where you are all the way to being The Fulfilled Mentor!
Learn more about how you can join the PSL Pro community by going to theprivateschoolleader.com/membership
Is it just me or are the parents at our schools getting more demanding and more intense, more often? That’s why I created Parent Academy! Now you have a step by step framework that will help you go from feeling stressed and anxious to feeling confident and calm. Over the last 33 years, I have built successful relationships with thousands of parents and I have packaged that knowledge into an online course. Not only that, but after I teach you, I am going to teach your teachers these strategies as well! Parent Academy contains two, 45-minute webinars that are Teacher PD’s with a printable notebook, guided notes and discussion questions. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parentacademy to learn more!
What is your biggest problem right now? I want to hear more about your biggest problem and I want to help you solve it.
Whether your problem is feeling guilty that your family gets what’s left of you at the end of the day, relentless parents, difficult teachers, a lack of boundaries between work and school, feeling overwhelmed, Imposter Syndrome, enrollment or teacher morale, I can help.
I would love to hear more about your biggest problem and I would love to be your coach. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1.
Being a private school leader is a VERY difficult job. You have to make hundreds of decisions every day, and you have to keep everyone safe, increase enrollment, keep the parents happy, keep the board happy, motivate the teachers, deal with student discipline, beat last year’s test scores and come in under budget.
That can lead to you feeling tired, discouraged and stressed out. I’ve been there. That’s why I created THRIVE Academy just for you. THRIVE Academy is a digital course that will help you get out of survival mode and get back to feeling energized at school. To learn more, go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/thrive
I am excited to share with you a new resource and I want to give this to you as a FREE GIFT to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. It is called The 7 Secrets To Improving Teacher Morale. As private school leaders, we are always looking for ways to improve teacher morale at our schools, but it is hard to know where to start. Well, now you have a step by step plan and you can grab it at theprivateschoolleader.com/morale
I want to give you a FREE gift called 7 Strategies To Effectively Deal With Difficult Teachers. Sometimes we need some courage and confidence to deal with difficult teachers. What you need is a plan! This guide is a step by step plan that you can use to help one of your difficult teachers improve their performance and improve their attitude. Go to theprivateschoolleader.com/difficult to grab this free guide!
I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide
I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week!
Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode124
Please write a review of this podcast and help the algorithm push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at [email protected] Thanks!!
I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!
I am excited to share a brand new resource with you. It is a 9 page pdf called: “How To Use Verbal Judo To Have Better Conversations With The Parents At Your School” What is “Verbal Judo”? "Verbal Judo" is a communication strategy that focuses on using words effectively to de-escalate conflict, resolve disputes, and achieve positive outcomes in various interpersonal interactions, particularly in high-pressure situations.
George Thompson and Jerry Jenkins wrote a book called Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art Of Persuasion. So, I have taken several important strategies from the book and applied them to your life as a private school leader. Grab your free copy of “How To Use Verbal Judo To Have Better Conversations With The Parents At Your School” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/judo
TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome to the Private School Leader podcast where private school leaders learn how to thrive and not just survive as they serve and lead their schools. • • I strongly believe that it is possible to have a long and happy and fulfilling career as a private school leader. And my passion is to help you figure out exactly how to do just that right here on the Private School Year podcast. And I'm your host, Mark Mus. • • • So, um, I'm wondering if this has ever happened to you. • • • You're having a nice weekend, you're hanging out with your family, maybe see a couple of friends, • • • • and you're getting some things done around the house, you're running some errands, maybe one of your kids has a sports, • • um, um, commitment. And you know, you're just having a nice weekend. • • And then it's Sunday afternoon, it's, you know, it's late afternoon, it's early evening, and you kind of start to feel weird. You feel a little off, your stomach feels kind of weird. You're starting to feel a little bit anxious, a little stressed. • • • Maybe you're getting a headache, maybe you're a little more irritable, maybe you're just kind of restless • • and you're, you're not really sure what's going on with you. And so I wonder if that's ever happened to you on a Sunday afternoon, • • late afternoon, early evening. Well, • • if that's the case, • • • then you have the Sunday Scaris • • • • and the Sunday Scaries we're go goingna talk about on today's episode. • I just want you to know that this is something that's really common across all industries. • • There were some recent LinkedIn surveys. There was one in 2018, • • • • um, um, and another one more recently • • • • that said that across all industries • • • • employees • • • report that 66% of all employees regularly, • • um, deal with the Sunday scaries. • • And that 80% report that at some point in the past that they've felt these symptoms on a Sunday evening. • • • And so I said that it happens across all industries, but I actually think it can be extra tough • • for private school leaders and I'll explain why in a little bit. So this is something that a lot of us deal with. I know certainly I deal with it. And u, um, most Sunday nights over the course of my career and especially true if I'm coming back from a break. And so we want to make this better. And so on today's episode of the PrivateAller podcast, we are re going to talk about how to overcome the Sunday Scaris. • • • •
PSL Pro is a membership community that helps private school leaders
So I want to ask you if any of these statements are true about You. So I'm going to ask you. I'm. I'm going toa name some things. I'm go going toa make some statements and I want you to think, you know, that's describing me. Okay. First of all, • um, • the tyranny of the urgent controls my day. And I start working on my important tasks when the school gets quiet. • • So when the kids and the teachers leave, • you start working on your important tasks. Okay. Number two, • • • I feel. • • Sometimes I feel discouraged or lonely or exhausted or stressed out and I'm just not sure that my job is sustainable. • • • • I'm wondering if