Teacher Burnout Alert: When Sunk Cost Fallacy Keeps You Stuck

 Welcome back, teacher, friends. I'm recording this during summer when we have a little bit more time, a little bit more space to be thoughtful and move forward with kind of clarity, intention, question. What have we been doing? What have we been doing? We know that when the school year is going, the momentum is so crazy, right?

It's like being on a treadmill that's That's too fast. It's really hard to stop and slow down. You just gotta keep running and running and running to keep up with it, right? But during summer when we've slowed down, or maybe we've even turned off that treadmill and we take a step back and we look at it and we ask ourselves, I.

What the heck was I doing right? Why was I doing that? Okay, so now is a good time to reflect. If you listened to the episode a few weeks ago that I did at the beginning of summer where I encouraged you to go through this process of thinking of next year and looking at your practice of how you show up on campus in the classroom, how you show up in your life, really.

I end applying this concept of stop, start, continue, and I find a lot of people have a problem with this first part. What can I stop doing? I couldn't possibly stop doing that. I've spent so much time, energy, expense, blah, blah, blah. I can't give that up, that my friends. Called the sunk cost fallacy. And in this episode, I'm gonna step into what I consider to be my little zone of expertise, which is taking its psychological life coaching principles such as the sunk cost fallacy and showing you how that really applies through a lens of education.

What are you doing in your classroom on your campus? So we're gonna look at it through that lens, and then we are gonna start step out. As it is summer, and hopefully you are trying to gain some clarity on other areas of your life too. Where is this sunk cost fallacy keeping you stuck? Okay, so I challenge you, even though at first glance you might think you know that this doesn't apply to me.

I'm gonna give you a good bunch of examples in education where it could be applying to you. And then like I said, let's step outside and look at your life in general. There could be a couple of areas where it's. Creeping up for you too. I know it's been a huge issue for me. It is still an ongoing process for me.

I struggle sometimes with how much to share on this podcast. It's not my, you know, personal journal, but I do find that examples are helpful to people. So we'll see what I come up with. Gonna follow my heart here, but I look forward to seeing you on the inside. And again, I promise something in here. We'll deeply resonate with you and you'll be glad that you listen.

Welcome to the Teacher Self-Care and Life Balance podcast, where we focus all things personal development to help teachers feel empowered to thrive inside and outside of the classroom. If you are passionate about education, but tired of it taking over your whole life, you have found your new home in the podcast universe, you'll love it here.

I'm Grace Stevens, your host, and let's get going with today's show. All right. Before we get started, there is something I need to mention. Oh my goodness. I literally just figured this out today. I was looking, I was playing around with a podcast player. I don't know what I was doing. I was looking at how many episodes we're at or something, and I was looking at it on my phone instead of on my computer, and it is kind of like a different setup.

And then I saw this thing that said. Messages. Messages. What the heck is that? I didn't know people could leave me messages on Buzzsprout, which is, you know, where I record this. So let me tell you, oh my word. If you've left me a message, I. I am so sorry. I didn't know that that was an option. That's not something I look at.

So first off, oh, there was one message on there in particular de de if you are listening, I am so, so sorry. I have actually fixed what you asked me to fix, but I don't want you to think I just was. You know, ignoring your heartfelt message, there's why I'm so sorry. So that's number one. But please, let me tell you, do not leave a message on Buzzsprout.

I don't see it. It's not something I check. Like it was really hidden there and there were a few there. So the best thing, if you need me for anything, question, comment, something, just email me. I'm, listen, I'm not that busy. It is not like, whoa. I'm got a big presence that I can't keep up with my emails.

Okay? So my email is grace@gracestevens.com. I promise you it's me and I will answer you. Okay, so let's get that out the way. Don't be leaving messages on here because I feel terrible if people thought I was ignoring them. Okay, back to today's topic, which is the S san. Cast fallacy. Now, first I'm gonna nerd out and tell you specifically what that is.

I'm gonna give you the definition, but after that I'm gonna give you a metaphor and I think that's gonna resonate with you more. And then we are gonna do a deep dive into how does this show up in the classroom and in education. And I'm gonna tell you at least six, seven ways that it might be holding you back there.

And then a couple of other more sneaky ways that it might be showing up. Alright, so a sunk cost fallacy is the tendency to continue investing time, money, effort, or, or something else because of previously invested resources, right? Rather than making the decision based on future costs and benefits. Okay.

Like, I've invested so much in this thing, I can't give it up. Even though sometimes you hear that impression, right? Throwing good money after bad, right? It's that mentality we sometimes we stick with. They're not poor choices at the time. Maybe those choices really were great for us, but they don't fit our life, our budget, or wherever else right now.

And we are holding onto them because of our past investment. Okay. That is the sunk cost fallacy. We have put so much into this thing, we don't wanna let it go. We don't want it to feel wasted. Now, I will be honest with you, the reason I've been thinking about this more and more is my whole business. I've got to tell you that I started this business 16 years ago, and there was a reason I started it.

And to be honest, that reason was. I had things financially I needed to take care of with my kids and, you know, I'm not in that situation anymore and I often have to question, especially the last three years since I stepped out the classroom full time, I have worked at all areas of this business. More hours than I was working teaching.

And that's not really what I find terribly fulfilling anymore. So I still commit to reaching out and giving free content in terms of this podcast. But there are other things that I have been doing a lot of in my business in the last three years that I am starting to let go of because. Just, and it, it is hard for me.

Okay. It is hard to say, but I spur so much energy and so much time and so much love and so much learning. Oh my gosh. All the courses I've taken, not just in, you know, I've never lost anything that I've invested in. Learning, you know, neurolinguistic programming, life coaching, you know, all of those skills.

That's never lost. I did all that for me, how to set better boundaries, cognitive behavior therapy. I learned those things for me. Okay. I happened to share them, but the learning that I had to do with the how to self-publish books, how to set up courses, how to sell courses, how to have a presence on social media, how to record.

Promote a podcast, and it turns out lots of those things, in particularly the marketing and the social media sound side, do not give anything to my life in a positive way. Right. They really detract from my enjoyment of life, and I've had to ask myself if I've stepped away from those things, even though it feels wasteful.

Oh my gosh, I spent so much time and energy building that, that, you know, that base of followers or whatever. You know, it would leave space in my life for other things that I am passionate about. Now, don't hear me say I'm not passionate about helping teachers. I'm absolutely passionate about TE helping teachers, but at this point I'm really passionate about helping teachers who somehow find their way to me.

Because what I say resonates, or they were referred by somebody, or you know, they were just blindly doing a Google search for how to stop overwhelm or how to, you know, be more positive as a teacher and found my resources. I'm willing to take the hit and let teachers find me because that leaves space in.

For other things in my life. Okay. In the original, I, again, it's, it's something I've struggled with a lot because you don't wanna feel like a failure. I joke with my family, you know, every day I say, well, wouldn't it be better to feel like a failure once and say like, I'm given a lot of this up than to just like have this drudgery kind of every day.

That there are things that I don't wanna do, particularly on the marketing and promoting side that just don't like me up anymore. So I had that career once, many, many decades ago, and I gave it up 'cause I didn't like it. So why have I put myself back in this box now? All right. So that's way more personal than I thought I was gonna get.

But anyway, so good news. I'm still passionate about helping teachers. And I'm still committed to producing a, a new podcast episode every two weeks. So that's great. And if you do wanna help me out, hey, tell somebody about my books or the podcast, that would really help. All right, so let me tell you, let me give you an analogy because probably a lot of you don't run a business a side hustle as it were.

But picture this for a minute. Picture your life like a garden, right? A beautiful, I always like to think of a lovely British, oh country garden. Really just so beautiful. But every commitment or every relationship or hobby or goal that you maintain, it takes up space right in this garden. And just like the plants who are competing for sunlight.

Water and nutrients. You know, some of them are flourishing and bringing you joy and growth, right? But others, others like they suddenly they can turn into the equivalent of weeds, right? They're still alive, they're taking up precious real estate, but they're really. Offering nothing in return except the illusion that a full garden is automatically a thriving one.

Right? We, we really live in this culture here that celebrates accumulation, right? More friends, more skill, more experiences, more commitments, you know, more qualifications, more letters after our name, right? So it is just looking at this sunk cost fallacy and looking at creating space in your life. It's really.

Understanding that maybe the secret to a richer life isn't keep adding things on, it's maybe strategically taking things away. Right? And the things that we wanna look at taking away are the things that we clinging to out of habit, or guilt or misplaced loyalty. Right. They're actually crowding out, you know, relationships, pursuits, opportunities, new ideas for, you know, lessons and curriculum that could energize us and energize our classrooms and our lives, right?

So again, today what we are talking about, it's a very powerful psychological trap that keeps us stuck with this overcrowded garden, right? The scot fallacy. It's that voice in your head that said. I've invested too much to quit now, right? When maybe quitting is the smartest thing you can do. For me, it's always like the next book, right?

It's the next book or the next episode or the next whatever is the thing that will take off, and I will find people and, you know, get the, the rewards, at least the financial rewards. For all of these years I've been doing this work. Now I have to find. For myself, peace with the fact that the rewards aren't necessarily financial at this point, and I'm okay with that.

Okay. But I'm inviting you to ke to start thinking about, and we're gonna talk about some areas here, but what is keeping, you know, maybe this sunk cost fallacy is what's teaching, keeping you in a toxic school because of your years of service? Or maybe it's keeping friends in relationships that. Don't maybe serve them anymore.

That's a very difficult thing to have to come to terms with, right? That may be some of your relationships that were based, friendships that were based on shared history. Maybe if you met that friend now, 30 years later, 20 years later, you would realize, oh, I don't really have the same values. Or lifestyle as that person.

I wouldn't be friends with them now, right? But we stay in these relationships, or sometimes we stay in hobbies and we just kind of grind through something that we really don't care anymore about. But just because, oh my word, we spent so much money on that equipment, right? We don't want our spouses to be true, right?

About the fact that you're never gonna use that. Okay? So here's what that voice doesn't tell you. Every hour you spend watering dead plants is an hour that you are not nurturing other things in that garden that could bloom. Every bit of energy you pour into commitments that no longer serves you is energy stolen from pursuits that could really transform you.

Okay, so that's what you understand. You understand the energy and time is finite, right? That's a lot of time I spend coaching people into ditching duties that they. Don't, like I always talk about the tale of two duties, right? There's the one duty that fills you up and that you love and you know, you don't even.

Realize how much time you spend doing it. For me, that was always putting on our digital star lab putting on an astronomy night, science fair. All those things lit me up and I love working with students with that, and I spent so many hours. Weeks of my life doing those unpaid, who cares? I loved it.

Like that was the perfect adjunct duty for me. And yet another duty I had, I would call an ice picker, right? I would rather stick an ice pick in my eye than sit another hour on that stupid wellness committee safety committee, curriculum committee, where we're unpacking the standards, like stuff that, you know, doesn't involve me hanging out with kids after school, even if.

The physical amount of time that I spent on it was maybe only an hour a month. Like the emotional kind of dragging it around, dreading it, and to be honest, complaining about it, took up way more than that. Okay. So that's a lot of the coaching I do, right. Is, is kind of when, when we're gonna stop doing things that really drain us.

Okay? But I do wanna say that I, you know, I've studied a lot of successful people in a lot of different areas, and the most fulfilled people. Really understand something counterintuitive, right? That sometimes the bravest thing you can do is walk away, you know, is known when to cut your losses, right?

Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is create space for next, what's next By releasing. You know what's already run its course. Okay. So let's talk about how it might show up specifically for teachers. You ready? So here's how I see that. It shows up inside the classroom. Okay? The first thing is, I'm gonna call it the perfect lesson plan trap.

Maybe you have a whole unit now. I teach in California and I taught fourth grade. So that's kind of what's clear in my mind. Oh my gosh. That unit on the gold rush, the unit on the gold rush, that years putting together and I picked up a lot of it from another teacher who had spent years putting it together, these game simulations that were not.

Nothing to do with. Well, yeah, if you're really old enough, let's take a trip down memory lane. When playing the Oregon trail on the computer was really a thrill, right? But I'm talking about this game with like team building and other things that you did inside the classroom that had nothing to do with technology, but that unit that just got dragged out and went from, you know, days to weeks to taking so long and being.

Quite honestly a little bit more difficult to manage inside classrooms with kids who seem to have shorter attention span these days. For all kinds of reasons. It was just causing more headaches and it was taking a long time and it was meaning I was having to rush through other things and at the end of the day, maybe.

Maybe it was something I need to let go, even though Yes. Oh my gosh. I had the costumes, I had all the, the handouts. Like I said, these games, ugh, everything. All right. But you, maybe you have something that you do that you've just spent so many years perfecting. Is it time to, if not let it go, maybe scale it down.

Okay. So there's with curriculum. Okay, so that's one area that I see it, right? That we've just, oh, but we've always done our oceans unit this way. Okay. All right. So the second area I see it showing up is staying in school environments. Okay. After years of building relationships and, you know, classroom system, the accumulating tenure, that's like the biggest thing.

Teachers often stay in schools that, you know, have poor administration, lack of resources, or just like this really, you know, hostile kind of hustle work culture. It's hard to let that go and think, you know, I've spent years invested in this community and I'm gonna have to start from scratch somewhere else.

Now I was in this position, I was in a school that I did love for the very most part. For all of the 16 years I was there. I. And, you know, sometimes there were some bad situations and you figured out, you know, if it's just one admin, you can be like, eh, I can probably outlive them. Right? They might move on.

But when the whole kind of system starts to feel not good I used to liken it to be like, I felt like I was. Playing the violin on the Titanic. And then something really awful happened to my teaching bestie. She was targeted, she was removed. It was very unfair. It was actually very discriminatory.

I just found that was the perfect time to me to let it go, and I never regretted that choice. But sometimes, you know, there's a difference between a tough year, right? Everybody has a tough year and a tough class and a tough admin. But sometimes there's a tough school I. Or a tough district. And if you really think that your values, that's what causes the most stress, isn't it?

When your values don't align, then sometimes you have to cut your loss. No matter how many, you know, years you've climbed up the scale with them. And then as it. Turned out, you know, and I looked at neighboring districts and I was, you know, you have this thing, a lot of public schools, you get so many years of tenure, right?

And so I had 16 years of tenure and other school districts, it had been like, we only give you credit for 10 years. So you would go down the pay scale, right? The step in the steps pale scale, but it turned out that this school district was really motivated that year to hire, and they did gimme all 16 years.

But even if I had gone back to the 10 years that they usually gave people, it was actually more pay that I was making at that school district. So you never know. You know that that whole, it's worth looking into. The whole tenure piece. Okay. All right, so one is the curriculum trap, right? Two is staying in toxic school environments.

Where is the sunken cost fallacy may be holding you back here. This one is desperately painful for me to articulate out loud, but this is something I had to really come to terms with. And it, it can be our overcommitment to struggling students, right? Not all struggling students, but like sometimes you can pour extra time, energy, personal resources into students who aren't making progress and.

They don't really care about their progress and I hate to say neither do their parents. I have been in that situation before where I have bent over backwards and spent so much time, so much energy, so much yeah, of my just, I. To the detriment of ignoring other students, I really think to helping one particular student move forward.

And they had no support systems at home and no motivation of their own. And I tried to get them what they needed in terms of additional services, whatever, and there was no interest from those parents and. You can't care more than everybody else in their life. And I know I'm gonna get some pushback on that because, you know, that really was, as with many teachers, I am not ashamed to say that there are times I had a savior complex, like I'm the one who's gonna save this kid.

Like, this kid has no one. It has to be me. Where the reality was this kid had plenty of people in their life. They didn't lack for anything. Really as far as they were loved and they, you know, they were, you know, well dressed, well, cared for their physical needs and, but, you know, nobody was really that interested and you can't care more than everybody care cares.

And so, but it was like, I've spent so much time and so much energy and so much of myself now, you know, that's one example, but there have been. Tens of examples of kids I invested so much into and it really did make a difference for them. Okay. And that is why I was a teacher, right? That's the stuff that keeps you going.

But investing in a kid, I. Who isn't interested, or for whatever reason their support system and people around them really could not care less. It it gets in the way of you helping the kids where you could make a difference. I guess that's what I'm having to say, right? That's what I'm trying to say. So really look at, is it your.

Are you being stubborn? Is it your kind of sunk cost fallacy that's making you over committed to certain students, to the detriment of others who could really thrive with some more of your attention? Okay. And that is a deeply painful balance that you have to walk. It, it, it's different for everybody.

It's different every year and it does come from experience, but it is part of this same syndrome. Okay, so. Again, we're talking about where our investments we've made keeping us stuck in things. It would be better to let go of, could be your, you know, some unit of study you have. It could be if you're an administrator.

No, but we put so much into character counts. Has it changed the school culture or do you just have the posters in the gym that are like half hanging down? 'cause of all the basketballs that have hit them? Right, but those posters cost a lot of money. Right. So it's not just your curriculum. It is, it seems like, you know, there are all of these programs that get thrown onto us and you know, sometimes it's time to let them go.

Right. Are you staying in a toxic school or district environment? Are you overcommitting to certain students to the detriment of others? What about. Your curriculum or your technology? Oh, oh, no. I spent so much time like getting my Google qualification or becoming certified to teach read naturally or all of these things and there might be better, simpler, more effective things, but we are holding onto them because, but I've, but I've taught.

But I've done that unit 12 years in a row. Really? Okay. Well the world isn't the same as it was 12 years ago, so maybe just, you know, look about that. What about overinvesting in your kind of teacher identity? Now? I know I've had, I know I've had a lot of episodes about that. You so invested as your identity as a teacher, you know, and this teacher who is the best, the superhero.

You stay late, you work weekends. You go above and beyond and you can't scale back at all without feeling you are failing. I. Even though it's destroying your wellbeing. So is that, you know, the sunk cost acy, like would all of those weekends mattered if I stopped going in now? Yeah, they would've. But maybe it's time to let go.

Okay. And then the last one I see as far as really. In school, I'm gonna talk about this professional development rabbit hole, right? Teachers who are accumulating certifications, like run into workshops, additional trainings, and then you're feeling obligated to implement everything you've learned, right?

You are, oh, just you're creating more work for yourself because you're like, but I spent the time and the money learning this. I should be implementing it. Do you have the bandwidth to implement it? Right? Just because you spent the time and money over summer, 'cause someone talked you into it thinking that, you know, learning how the flipped classroom or, oh my gosh, this one, oh oh, this is gonna hit some triggers here.

The flexible seating I. You've been hitting up every yard sale. Every estate sale. You've spent hundreds and hundreds of your own dollars, if not more. I know some people who have in getting all this flexible seating inside their classroom and for whatever reason, it's just not working. It is just not working, and you do not want to have to go back now and ask your maintenance manager to get desks out of.

Storage. Right? And now what are you gonna do with all that furniture? Well sell it to some other sucker teacher or have your own yard sale. Right? I see a lot of teachers getting stuck with that. They're figuring out, that did not work for me and my environment, but I invested so much in it. All right, so these are.

All examples of the sunken cost fallacy. What else? Right. I can, I can give you some more examples for teaching. And this one is a big one, advanced degree in certifications. I have seen people caught up in master's programs and PhD programs and they just. You know, they're miserable. I always chose, to be honest, not to get a master's degree.

I have way more units than I would've needed to have taken to get a Master's degree. But to be honest, I went and got units that I was interested in learning for myself and that I thought could immediately benefit the classroom. And when I had to ask myself, why would I want those, that master's, well, you know, there was a thousand dollars a year stipend.

If you had a master's degree, but let's be honest, it'll cost you 15 or $20,000 to get it, to get that master's degree. Do I really wanna be here another 10, 15 years just to pay off the actual financial cost of that degree let alone the emotional cost and what else it, it took me stress wise. So I think that there are some people who are miserable, but say, I didn't spend all that time or money getting those degrees just to leave education, but.

You know, maybe if this really is where you're sitting, I'm gonna encourage you to go back and listen to episode 93, where I really talked about how transferable a lot of the skills are that you have in teaching. If it's really in your heart to leave for a while or maybe forever your skills are transferrable.

You know, no learning was ever wasted. We're teachers. We know that. I always just tell the kids, Hey, what something someone no one can ever take away from you, your education. So learning isn't wasted. Just, you know, you can apply it somewhere else. Okay, I see. The same thing with geographic locations.

Limitations. People don't want to move on because they feel they've built a reputation in a particular school or a particular area. Okay. So all of these things, okay. Can keep you stuck. And again, because you feel I've invested so much in this, I don't wanna give it up. I'm asking you, has this become a weed in your garden?

Right? Given that there is a competition for resources, time, energy, and passion. Okay? Is this draining you? Stopping the sunlight and the water, getting to things that could be more beautiful in your garden. Right. Okay. So that's in education. Now I am gonna, just a couple of little things outside of education as we do have time now in summer to think about things.

And one thing I see a lot where the sunk cost fallacy comes in especially when I'm life coaching. I see it comes in relationships. Okay. I'm not here to give any, you know, marriage counseling. I'm not, you know, practicing being a therapist without a license. You know, I don't play a therapist on the internet or, or on a podcast.

But even looking at my own relationships and friendships in the past, you know, what's holding you in it? What is holding you in it? Again, if you met that person again today and you know that your values, do you have that friend who there's hardly anything you can talk about anymore, you need to keep it superficial or talk about sports or about I don't even know what reality TV that you hardly watch just because so many topics are triggering for them.

Or you have such different views on politics, religions, values, whatever, that you just kind of, it's not really a deep friendship anymore, but you've just, we've been friends since college, or we've been friends since grade school. Right. We've been through so much together. Right. She, she knows all about my childhood when I lost a parent and she was there for me, and that might be the case.

But there could be other friendships out there that feel better, that are a better fit for you this time in your life, and you shouldn't be afraid of pursuing them. And you shouldn't be afraid of gently creating space in your life and moving away from other friendships. It's a very difficult thing to navigate.

You know, there is no real, kind of procedure or closing ritual that you have around a friendship you don't typically tell a friend. You're breaking up with them. It's not like your boyfriend or, or leaving your spouse. It kind of like is this kind of withering away? It's this kind of just neglect and then subtle ignoring of messages or taking longer to get back to something.

And it's not a particular mature way to do things. But I do find in our culture there isn't a terrible. A terribly like really transparent way to break up with a friend. Maybe you just kind of like give yourself some distance and put it on pause and see, you know, if that friendship is something you miss and you really wanna take up again.

But it does bear thinking about, okay, I find a lot of people stay stuck in relationships because they've invested so much. And you know, everybody has a high emotion a high maintenance friend, right? Everybody has one of those. You invest a lot of emotional energy in them. They're, you know, traumatic, demanding, or my way or the highway, right?

You find yourself. Kind of just always conceding to doing whatever they want. Maybe that isn't the best friendship for you anymore, right? The same with social circle investments, right? When you have a whole group of connected friends or show social c circles, parties you've attended, maybe I find this a lot when, you know, maybe you kids were involved in a particular sport and you all hang out together 'cause you were all the hockey moms or the soccer moms, and then now the kids have grown and moved on and you don't, you know, outside of hockey and.

Soccer, maybe you don't wanna have a lot in common with those people. Right? Is the sunken cost fallacy keeping you in it? Okay. And then. A couple of other sneaky areas I find comes up with people with hobbies. Okay. You've invested so much in learning the skills. Maybe you hate golfing, but you bought the clubs, everything.

You know, for all these years, you friends and your kids have been buying you the gear and the mugs with the sayings and the, you know, right. Suddenly your whole life. It's kind of like being a teacher, right? Everything says, you know, has some kind of teacher slogan on it. Maybe you have that around something else, and you're not that passionate about anymore.

You can change your mind. You can have new hobbies. You can decide that maybe you're not into photography as you always thought you would be. You know, you spent that $3,000 on a camera a long time ago, but guess what? Now the iPhone takes just as good as pictures. You don't need to be carrying that tripod and lighting around with you anymore.

Your iPhone can do it Good enough. Okay. It's okay. Right. Maybe you don't wanna keep dragging that piano around every time you're looking to move. And I just had this conversation with a friend the other day. Do you think your mom would ever sell her house? Oh, I don't know. She wouldn't go anywhere without her piano.

The woman is in her late eighties. Does she still play it? I mean, I mean, if it's just something that gives you joy and peace, yes. But if it's something that you're like, well, I've had it all these years, or it belonged to grandma, sometimes we gotta let it go. All right. And then this time, investment paralysis.

Now I, this is something, okay, you can laugh at me because even at my age, I still find this very hard to do. This is a pretty recent development. That I will stop reading a book I'm not enjoying or I will, I'll stop binging something with my partner and like I lose interest in it. Like I don't, I don't care.

There's another five episodes I've watched three and I don't actually like it, but yeah, we already invested in the first three. We've got Finish it. No, you can finish it. I'll find something else to do. Okay. You don't have to stay. With books video games. Oh my gosh, I got a finished Zelda, you know, I've put hours into this.

Right. Or TV series. Or book series. You know, listen, I'm rewatching lost. I loved Lost when it first came out 20 years ago. Can you believe it is like the 20 year anniversary? And the first season I really like, knew everything that was going on, but like, I'm, I'm falling some other seasons, like, was I not paying attention?

Was I half falling asleep? Like, this is all new information to me, but I know at a certain point I started not liking it. And I'm trying to challenge myself that if I pay attention this time maybe I'll get through all six seasons, but you know, if I'm not, right now I'm in season three. If, if I'm not, I'm gonna be okay with calling it quits.

And again. Very recent development for me. But that is really this sunk cost fallacy. Like, well, I invested this much time in it. I should finish it. No, not if you're not enjoying it, why would you? Alright. Okay, so that's it. I went through a lot of things. I want you to take some. Some time and think about, especially when we look back at episode 95, right?

Our summer reset, where we're gonna stop, start, continue. Are there some things you can let go? Are you stubbornly holding onto them only because it's something you've always done and you've invested so much time in your curriculum. You know, your tenure, your overcommitment to certain students, right? Your technology or your.

Professional development, you know, your degrees, all these things, are you holding on to people, to systems? That are choking up and weeding up that garden that if you let them go, you could find more space for beautiful things in your life. There is one other area and it's a deep area, and that is, I'm gonna refer you to episode 88.

If this kind of resonates with you, what stories are you holding onto? Stories about yourself, stories about your life, stories about education. What stories are you holding onto that are really holding you back? Right? Tell yourself a more empowering story. Right. That was this whole idea of limiting beliefs, and we've talked about it in a couple of episodes, but right around episode 88, there was a few episodes about changing the story, looking at limiting beliefs because there was a big section of that inside my empowered Teacher Toolkit book that we'll be discussing around those episodes.

Okay. So, you know, I want you to really think about that and just ask yourself your question, this question. It's a deep question. You ready? Who would you be if you let that story go? Who could you be if you let that story go, and who are you gonna be if you hold onto that story? I. So if that kind of punched you in the gut, hey, sorry about that.

But you know, it bears looking into, so that's some deep work. But on the surface, maybe this was just helpful for you to know to go finally, you know, throw away half of the Gold Rush unit for the oceans unit. All right? But I wanna encourage you, your master's degree, it isn't a prison sentence. It doesn't need to keep you where you don't wanna be.

Don't stay miserable for your pension and your tenure, okay? You're never gonna regret things that you learn. Okay? But sometimes we need to let them go. Okay? All right. The sunk cost trap, right? Why smart teachers stay stuck. Now you're smarter, you know how to break through, or at least to give some some idea as to things you could make break through from.

I hope that again, summer is the perfect time for you to really contemplate and think about things now that we're not going so, so busy on our treadmill over the next few episodes, as we start to think, I'm sorry. I hate to even say as we start to think to go back to school, but because I only do these episodes every two weeks, you know, pretty soon we'll be approaching August.

It seems like teachers are going back sooner and sooner, so I'll be. Diving into some more tactical things, setting up. A boundary plan before you go back to school. Some things you need to get set in place to make sure that the school is, you know, as manageable as possible in the upcoming year. Okay.

But in the meantime, know that I Thank you so much for listening. Hey, listen. I, I wasn't, oh, wow. That was dramatic. My cat knocked over their bench. Sorry about that. Very loud. As I was about to say. I, I really not kind of. Planned on making this big announcement that I was cutting back a lot in my business.

I'm not leaving the podcast hanging. Don't worry about that. But if you feel inclined to do me a favor and to support me in a way that feels good to me, which is word of mouth again, I'm getting off the promotion train. I'm sure you probably heard an ad for a course. I, i'm offering somewhere around this podcast, but you know, that's a service I'm serving, not selling.

I like to think in these circumstances, if you like this content, you probably want more so, but if you wanna tell a friend or an administrator, that would be groovy. I would appreciate it. And in either event, remember you are a rock star. You can create your own path and bring your own sunshine, and I will see you next time.