Christmas Eve, grading. And I did it to myself.
The Miss Cranky side of the She Can’t Pour From Empty energy has been working without a boundary in place. When you carry this energy, the people around you can start to treat your willpower and work ethic as though it’s an unlimited resource. You’re such a worker, and you love to work, and they expect it from you, and you can end up feeling exploited. Sometimes it happens because you never drew the boundary line for yourself.
In the last episode, I told you about the semester I took on an extra section’s worth of students because I never set a boundary on how many overrides I’d hand out. By the time that semester ended, I was completely wiped out, because I had totally overworked myself. It sucked. It was a fall semester, and I spent Christmas Eve day grading so I could get final grades submitted on time.
And here’s the part I didn’t tell you yet. I didn’t even get to rest once the semester was over. There was no real gap. I moved straight into prep for the next semester, because that’s just what you do, right? I never gave myself the time alone to recover from what that semester had taken out of me.
That’s the piece I’ve had to learn the hard way. Rest isn’t just about stopping work for a weekend. When this energy runs in you, you need real time alone to restore. Not as a luxury. As a non-negotiable requirement. When that time isn’t protected, your willingness to work, and your generosity with your time gets depleted, not just your energy.
As I said, I had to learn these lessons the hard way. When I was overextended that semester, I never had a free evening or weekend. I worked. Non-stop. And I did it to myself. Yikes.
Underneath all of it was the feeling of, “I work so hard for the people I care about. I just need them to see it. And I need to get my rest.”
Find your happy. Love what you do. Make a difference. Come back to me safely. See ya!
