The Principal's Handbook

Embracing Hobbies as Self-Care for Principals
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In today's episode. I want to talk about how you can embrace hobbies as self-care that's all coming up next, right here on the principals handbook. Stay tuned
Welcome to the Principal's Handbook, your go to resource for principals looking to revamp their leadership approach and prioritize self care. I'm Barb Flowers, a certified life coach with eight years of experience as an elementary principal. Tune in each week as we delve into strategies for boosting mental resilience, managing time effectively, and nurturing overall wellness.
From tackling daily challenges to maintaining a healthy work life balance, I'm Barb Flowers. We'll navigate the complexities of school leadership together. Join me in fostering your sense of purpose as a principal and reigniting your passion for the job. Welcome to a podcast where your wellbeing is the top priority. Welcome back to the podcast today. We are going to be talking about embracing hobbies as a form of self-care. And I think the hobbies are really an underutilized form of self care because when we think of self care, it's typically [00:01:00] fitness, nutrition, relaxing, but hobbies are great self-care and some hobbies are not relaxing necessarily.
It depends on what your hobby is. And many educators find that education is their hobby. I know a lot of educators that are so passionate that they're fun is things related to education. And that's awesome. We're passionate about our career choice. We're passionate about serving others, but when that happens, it really blurs the line between professional dedication and personal enjoyment. And that's a great thing, but we need a boundary.
We need a boundary to reduce stress, to prevent burnout. , and it's important to have things we love to do for fun that are just strictly for enjoyment. It's not about work. It's not about necessarily serving others. It's just because we enjoy doing it. So I want to talk about why we have hobbies and why they're so important first. We have hobbies because it brings anticipation and enjoyment.
It's something [00:02:00] that we can look forward to doing, and it offers us a break from daily routines and responsibilities. Now your hobby might be a routine. So for example, for me, one of my hobbies is exercise. I love to exercise. And so I exercise every day as a routine. But there are different things that I do that are not routine that are exercise.
Like I might go for a bike ride with my kids or a friend. And those are things that I just enjoy and it's not having to do with, because I'm getting physically fit. It's just because I like being in nature. I like being on the bike path and it's enjoyable. Also hobbies, bring us excitement and engagement.
Hobbies can be genuinely exciting. And depending on what it is, it can spark creativity for us. It can allow us to explore new interests outside of things we do at work. So depending on what that hobby is, maybe it's an artistic hobby. Also, it can help with stress relief and relaxation, depending on the hobbies.
So they can be a therapeutic outlet for stress relief. They [00:03:00] can help you reduce anxiety. They can promote relaxation after a busy day, again, depending on what your hobby is. And then also it can bring personal growth and development because pursuing hobbies and things that you enjoy, it's usually challenging us to learn new skills.
It helps build our confidence and just broadens our perspectives beyond what we do in education. So for example, in this area, when I got into running, I learned a lot. About nutrition. I learned a lot about how to get faster at running and as I reached goals, it built my confidence.
So depending on what those hobbies are, it can really help you grow personally and just develop some new skills. So I want you to reflect here for a minute and think about what hobbies do you love and currently do. What hobbies do you love and no longer participate in.
And why is that? What hobbies do you wish you had. So, I know you might be driving, you might be walking, but this is a great prompt to just take some time to go back [00:04:00] and think about, or even pause and just think about it mentally and not necessarily journal, but think about what hobbies you have. And so today I wanted to give you some possible hobbies because I think it's common to get stuck in what we always do and not think about possible new hobbies that we could have.
It depends on your personality, what hobbies you would enjoy. And what you would want to do. One example is adult sports. My husband loves adult sports. I do not, but he will be on softball teams. He likes to play tennis and pickleball and golf with people.
You could play baseball, softball, basketball, whatever sport you might've enjoyed as a high schooler or as a kid. And think about what those sports are and do those as an adult. I was in Chicago and I saw they were playing flag football. How fun as an adult. And there's a lot of comradery with those sports and you build relationships also volleyball.
Would they have a lot of adult volleyball around here? So [00:05:00] find a sport. You'd enjoy. Find an exercise that you would enjoy as a hobby. So, like I said, I like to run I bike and I've been part of running groups, biking groups, also. I used to do group X classes and yoga. I've gone to yoga studios
those are all a great way to meet people and have people hold you accountable for not only being healthier, but their hobbies that you can have and focus on learning more and getting better at those.
Another hobby, our artistic hobbies, like painting, doing pottery, doing digital art. You know, anything that really requires, using art and creativity, it could be weaving., knitting crocheting, any of those things are really good for creativity. And if it's not something that you've done before, I really encourage you to try something like that.
Also having activities and hobbies that are outdoor hobbies like kayaking, and it depends where you live in time of year. Hiking skiing backpacking. Camping. We camp a lot in the [00:06:00] summer. My kids really enjoy that. And that's something to look forward to. Reading is a great hobby. I have been part of book clubs.
And so again, that's a great way to have that social network and meet people. And it holds you accountable to getting a book read. , I know there's a virtual book clubs that you can do. Our library has book clubs, so I'm sure. A library near you would have them. So joining a book club can give you something to look forward to. And it might be hard, you know? Reading could be hard.
If you read a lot of professional books, you can read professional books for fun too, as long as you enjoy them, as long as it is fun for you. Also writing journaling is a hobby of mine doing creative writing. You could write stories, you could blog, whatever you enjoy about writing, but writing is a really creative outlet and can be enjoyable. Cooking and baking.
This is something I love doing when I have time trying new recipes, exploring different ways to cook. ,, a great summer activity when [00:07:00] you have time and just extra time to focus on this. Photography is a great hobby and this could be you taking pictures of people.
It could be taking pictures of different moments with your family landscapes, things that you see in nature. Whatever that is for you. That excites you now. Our phones are great cameras. So even just taking photographs. Uh, playing musical instruments, learning the guitar, the piano, the violin, any instrument. Is a great skill to learn and maybe you've always wanted to play something.
I just I'd encourage you to not give up on wanting to do that. Just thinking that, okay, I'm an adult. I'm too old to play the guitar. You can learn any skill, any hobby at any time.
Another hobby is traveling. I love to travel. I think that we don't always think about this as necessarily a hobby. But it is, it could even be on weekends, you and a spouse or a friend explore new places. It could be going to new restaurants and trying different foods. It could [00:08:00] be, you love to plan, , big trips. So if you were to travel overseas or go to another country, it takes a lot of planning. And so maybe that's a hobby for, you could even be finding deals on flights and things so that you can see new places, whatever that is traveling is a great hobby.
Dancing is a great hobby that we don't think about necessarily ballroom dancing, salsa, dancing, hip hop. My daughter had a ballet recital and it was really cool because they had a lot of adult classes and it was great to see adults doing dance classes. You know that I thought I never did that as a kid, but I would be interested in doing DNS as an adult.
So just something to think about. Collecting things, you know, maybe you want to click stamps, coins, antiques, whatever you're interested in having collections could be a hobby board games and card games. This can be a fun hobby that you have with your kids.
It could be something you do with friends. In our neighborhood. , they had some groups that played card games and they would get together and have a great time with that. Another hobby that I'm trying to [00:09:00] hold myself accountable for really learning. Is learning a new language.
I took French in high school and I haven't done it in years. And I'm just so fascinated by people who speak multiple languages and I would really like to take the time to learn French again because I haven't, , Done French. Since high school. And then when you don't practice having those conversations, you lose the skills.
So learning a language, I think is a great hobby to have also home brewing, making beer, making wine or kombucha. Those are fun activities I've been into making wine before, and that was fun just to try your own creation and there's a whole community around this. So you can go to local stores that have all of the kits and things like that, and learn about how to make beer and wine. So those are fun things that you can do.
Basically, there are so many different hobbies that you can do. And you can enjoy, and you can find a hobby that works for you. Whether you're a person who wants to be on a team, you want an individual hobby. You want a [00:10:00] hobby where you're in a group. And you have that social aspect, whatever you're interested in doing with a hobby. Is really up to you.
There's so many options out there. The biggest thing that you have to remember is that having a hobby is taking time for you. So, whatever that looks like, whatever, like I said, hobby, you choose the most important thing is that you choose something and you decide that you're going to do it. And you decide to make time for that hobby, because it's so easy to say.
I don't have time for that. You know, I don't have time for that hobby. And maybe the hobby looks different at different aspects at different times in your life. So my husband and I have a lot of conversations because he loves to play softball. That can be a time-consuming hobby because it's a couple hours every week. And our kids are in sports and we're busy people.
So right now, softball is not the best hobby for him to have running as a better hobby because he has time and can do that on his own schedule. There's different points in your life that different [00:11:00] hobbies work for you learning a language. That's something I want to do because it's something I can do on my own time.
So I don't have to go every Thursday at seven o'clock let's say and have that hobby. So really think about that. If you're taking lessons, if you're in a group sport, What works with your time commitment? The most important thing is that you just take time to have a hobby that you take time for yourself and really learn something that you're interested in.
Learn something that's going to excite you and give you that stress relief and relaxation. That you need outside of work.
So I hope that you find a hobby that works for you. If you don't have one, take some time to reflect on what hobbies you are currently doing, what hobbies you aren't doing and what hobbies you wish you are doing at this point.
And if you're a principal who is looking to elevate your leadership and your wellbeing, I'm here to help my one-on-one coaching. It offers clarity. It will build your resilience and enhance your overall effectiveness in your role as a principal. When you coach with me or [00:12:00] receive personalized support insights into what your strengths are and areas for growth. You'll get practical tools to improve both your leadership and your school's performance.
Having experienced the power of life, coaching myself. I know that it works. And I'm so eager to share this journey with you. If you're interested in a free consultation, I can work with you to explore your current challenges and what your future goals are, and really see where you're getting stuck.
And this is completely free. So if you want to reach out to me for a free consultation, click the Calendly link in the show notes, it says, click here for coaching. Click that link. Join me and schedule a time to set up that free consultation. And we'll see where are your current challenges and where do you want to go in the future?
Because if you decide that you want to change and make a difference, I can definitely help you get there. If you love the show. If you're listening on apple, scroll down in your app and leave a review, keep in mind you have the power to shape your life. According to the mindset you choose. I hope you have a great week and I'll see you back [00:13:00] here next time.
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