Teachers in Transition

Teachers in Transition - Episode 132 - Why it is Important to Find Your "Why"

October 06, 2021 Kitty Boitnott Season 1 Episode 132
Teachers in Transition
Teachers in Transition - Episode 132 - Why it is Important to Find Your "Why"
Show Notes Transcript

In this week's episode, Kitty talks about Simon Sinek's books, Start Your Why and Find Your Why. She read the first paragraph from the "Foreword" which states the importance of finding your "why."

To talk to Kitty about your "why," make an appointment for a complimentary Discovery Session at https://teachersintransition.com/calendar.

Kitty also mentioned that she is offering a special discount on her "DIY Jumpstart Your Job Search 2.0 Program" in honor of her upcoming birthday next week. To get the special price ($197 instead of $497) on this program, click here:  https://boitnottcoach.samcart.com/products/diy-jumpstart-your-job-search-20-program/.

As always, if you have questions, you can email Kitty at kittyboitnott@gmail.com.

You can also check her YouTube channel, follow her on LinkedIn or connect with her on Facebook.

To learn more about @SimonSinek by checking out his website here:  https://simonsinek.com/.

#career #careerchange #careertransition #jobsearch #jobsearchchange #simonsinek #findyourwhy


Speaker 1:

Are you a teacher who's feeling stressed out and overwhelmed. Do you worry that you're feeling symptoms of burnout or are you sure you've already gotten there? Have you started to dream of doing some other kind of job or perhaps pursuing a whole different career, but you don't know what else you're even qualified to do. You don't know how to start a job search. You just feel stuck. If that sounds like you, I promise you're not alone. My name is Katie Boitnott. I'm a career transition and job search coach. And I specialize in helping burn out teachers. Just like you deal, not only with the stress and overwhelm of your day-to-day job, but to consider what other careers might be out there waiting for you. Join me for teachers in transition. In some episodes, I'll be speaking to stress management techniques and how you can manage your stress on a day to day basis. In other episodes, I'll be talking about career transition. What tools do you need to be successful in a job search when you're moving from one career into a totally different track. These are questions that you need answers to, and I can help you find those answers. My name is kitty. Boitnott welcome to teachers and transition.

Speaker 2:

Welcome back to episode 132 of teachers in transition the podcast and the YouTube channel. My name is kitty Boitnott. I am the owner of[inaudible] coaching LLC, and the founder of teachers in transition. My fundamental reason for being is to help teachers who are burnt out and feeling like it's ready, they're ready for a career change to help them figure out what that change looks like and how to make it happen. That's why I call myself a heart-centered career transition and job search coach, but I'm also a certified stress management coach. And because burnout starts with feeling stressed and overwhelmed. I also help my clients with their stress and burnout as well as their career transition. If you've listened to this podcast in the past, you know, that I offer alternating topics one week talking about career transition strategies, the alternating week, talking about stress management strategies. And this week, the topic is career. Now I was kind of struggling this week, figuring out what it was that I wanted to say about career. I have, I feel like at times I've shared everything I already know in 131 episodes, half of which were all about career transition. I have shared much of what I offer in my course, the jumpstart, your job search 2.0 program, which you are welcome to check out and try out. And in fact, this week and part of next week, I will be offering the, do it yourself version of the program for a special price of only$197. So what you self means do it yourself. You get the program, but there's no coaching involved unless you want to upgrade to get some sort of coaching. But for$197, you get a comprehensive program that is taught full of good advice on how to start your job, searching how to proceed through each step, step by step learning, how to navigate the job search process. So if you're interested in that, I'll provide a link in the show notes for the jumpstart, your job search program, uh, the do it yourself version for only$197. This is a program that normally sells for 497. A couple months ago. I offered it for 2 97. The special reason for offering it for a few days for one ninety seven is I have a birthday coming up and I wanted to do something special for folks who listened to the podcast. You read my newsletters who are part of my community and are in need of help with their career transition. So that's, that's why I was kind of struggling with what, what else do I say about career transition? And then I looked at my bookshelf and I decided that one of the books on there was a perfect topic to talk about when it comes to career transition and figuring out what you want to do with your life. And so I picked off from my shelf, Simon Sinek's book, find your why. Now he's also written a book and I think that one was the first book, a bestseller called start with why. And it is a book that is intended mostly for career or, or entrepreneurs, business owners who may be struggling with figuring out and defining their purpose and their reason for being, finding out, figuring out who their clients are with what their main purpose is and what passion they need to identify to get their business off the ground. Uh, later he offered, find your why practical guide for discovering purpose for you and your team. And I pulled the book off the shelf and I read the foreword and it was like, ding, ding, ding. This is the perfect thing to talk about today because each of my group coaching sessions, I, with a statement that I believe is an indisputable fact. And that is that work that feels fulfilling leads to a happier life. I truly believe that it's part of the reason I decided to start a business instead of going back into the classroom back in 2012, when I made my own career transition, because I knew that going back to the classroom would not be fulfilling for me. I was over it. I was done. I was ready to move on to something else, something new. And when I was reading the book by Sinec on find your why I resonated very intensely with his thinking about why you need to find your why. And for me, my why is very simple. I'm here, I'm in business to help teachers, whether it's helping with their stress or helping them with their career transition. I'm here to help. I have told people many times that the only two things I knew for sure, when I left the classroom back in 2012 to move into this new arena, this business world, I knew two things. One was that I wanted to stay in connection with teachers some way somehow I didn't know how at the time and the other was that I wanted to be of service. Those were the only two things I knew for sure everything else was, you know, an act of faith. Starting a business was an act of faith that I could figure out how to make it work and that I would make it work. So in his foreword, Simon Sineck says in the book find your why fulfillment is a right, not a privilege. Every single one of us is entitled to feel fulfilled by the work we do to wake up, feeling inspired, to go to work, to feel safe when we're there and to return home with a sense that we've contributed to something larger than ourselves. Fulfillment is not a lottery. It is not a feeling reserved for a lucky few who get to say, I love what I do. I truly believe that he is right about that. And yet millions of people and you listening to this may be one of the millions drag yourself out of bed every morning, go off to a place that may be toxic to the point of making you physically or emotionally ill. You make it through the day, one hour at a time. At the end of the day, you drag yourself home and get ready to do it all over again. The next day for many teachers. Now, this may not be every teacher, but for many teachers Friday, can't get here soon, enough. And yet they can't even allow themselves to enjoy the weekend because they have schoolwork to do. They have grading papers. They have to get done. They have plans for the next week to get prepared for. And by Sunday afternoon, they've got a knot in the pit of their stomach already dreading Monday morning. Now the reason so many teachers feel this way, dragging yourself to work, getting through the week, looking forward to the weekend and yet not really enjoying weekend. It's it's because it's not, it's not you it's because you've gotten yourself caught up in a system that is not working properly in many places. Now I'm not going to speak to every place. There are places that are working swimmingly. There are lots of happy, happy, happy teachers out there. I know that, but I also know that there's a good number of teachers, not just in the United States. I talked to people in Canada. I know that in the UK teachers are feeling more and more stressed and overwhelmed with all of the demands, policy makers and politicians, administrators, bureaucrats, school, board members, governors, all of them add more and more things to the plates of teachers all across the country. And one of my pet peeves, when I was president of the Virginia education association was they never took anything off. They add on tons of stuff, but they never remove any of the stuff that is old and outdated and no longer useful. You're still supposed to do that stuff too. It's crazy-making at least it is to me. And so many teachers are buckling under the pressure. They feel stressed to the point of feeling sick. And for some they've started to develop physical symptoms that have long-term implications and consequences, high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, beyond high blood pressure. Many teachers don't have time to work out. They don't have time to think about eating properly. They've some have allowed themselves to get overweight and not able to do anything about it. And the extra weight can cause you health issues. It's hard, juggling everything that you have, not only do you have all that crap to do at school, but you have your own family that you need to be taken care of. Not to mention that your ultimate responsibility is yourself taking care of yourself mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally as time, right? So I'm recommending that you start thinking in terms of what is your, why take take more than a minute to think about what is your, why we are all here on this planet for a reason. I truly believe that. And when we are struggling with the question of, why am I here? What is mine to do here on this plane? We can feel the struggle. We can feel the challenge. We can feel the, not send the pits of our stomach. I want you to know that when you have found your why, when you have discovered your reason for being here, when you figured out how to make your passion and your purpose and alignment with your work, it's a total game changer. You will feel better about every other aspect of your life, your health, your family, your relationships, your friends, and this is not something that you should put off for someday. You know, how many of us someday, I'm going to get around to doing that. This is not some day. This is stuff you need to be tending to. Now don't put it off, figure out what is your why here and now. And if your why is teaching great, wonderful. We need fabulous teachers who want to be in the classroom with students. What we don't need are people who have discovered that their why is not in the classroom. And yet they continue to hang on for the steady paycheck for the pension, for the regular hours, for the summers off for the vacations, for whatever it is that you're hanging on for, because that's not fulfilling and you're not fulfilled. You will feel it in your, in your, in your gut. You'll feel it in your heart. You'll know you're not living your why now am I suggesting that you toss everything in the air and quit your job this afternoon and you know, go off and find your why? No, I'm, I'm suggesting you figure out your why while you're making whatever living you're making now, but don't disregard the importance of investigating your why and look into what are the kinds of jobs that could help you fulfill your, why you might surprise yourself. Those jobs might be out there and more plentiful than you've ever even suspected. Cause you never looked before. So find your why check out Simon Sineck. He knows what he's talking about. When it comes to start with why and find with why check out his TEDx talk, or it might, it might be a Ted talk. He's he's offering some good stuff. It's stuff to make you stop and think. And that's what I want you to do today. As you listen to this podcast or watch this YouTube channel stop and think about what is your why. If you'd like to talk about it, you can make an appointment with me@teachersintransition.com forward slash calendar. I'd love to chat with you about what your, why might be. If you would like to ask a question, email me@katieboitnottatgmail.com. If you would, please, please, please review this podcast to help other people find it more easily. If this is helping you, it may help other teachers out there. And until next week, that's it have a wonderful rest of your day.

Speaker 1:

So there you have it, an episode of teachers in transition. I hope you enjoyed the information and I hope you'll plan to come back. Please subscribe to teachers in transition so that you can be alerted of future episodes. And let me know if you have any questions or topics that you would like me to specifically cover in a future episode, I'm more than happy to help with individual questions as well. So email me@kittyboitnottatboitnottcoaching.com. If you are interested in finding a new career or just enjoying your life more, this is the place to start. I'm Katie Boitnott and this is teachers in transition.