You're Not Burnt Out, You're Misaligned

0:04 You're not burnt out. You're misaligned. And I know that may sound uncomfortable to hear right now, especially those of us that are on the cusp of spring break. Some of us are already on spring break, but it might be the very truth that sets you free. Because burnout says you're tired, but misalignment says something deeper is off. And today we're going to talk about what that really means and how you begin to shift. Welcome to the Road to an Effective Classroom Environment where we talk about real leadership, real growth, and real transformation.

0:43 I am your host, Dr. Lashanta, known as that Classy Sassy Consultant. I am a leader. I am an educator and the founder of Lee Jane's Consulting. And today's conversation is one that every educator, every leader, and every woman who feels stuck needs to hear. We are still celebrating Women's History Month. So this message is for women, but it's also for the men as well. But just know we are still celebrating Women's History Month as we come to a close this week. So I know you may already say in your mind, I don't know what this woman is talking about.

1:26 So continue to listen and you'll understand more why I say you're not burnt out right now, because I had to have the same realization at one point in my career. Burnout has become a common language in education. We say I'm burnt out, I'm exhausted, I can't keep doing this. And the list of things we say goes on and on. Keep in mind, I'm still an educator in the game. And these are some of the same words and phrases that I've used myself. But I came to a realization, and we'll talk about that in just a few.

1:58 But what if burnout is not the root problem? What if burnout is the symptom and misalignment is the cause? Misalignment happens when your actions don't match your purpose, your responsibilities don't match your strengths, and your environment doesn't match your values. So you're not just tired, but you're disconnected. Have we felt disconnected before in our in our roles, in our jobs? We all have felt disconnected at some point in time in our life. So when you're disconnected long enough, it starts to feel like exhaustion.

2:38 You may not believe me. You may still not believe me just yet, but when you feel disconnected long enough, then you feel exhausted. So let me share my story. Because this does go deeper. It goes even deeper than just mere exhaustion. So I'll share my story. When I was in the classroom as a social studies teacher, I taught high school social studies. And so part of my journey I talk about whenever I do public speaking is I talk about my journey as a teen mom. So my children, when I began teaching, my son was just starting kindergarten, and my daughter was a year younger.

3:19 So they're a year apart. So when I started in the classroom, my son was five starting kindergarten, and my daughter was four. So fast forward when they were in middle school, they were on the same campus as I was. So he was they were on the middle school side of the campus, and I taught on the high school side. So it was very easy for me to stay in the building and do lesson plans, sometimes up until six, seven, eight o'clock, especially if it was a game night, because I was always out supporting my students and supporting the teams that were playing, whether it was football, basketball, if it was a home game, I tried to be at those games.

4:03 And so we had many, many late nights. And what I what I came to realize, because I was operating on five hours of sleep. As a middle school student, I slept about five hours every night. So from middle school on up until adulthood, five hours. And we know, you know, there's a lot of research out there that says you need at least seven or eight if you're that age. Some people need nine hours of sleep, depending on what research you're looking at. And so I had been limiting how much sleep I was getting because even from middle school to high school, I was up late doing homework because I was in so many organizations and clubs.

4:47 And then I also participated in track. So as a classroom teacher, staying late at work, I was staying late to get those lesson plans just right. So in my mind, I was being successful because the students were engaged in the work, and even though they didn't like social studies, they enjoyed being in the class. And so that was a win. But I was burning myself out because I was just like many educators are right now, looking forward to spring break because I was exhausted. I was tired, but I was thinking it's because I am in the classroom teaching and that that this is just a part of the job.

5:29 If you are a classroom teacher, you're just gonna be, you're gonna be tired. You're gonna be exhausted. And I maybe about in my fifth or sixth year, I realized I'm exhausted because I'm not, I'm not eating all the right things, I'm not getting the right amount of sleep. And even though I'm giving these great lessons, I'm thinking to myself, how much better could the lessons have been had I taken care of some other areas of my life? So that's my that's my example. That was my moment in my journey where I realized that it wasn't me being exhausted from the work I was doing in the classroom, but it was because I hadn't had all these other parameters put in place so that I wasn't exhausted because I wasn't getting the rest.

6:24 So the other parameters I needed to work on. So I was misaligned. That was the misalignment in my life was sleep and also looking at just how I was taking care of my body during that time. So let's talk a little bit more about when misalignment shows up. And it doesn't always show up like it doesn't show up loudly, it doesn't show up like symbols in a band where you're just mash, you're hitting symbols and they're and it's just a loud experience that just shows up and says, Oh, I'm here. Misalignment.

7:02 No, it's never that loud. So what it looks like is you begin to dread going to work and you dread going to the work that you used to love. You feel overwhelmed doing things that you don't, that don't fulfill you. You start questioning your impact. You begin to question, am I really helping children? Am I really helping educators in my role as superintendent or deputy superintendent or whatever your district office level position is? You begin to question your impact. And you start to lose excitement for that role.

7:39 If this sounds like you right now, it is not because you're tired from the work in the room in the classroom or at the central office. You have a misalignment somewhere in your life. And here's the truth about that. Here's the truth about misalignment. You can be effective and you can still be misaligned. You can be successful and still feel empty. So let me give you three shifts that will change everything for you as a leader because we're all leaders in our own right, in our in our roles in education, in the business world.

8:18 We are all leaders. So here are three shifts that will change everything for you if you are misaligned right now. First thing is clarity before capacity. And most people try to do more before they understand what actually matters. So clarity answers the questions: what am I truly responsible for? What impact am I trying to make? Because if you increase capacity without clarity, you don't grow. You overwhelm yourself. So clarity before capacity. Don't try to do more things to make yourself uh feel more aligned, because that doesn't, that doesn't happen.

9:01 So you can do more things, you can sponsor more clubs, you can take on more assignments on your job. But if you don't have the answers to the questions of what am I truly responsible for and what impact am I trying to make, if you can't answer those questions, then you are overwhelming yourself. So you're still misaligned. Clarity before capacity.

10:12 The second shift, purpose before pressure. So so many times too many leaders are responding to urgency instead of leading with intention. Pressure will have you reacting, purpose will have you leading. So instead of asking what's do next, start asking what actually matters the most. So pressure will have you reacting. Just to give you another example, in my journey, there were times in with in my in my career where I felt that I needed to make sure that I was holding up the arm of my principal. If I if if I was an assistant principal, I wanted to hold up the arms of my principal to make sure that he or she was able to do their roles.

11:03 But many times what ended up happening, I would react in situations instead of having that that clarity as far as what needs to be done right now. Because I was so gung-ho and wanting to make sure that my principal was set up for success. But I would react before I had the vision in place of what needed to be done. So sometimes when pressure comes on you and you think, okay, I need to do, I need to make a decision right now. I need to go ahead and fix this now. Many times you just have to step, take a step back and think and plan before you react.

11:48 So remember, purpose before pressure. Remember, purpose will have you leading. Know the purpose. Reactions will also take you out of alignment. So purpose before pressure. And then the third shift that you can start to make in your life to help make some changes and to get out of misalignment is that you can align before achieve. Align before achieve. You can achieve success and still feel unfulfilled. Because achievement without alignment leads to exhaustion. So alignment asks the question: does this reflect who I am?

12:38 Does this connect to my purpose? Because if it doesn't, it will drain you. So know that whatever you are doing, make sure that it is aligned with your purpose. Because alignment asks, does this reflect who I am? And does this connect to my purpose? So if what you're doing does not line up with the purpose as to why you are doing the job that you're doing, whether you are that kindergarten teacher, whether you're that high school math teacher, whether you are working as a building level principal or assistant principal, or whether you're working at the central office in instruction or whatever area you are in, you have to ask this question Does this align with my purpose?

13:33 What you're doing, does it align with your purpose? And this can go into many different areas when we start talking about purpose and alignment. But these are the three shifts that you can make in order to make changes. So just a recap your shifts, the changes that you can make are clarity before capacity. Don't pile more on than you can handle until you understand what you are actually doing and what you're responsible for and what impact will it make. Second shift, making sure that you understand purpose before pressure.

14:16 Purpose will have you leading, pressure will have you reacting. When you react, then for example, when you begin to react to what the students are doing in the classroom because they're ready to be out for break. And so now you are being more reactionary when it comes down to managing the classroom. When you become reactionary, that is a misalignment and that will throw you off. It will have you out of alignment with the purpose that you have for being in that classroom. So that's a whole nother episode.

14:49 And you can go back to the first year, the first or second year of the road to an effective classroom environment, and you'll see that there are many episodes on classroom management and just how to have a culture that's conducive for engagement and learning. And then the third shift, alignment before achievement. So the question becomes: what do you do when you realize that you're not burnt out and you're misaligned? So we talked about the shift. We talked about those three shifts to take that you need to do in order to look at, look at yourself and make those changes that you need to make if you find that you are out of alignment.

15:36 So what do you so once you realize that you're not burnt out, what do you do next after you look at these three shifts that you can take? Well, first thing that you you want to do is pause and reflect. Pause and reflect. This is something that's throughout my teachings, whenever I meet with a group, I'm always talking about self-reflection and pausing. So make sure that when your shift begins to happen, once you've looked at those three areas, when your shift begins to happen, continue to pause and reflect on the work that you are doing.

16:13 Identify what's misaligned and then give yourself permission to adjust because growth requires honesty and leadership requires alignment. And it's very important. So again, I know that this is not one of one of those episodes in which it may it may take a while for some people to understand that when you're talking about exhaustion, when you're talking about tired, that and you when you begin to look at the work that you're doing, the work that you're doing in these classrooms and the work that you're doing in education in the business world, if you're a leader in any sector of any business, the work is so very important.

16:57 And when you get to a place of exhaustion and get to a place of beginning to wonder, do I make a difference? Do I have uh what it takes to change and to help bring change in this organization? When you begin to ask those questions, figure out what is it in your life that's that, and it may be in your education life or your business life, your leadership life, but it may be something that's going on personally. What in my life is misaligned at this point in time? And that requires me to make a shift.

17:39 Because you don't want to go through this. This is my 29th year. This is my 29th year in education. And what you don't want to do as an educator, when you get to this level, or even if you're a first-year teacher, because we lose so many first-year teachers because of misalignment, not burnout, but misalignment. When you come to understand that you came into this profession because you want it to make a difference, and when you understand that you can make a difference, no matter how the kids may be at this point in time, there is a way to get what you need from your students.

18:22 Now, you may go in thinking, I'm not going to be able to change every student in this classroom. I'm not going to get them to understand math any better than they're understanding now. If you go in there with that mindset, you're already misaligned because you have now gotten away from what your purpose is. Your purpose is not to go in there with half ideas or or half um half of a of a mission, half of a vision, and then think that you're going to be able to do the best work. You do your best work when you go in with the purpose in mind, and you don't have a self-defeating attitude to start off with.

19:06 And I just wanted to keep it real with you all because I know what that feels like. And I can speak only for Lashonta. I know what that feels like when you are misaligned. And so now I'm going to begin to say, if I'm exhausted and we're at the point where it's time for spring break, and I'll say this: this is probably the first time in a long time where I've not said that I'm exhausted right before spring break. And I and in my mind, I may say, I have every reason to believe like I should be. Now, during the weeks, have I said I was exhausted because there were other things going on at that time, physically exhaustion, mental exhaustion at the time.

19:50 But after I sleep and get up for the next day, I'm ready to go in. So my point is this. We stayed this long in education. When you're in education for this long, you have to be able to find and continue that that vision that you have for your life and for the lives of children that you want to change. And you want to make sure that you stay focused in what your purpose is, that there's clarity, you have purpose, and you can identify when you are aligned with your purpose. So if this is a conversation that's speaking to you, and if you feel like this episode just describes exactly where you are, I invite you to just go a little bit deeper.

20:42 And I invite you to look at something a little deeper because you don't need more strategies, you need a reset. And if you need a reset and you need to book a session, you can use the link that's going to be in the episode description. Also drop it in the if you follow me on LinkedIn or any of my social media outlets, I'll have a link there. But you can book a coaching session and we can help help you to get to a place where you can identify where you are misaligned if you are unable to do that task on your own and you need some support because we all need some support somewhere, somehow in our lives throughout throughout our lives.

21:29 We want to have find support. So don't forget to book that coaching session, and it'll be a free discovery call session just to see if this is something that you're interested in. So again, keep in mind you're not burnt out, you're just misaligned. So the question that I have for you right now is that if this was something, do you feel that this was an episode that gave you a little bit of insight? Now you may not agree as you're listening to this and you're thinking, I still say I'm tired. I still say I'm exhausted.

22:10 If that's you, that's understandable. It took me some time in order to get it and to understand. But once I began to write down, and that's what I offered to you all, offering up to you is to write down where you feel like you may be misaligned. Look at the four areas in your life: your your spiritual life, your physical life, as in your health, your your mental like your mental life, and you want to look at your emotional life. Those are the four areas: spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional.

22:47 When you write those four areas down, think about what's gone on between January and March. And we're starting in January because you know, Christmas break we had. So between January and March, we have where there's a lot of educators, they begin to start talking about looking forward to spring break and that, you know, they're exhausted, they're tired, and so forth. So I want you to look at your life from January to March, January 2026 to March now 2026. Those four areas of your life, your spiritual, your physical, your mental, and emotional, and identify if there's anything in each of those categories that has happened that has thrown you for a loop or gotten you off track or it's impacted your responsibilities in the classroom or in your role as a leader.

23:41 Jot those down. And if you're able to identify things that have happened in each of those four categories, I promise you, this is why you are burnt, that this is why you are misaligned and not burnt out. But I would love to carry this conversation on even further with you. So again, you can click the link that I'll put out on my social media for you to join and have a conversation about this. And we can have a 30-minute free coaching session. So if you found this to be useful, also I want you to go to Apple Podcasts and find the road to an effective classroom environment and leave five stars.

24:21 Leave a five-star review for me if you find this helpful, or if you found any of the episodes that you've listened to helpful. And not just a review, tell me what shifted you. What was it that shifted you when you listened to this episode and when you did the work, when you went back and looked at those four areas of your life: physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional. Because your words don't just support this podcast, they help other educators and leaders and women just like you find this message.

24:56 And if you really want to grow, share the episode with someone who's ready for their next level. This is how we build a community of leaders who don't just survive, we thrive. So this has been Dr. Lashonta, your classy sassy consultant. I will see you next time on the next episode.