I became deeply interested in the work of Tony Schwartz and Dr. Jim Leor after reading the book The Power of Full Engagement in 2012. This book was recommended to me by a parent at my previous school, who is a CEO of a multi-billion dollar company. When I asked him how he managed his time leading so many people and having so many responsibilities, he answered, “It is not about time; it is about energy.”
Since then, I have delved into the work of Schwartz at The Energy Project and Loehr at the Human Performance Institute. I am absolutely convinced that if we want our students to reach their full potential, we need to be as conscious of periods of renewal as we are of periods of high-intensity work.
Human beings simply cannot work at high speeds continuously for long periods of time. However, there are many times when we forget this and push ourselves too far, ending up experiencing stress, illness, and breakdowns in our relationships both at work and at home.
If we want our students to perform optimally at school and achieve all that they are capable of, we need to be very conscious of how our students replenish their energy. It is paramount for us, their educators, parents, and family, to create rituals around downtime.
Although, as adults, we are often resistant to downtime and pass this resistance on to our children, many studies on high-performing athletes, students, leaders, and musicians show that rest is as important as hard work to long-term success.
Pushing our students too hard not only depletes them in the short term, but it also makes it difficult for them to learn and lays the foundation for habits that could be potentially damaging to their health and well-being.
I encourage you to meet with members of your school community to map out ways that ensure you can all switch between spending and regularly renewing energy. Ensuring children have enough sleep, boundaries around time spent on homework, relaxation and unscheduled weekends are all important to ensure that our students can give their best at school and reach their full potential.
I love this quote from Ester Buchholz, author of The Call of Solitude: "Others inspire us, information feeds us, practice improves our performance, but we need quiet time to figure things out, to emerge with new discoveries, to unearth original answers."
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