Thrive This Summer | Week 7: Reimagine the Return

Before you go back, do this.

Thrive Summer Series for Teacher Well-Being

I just returned from Ontario, Canada where I spent seven days fishing on Muskrat Lake. It was a ten hour drive and then a one hour fly-in from my home. Here are some keywords to describe the adventure: hot, cold, flies, mosquitoes, beautiful, fish fry, wildfires, smoke, nature, friendship, gratitude, missing home.

Don't let the pull of preparation for the next school year get in the way of making the most of the vacation time you have left.

Here's to moving forward into something new.

"What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning." — T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding

You've felt the shift by now.

The back-to-school emails have started. The days feel a little shorter. Summer isn't over, but the window is closing, and there's a pull toward preparation that's hard to ignore.

This week isn't about resisting that pull. It's about making sure you go back intentionally.

Why reflection before transition matters

Research on life transitions consistently shows that people who pause to reflect before a major shift — rather than lurching into it — report greater clarity, stronger motivation, and better emotional regulation once they're in it.

That's important for teachers.

The first few weeks of school set patterns that are hard to break by October. If you rush back into old habits without questioning them, you'll be running the same operating system you were exhausted by last May.

You've spent seven weeks pausing, clearing, moving, nourishing, feeling, and reconnecting with what matters to you. This week is about deciding what you actually bring forward from that — and what you leave behind.

Try this week

Three questions. Take your time with them.

What will you keep? What habits, boundaries, or mindsets helped you last year? The hard stop time for schoolwork. The music between classes. The Sunday reset ritual that actually worked. Write down two or three things you want to carry forward on purpose — not by default, but by choice.

What will you release? What are you ready to leave behind? The over-commitment to extra duties. The people-pleasing that cost you your evenings. The second-guessing of every decision. Write it down. Then sit with this: What would it feel like to actually not carry this anymore?

What will you try? Give yourself permission to experiment with something new — no pressure, no perfection. A weekly reset hour just for you. A 4 pm shutdown ritual with a hard boundary around it. A mantra/affirmation you put on repeat. What's your gentle experiment for this year?

The Thrive This Summer workbook on Ko-fi has this week's Keep / Release / Try reflection table, journal space to design your reentry, and room to write your Return Mantra.

👉 Get the Thrive This Summer Workbook