Coping with Stress

Reflection from Dr. Keough - 1/13/23

People will often respond with questions when I tell them I am a school leader, “How do you do it? All those people coming at you? There is too much stress in that job for me… I could never put up with it”.

It’s always been a little insulting because the implication is that working with kids must be awful and that I must be a fool for actually having chosen to be a “school leader”.

The comments bother me, there is no doubt, but I have no regrets about my career path. It’s been rewarding and I love being around and supporting kids. It is true though, the stress and pressure that comes with being a principal or superintendent can be extreme. Mainly because it’s easy to make mistakes when you’re the person in charge and lots of people can get mad at you or gang up on you if you do something wrong, or there is always the chance that you will be faced with a problem or a question in the moment that you don’t have the answer to.

Thinking back on some of the really stressful moments in my career,  interviewing in front of large audiences with the television cameras rolling comes to mind. I knew my colleagues and family would be able to watch it with a click of a mouse and that I would be scrutinized in a very public way. Or giving speeches to thousands of people at town meetings, all school meetings, or graduations in front of families, grandparents and the newspaper’s. Or leading zoom calls during the pandemic with over 500 parents and teachers paying close attention to my every word. Yes, there has been some stress over the course of my career, but I have developed tools to cope with it.

I have had a secret weapon. You know what I’m going to say don’t you?! Its true, I have always had God by my side in the midst of every stressful situation. My brother and sister too. Through the years I have come to put any and every stressful situation in God's hands and have learned to trust, that whatever is meant to be will be and that God will never abandon me or let me down. Even when things haven’t gone well, I knew it had to be that way for a reason. If I had a bad interview I would accept that either it wasn’t meant to be that I get the job (who knows why?  Maybe I was going to have a bad boss, or the work environment was going to be unbearable) or that I had more to learn and I just wasn’t ready.

Stress and anxiety are real and can be overwhelming.  But having faith and being able to turn our worries over to God any time is like having a shield around you. I consider it one of the greatest gifts of my life.

As we head into exam week, this is a good time to ask for help.  Not that God will give you the answers for your tests - that’s not going to happen. Instead try praying that God will give you the focus to study hard and retain what you have learned and to do your very best. Also, pray that he will grant you the knowledge of his will for you each and every day and the courage and strength to accept whatever it is he has planned for you.

Having faith takes practice, but it works. Try it as you prepare for your exams or as you face your next stressful situation. Put your life in Gods hands and leave it there. He hears us. I guarantee it. What I can’t guarantee is that we will always like what he has to say.