Chase Mielke - Battling Burnout

Mielke encourages educators to be in a space of happiness and purpose. “Every time I speak on a topic, I get to not only apply it to myself but see the shifts in people where they're not only thinking about their role as a student or a teacher, they’re looking at it through the lens of how does this impact my entire world view and it's a really and empowering thing,” he said.

The challenges teachers often face that causes a burnout stem from emotional exhaustion, to where the job demands and job resources don’t line up, or cynicism which is an extension of learned helplessness; much like teachers having goals or taking on initiatives that will eventually end. The third challenge comes from inefficacy, where a teacher's current skill sets don’t match up to their desired goals.

“When I reflect to the moments when I was burned out, all three categories I experienced. And when I thought about quitting, I told myself to apply the same rules I was teaching to myself and I did the research on the strategies to guide my thinking,” Mielke said.

Mielke’s book breaks down into ten different chapters with takeaways into different divisions such as awareness, attitudes and actions. “The most important key is that there is no quick and easy fix. There is no fantasy that you do this one strategy one-time, and you're set for life. We must habituate these actions, once you change your attitude and awareness then more motivation comes that can help change long term habits,” he said.

Within the chapters, Mielke teaches how to shift negative thinking, focus on forgiving and letting go of resentment towards things that won't matter in the long run and adapting to gratitude in different scenarios. “One of the last categories is around the findings of actions that impact our well-being, like intentional acts of kindness or having goals that are outside of education.”

These active continual habits towards positive thinking and acts of kindness Mielke suggest goes a long way into battling the burnouts and falling in love with teaching again.