I’m not going to sugarcoat it – – – this last month has been really hard. Most of my students and colleagues know I’ve been unexpectedly away from lessons for over 2 weeks now, and with an upcoming surgery I have to be out even longer. Having been well-managed for about 5+ years now, this has been frustrating to say the least. Living with gastroparesis and POTS is challenging on the best of days, but when they get triggered and out of control it can make you feel like you’re on a bad carnival ride—stuck being miserable with no way off.
On a positive note though, this extra time in my schedule has got me thinking about how we as teachers manage private studios while battling chronic illness. Having polled several colleagues who have dealt with issues ranging from chronic fatigue to cancer, here are the general principles we’ve come to for doing the job you love while managing the illness you don’t.
Schedule a Realistic Workload
This is one of the most important things you MUST do when working with chronic illness. I know from personal experience how tempting it is to take your day planner and book every free hour you’ve got. After all, you love teaching and the income is important to your family. But if you only plan according to your time openings without realistically considering your body’s needs you’re setting yourself up for failure. That could mean putting a cap on the number of students you take, only booking at particular times of day/week, or cutting back on studio-wide events and personal performing. What this looks like for each individual is different, but the point is you have to get to know your body and create a schedule that reflects its needs. This is not optional. If you do not do this, your body will do it for you (often in the least convenient manner possible).
Plan to be Flexible
As much as we don’t like to admit it, all of us are going to have days we are not well enough to teach. Sometimes these patterns are consistent enough that we can plan ahead for absences, while others get flares unexpectedly with little control or warning. While one of the big reasons a lot of us become private studio teachers is because we can manage our own schedule, that also means we tend to feel personally responsible for our students and may feel guilty about calling out. Planning ahead for absences with flex weeks, backup substitute teachers, refund policies, and good communication (see below) can help prevent some of that anxiety.
Ultimately though, the most important thing is to be honest with yourself. While your lessons are amazing and valuable, this rock we live on will continue turning when you call out. Overemphasizing your significance will stress you out when you can’t live up to your own expectations. And as the saying goes, you must put on your own oxygen mask before you can help anyone else.
Be Honest With Your Students
Let me just say this first: it is OK to tell people you are sick. This is life and people have illnesses. I have yet to have one family in my studio that has not completely understood and supported me when I’ve needed to cancel or rearrange lessons for health reasons. That said, it can be tricky knowing how in-depth to go when explaining your condition. If the student/family wants to know more and you feel comfortable talking about it then by all means do, but overall the aim is to let them know as much as pertains to them and be clear about what they can expect. You don’t need to load them with all the gritty details, but you can focus on being concise, real, and professional in your communication.
This takes a degree of selflessness as well. If you have to cancel regularly, you may lose a student because they need a more consistent lesson schedule. Ultimately, it’s always about doing what’s right by them and not stringing them along. If you stick with being upfront about things, you will eventually gather a group of students around you who are both supportive and a mutual good fit.
Let People Into Your Team
I find this to be true both at home and in the studio. If we do not hire, delegate, and accept the help that’s offered we will absolutely burn out. That could mean letting the people you live with help more around the house, hiring an accountant, or telling people you interact with in the studio how to help you in an emergency. It’s humbling and it’s hard, but this is life. No one lives on an island. It’s okay to accept help just like you would give it to someone else in need— that’s what humans are supposed to do for each other.
Prioritize
Basically everything we’ve said so far boils down to planning and prioritizing. If you have a chronic illness, you cannot afford to waste time and energy. It doesn’t always feel fair to work with a smaller energy/ability budget then everyone else, but all we can do is make the most of what we have. So before you plan your studio activities for the year, your student load, and your upcoming goals, ask yourself these questions:
- How/when can I realistically work each week while still being present in other areas of my life?
- How can I use this time to best meet my financial needs?
- What 3 things do my students need most from me?
These questions can guide your scheduling, student load, budget, and activity planning in a way that best reflects both you and your students.
Ultimately, being a successful studio teacher with chronic illness means knowing yourself, prioritizing what’s important, and giving yourself grace to accept the help and space you need. It can be really frustrating, but it can also drive you to become more focused, intentional, and successful. Because in the end it’s not the amount of things you did, but what you did that was actually important.
