There are few things as rewarding and fulfilling as inspiring young lives to do their best and influencing the next generation through education. Much like nurses and medical doctors, being a teacher is a vocation and not just a job. Most educators will tell you they chose to become teachers because of a deep, perceptible urge to make a tangible difference in people’s lives.

Teaching is probably one of the few careers where you get to celebrate big and small milestones every single day as you go about your job. There’s a good chance you were drawn to the noble profession due to this sense of service. Well, a big congratulations on your decision.

With that said, teaching is often characterized by a seemingly inevitable descent from exhilaration and enthusiasm at the beginning into a near-insurmountable challenge due to a myriad of competing demands a few years down the road. So, while teaching is an incredibly rewarding profession it can be stressful for new teachers due to the many demands and unique challenges that come with it.

Here’s how you can learn how to overcome these challenges and prepare yourself for a successful career as a teacher.

Be Absolutely Certain of Your Reasons for Becoming a Teacher

You’ve probably read about the increasing attrition and shortages in the teaching profession across the United States. According to a 2017 study, only a third of the teachers leaving the profession are doing so because they’ve attained their retirement age. Nearly two-thirds of the open teaching vacancies in the country are as a result of teachers leaving for other reasons—most due to job dissatisfaction.

Many teachers lose their enthusiasm and become dissatisfied with the profession due to the many obligations and personal challenges they face. Defining and staying true to your core values, beliefs, and mission statement will provide you with a firm footing from which to address any challenges that arise. Additionally, you need to be certain of your core reasons for becoming a teacher as this is what will help you stay committed to the mission you’ve chosen to pursue.

Build Relationships Early and Often

Educators often focus on covering content and tackling other job-related duties, but building healthy relationships with faculty and staff members, administrators, and students is just as essential. Teaching is a relationship-based profession, and there’s simply no way to a successful career as an educator without learning to cultivate and utilize relationships in a positive way.

No matter how much training you receive, nothing will prepare you for how to inspire and motivate students better than interacting with them in real life. Therefore, you need to take the time to volunteer in any role that involves working closely with children or students. This will help you learn how to build positive teacher-student relationships and establish yourself as a mentor early. Remember, students tend to respect and trust teachers who are not just knowledgeable and consistent in their work but also compassionate, fair, and humorous.

Secondly, you need to find someone who understands what it takes to be an educator and learn from them. Think of it as finding a mentor who can guide you, help build your confidence in the profession, and push you outside of your comfort zone.

Understand Your District

You probably already know that the United States is linguistically and culturally diverse, with tens of millions of people who speak languages other than English. In fact, there are hundreds of languages being spoken in the U.S today, and this is reflected in both public and private education institutes across the country.

Here’s the thing—bilingual students are on the rise, and there’s a need for schools (and teachers) to find ways to overcome language barriers and ensure effective communication between different cultures.

If you’re planning on staying local and teaching in a specific district, it’s important that you research the demographics in that locality first. For example, if there’s a high percentage of Hispanic students, it should be in your best interest to learn Spanish so you’re able to communicate effectively with students. You’ll also be in a better position to create and support an exceptional Spanish curriculum for effective and inclusive learning, including testing translation services and on-site translation methods.

Have the Flexibility to Constantly Evolve

Teachers who progress successfully in their careers are often those who have the ability to see the direction the wind is blowing and steer towards it. As an educator, your primary role involves influencing students and inspiring them to be the best they can be. However, it’s worth remembering that education is constantly evolving, and those who stay ahead of the curve are the ones who progress.

As a student looking to become an educator, you have no option but to embrace different situations and collaborate with others to create opportunities within your environment. There’s certainly nothing wrong with having your own strategies, philosophies, and plans for how you’re going to teach. However, you must appreciate the fact that challenges are inevitable and you need to have the flexibility to mix things up when things change or don’t go according to plan.

Find What Works Best for You and Stick with It

One of the things you should probably understand is that teaching is never a sprint. It’s a marathon. As such, you can’t determine your success or failure in the profession based on a single day’s work or moment. Usually, you have to look at your effort (and that of others) over a long period of time.

For this reason, you should focus on being an astute educator who makes each day count without dwelling so much on the worst moments. You want to ensure you’re doing an excellent but seemingly effortless job by picking what works best for you and sticking with it. If building a portfolio of resources for your lesson plans, assessments, and assignments can help you manage school time more efficiently, then go for it.

The goal is to make sure you’re maximizing your preparation productivity so you have enough time to deliver productive lessons in the classroom.