Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dominique Dunn. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Dominique, thrilled to have you on the platform as I think our readers can really benefit from your insights and experiences. In particular, we’d love to hear about how you think about burnout, avoiding or overcoming burnout, etc.
As a woman of many trades, from being a Health and Physical Education teacher, a basketball coach, and the owner of my own clothing brand, burnout is unfortunately a familiar place for me. Given the workload and all of the various duties of being a teacher, the burnout started to have an effect on my physical, emotional, and mental health. I would dread getting up for school and I noticed that I was not giving my students the best parts of me and my energy would show it. I can’t expect for them to leave their negative energy outside of our learning space when I don’t reciprocate that same expectation. This was not fair to them nor myself because it was draining for all parties.
After checking in with myself and realizing that I was not in a productive mindset, I needed to take a step back, breathe, and recalibrate myself. Thankfully, as the burnout was in full effect, we were blessed with a winter break. During this time off, I tapped heavily into self care such as journaling, quiet time, therapy, family and friend time, and listening to audiobooks. This much needed break gave me time to reset and return from winter break much better than before. As we are now back into the swing of things post winter break, I have added working out to my self care list and it has made a tremendous difference. I am mindful of what and who I give my energy to and I am also more aware of my time management which has opened the door for me to be able to coach and put in creative time with my clothing brand.
For anyone that is experiencing burnout, my advice would be to love on yourself. It is difficult to give your energy to something that you love especially if you’re unable to give that energy to yourself. We tend to overwork and forget about ourselves and our body will always give us that much needed reminder to slow down and pay more attention to it.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
As I navigate my adult life and reflect on the previous jobs that I have had, I can proudly and confidently say that where I am now feels like home. On January 29th of this year, I celebrated 6 years of being a Health and Physical Education teacher. This journey has had its rough patches, however, the hugs and fist bumps from my students along with seeing their smiling faces every morning always reminds me why I choose this career. Health and xphysical education is a subject that we need and will use for the entirety of our lives, which is why I pour into my students academically as well as an individual of society.
When I graduated from college with my undergrad degree, I knew that I wanted to engage in a career that included working with children and sports. As I began my first year of teaching in Baltimore in 2022, I was also blessed with the opportunity to build my own basketball program. This is my second year as head coach of my school’s co-ed basketball team, which consists of majority boys and two girls. Last season, we finished with a record of 10-1 and this season we have our sights set on being undefeated. As a person that grew up playing basketball since I could walk, this has been the most rewarding and fulfilling experience of my life. I take pride in sharing my knowledge of the game and nurturing my student-athletes, bringing the best out of them on and off the court.
Along with having passions for teaching and coaching, creativity shares a piece of that pie. I am the creator and owner of a brand called More II Lyfe Clothing that I started in 2016. The inspiration for starting my brand was my job at Capital One in the collections department. After servicing an irate customer and having to take deep breaths throughout the transaction, I made the comment that “there is more to life” than this. From there, “more to life” stuck with me and I even sketched a logo idea on a receipt that was in my pocket. After a friend digitized the sketched logo for me, More II Lyfe Clothing was introduced to the world. Our products include hats, t-shirts, sweatshirts, sweat suits, hoodies, youth apparel, and a few others that we are currently working on. With every product purchased, the goal is to inspire people to realize that there is more to life than just settling for the basics. We deserve so much more in our lives, we just have to believe, remain faithful to that vision, and put in the work. Never settle! There’s More II Lyfe!
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The three qualities that were most impactful in my journey were patience, confidence, and becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Patience: Understand that most ideas don’t come to fruition overnight. It takes consistency, failures, resets, time, research, frustration, and so many other factors that you will run into that will try to steer you into the direction of giving up. Keep your eyes on the prize and don’t allow negative redirection to distract you from the vision.
Confidence: We tend to go to others to get their opinions on things, while second guessing ourselves. Believe in you and trust yourself. There are so many people that look up to you and are rooting for you. Be bold, be brave, and be unapologetically you, ideas and all.
Becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable: Growth and elevation rarely happens in one’s comfort zone. Once you step outside of that box we sit so warm and comfortably in, opportunities of growth and elevation are unlimited. In this process, you must shift your mindset to being okay with temporary discomfort because it will result in long term success.
What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?
My biggest area of growth in the past 12 months has been taking better care of myself. It is so easy to get caught up in the business of my day to day routine, forgetting all about me. I was giving so much of myself to others during the work day that when I got home away from the noise, I had nothing left for me. Of course my body was the first sign that I needed to slow down and dedicate more intentional time to myself. It took some time to give in, however, when I finally listened, things began to feel a lot more smoother. For example, after adding working out to my weekly agenda, I have been able to focus better and I feel more confident. This makes workloads lighter and easier to handle. It also contributes to my creativity in my classroom, when I am coaching my basketball team, and with my clothing brand.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.moreiilyfe.bigcartel.com
- Instagram: moreiilyfeclothing
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/moreiilyfeclothing
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/dominique-dunn-6a1071a2
