Higher education can be a hugely demanding work environment with many things to balance. So it’s hard to remember when it feels you are up to your ears in hungry alligators that your priority should be to drain the swamp. But what is the alternative? Using all your attention and energy just to fight off the alligators can only last for a limited time.

Or maybe you’ve been in the swamp for so long that you have forgotten that the swamp actually has a plug, or where it can be found? If you have always been in an HEI environment as an adult: either as a student or educatorr/staff member, it’s possible that you don’t even realise that a plug exists – and that you think the only solution is to get out of the swamp as soon as you can – if you can!

Caring on Campus reminds us of our choices. Choices that start with our beliefs and attitudes, and which then shape our thoughts, feelings, and ultimately our sense of wellbeing. There is no such thing as having no choice. But habits can turn us into machines such that we forget how to function as humans.

MAKE yourself take time to step back – even for one minute in every hour – so that you keep reminding yourself of your higher purpose and what you are here to achieve for a greater and common good.

At the very least, use the alligators to catalyse you into strategies for understanding and managing yourself, to develop better relationships and how to make better decisions in the future.