I don’t know how you do this.

It’s a line I hear pretty often. And it’s usually not a real question—most people aren’t looking for a step-by-step guide on how to be a school director. It’s more like a statement dressed up as curiosity. Sometimes it sounds like concern. Sometimes bewilderment. Sometimes awe.

The last time someone said it to me, I replied, “You’re doing it too.”

Because that’s the part people miss: the “how” isn’t some secret strategy. It’s time. It’s repetition. It’s showing up.

I remember my first three years in the classroom. I was scared almost every day before I walked in. Not scared in a dramatic way—just that low-level, constant fear that something would go wrong and I wouldn’t know what to do. But I kept showing up. And slowly, the fear started to loosen its grip. You stack enough days together and you realize, Oh… I can do this.

My first few years as an administrator were the same. I’d walk in bracing myself, waiting for something to blow up. And when it did—because it did, often—I handled it. Not perfectly. Not magically. I just handled what was in front of me, one situation at a time.

Years later, I don’t walk into work afraid. On hard days, I’m anxious and tired. On good days, I’m actually looking forward to the day. But the foundation is the same: keep showing up, day by day.

And here’s where I’m still growing—learning to deal with what’s right in front of me, instead of living inside the stories my mind tries to write ahead of time. Because so much of what lives in my head is just that: story.

That’s why I love what Michelangelo said:

“If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.” —Michelangelo

That quote belongs here because it tells the truth behind the compliment. People see the outcome—calm leadership, experience, confidence—and assume it’s personality. But most of it is practice. Most of it is reps. Most of it is a long trail of ordinary days where you showed up scared, showed up unsure, and showed up anyway.

So when someone says, “I don’t know how you do this,” I get it. I really do.

But the honest answer is simple:

You do it the same way I did.

You keep showing up.

What’s one area of your life where you can keep showing up—one day at a time—even if you feel unsure?