As 2017 begins, it’s good to reflect on the previous year’s accomplishments, failures and what you’ve learned from both along the way. There are moments in everyone’s life when you need to take a step back, revisit your path, maybe change course or find another route. I realized that the route I was following was not serving me or my clients well. I wasn’t considering WHY I teach and WHAT I wanted to offer or deliver to our community and clients. I had lost my purpose.
Shannon Kaiser of the Huffington Post has a great article, 3 Unexpected Ways to Find Your Life Purpose, and suggests the following ways to find your purpose:
+ “Get more action”, which I interpret as get more involved. How do you find your purpose or your passions? You have to put in the effort. You have to throw yourself out there, like testing spaghetti to see if it’s fully cooked (throw it on the wall, see if it sticks).
+ “Drop from your head to your heart”, listen to your heart. Find your passion by being open to trying new things. When you feel happy about what you are doing, it will show through your actions. You will be able to tap into what makes you happy and share it with others.
+ “Break up with one”. You don’t have to stop at having one passion. Find the things that truly make you happy. For me it’s, spending time in in the outdoors; hiking, running, skiing, kayaking, and boating. I also love teaching and taking fitness classes. My passion is being involved in fitness. However, I believe my purpose is to share my love of fitness with others. Passions become purpose.
Finally, Shannon states: Passion + Daily Action = Purposeful Life
“Consider that the real purpose of anyone’s life is to be fully involved in living. Try to be present for the journey and fully embrace it. Soon you will be oozing with passion, and you will feel so purposeful and fulfilled you will wonder how you lived life without it. Enjoy the journey into your own awesome life”.
I became a fitness instructor when I was working as a Buyer for Sony Music Canada. I had the opportunity to enter the Fitness Ontario Leadership Program and became an instructor at the Sony Fitness Studio in 1993. Yes, I am that young. I taught Step, Aerobics and Strengthening classes. The reason I started teaching fitness classes was I wanted to share my passion for health, fitness and overall well being with my co-workers. In 2010, I started as a barre client and soon fell in love with the method, studio and community. I also acquired the benefit of improved posture, increased muscle mass and core strength. A year later, I decided to train to become a barre instructor. As a part of our nature we continue to strive for perfection—in our jobs, family life, exercise/practice, and as an instructor. Seeking to increase and improve both my teaching and instructional skills to take my classes to the next level ,I lost my passion and purpose. Why do people strive to attain perfection when it is so elusive? People should always be willing to continuously improve. There is a saying: ”Perfection is not found in results. Perfection is found in your effort.” Continue to perfect your practice; work to achieve your goals, know what you want to offer your clients each class and do the best you can to deliver.
One of my favorite mottos at the moment is: PRESENT over PERFECT. I was trying to meet expectations that I had imposed on myself that didn’t allow me to be ME. I took some time to reflect on my PURPOSE. Why did I decide to become an instructor, what made teaching fitness enjoyable and fulfilling for me? Then I realized it was making a positive difference in one person’s day. Clients come to work out, walk into the studio with stress of their morning, day or evening with them. It is up to us as instructors to gift them with one hour of fitness and fun in a safe and supportive environment so they can return to their daily routine feeling strong and healthy; physically, mentally and emotionally.
“You don’t need to be great to start, but you do need to start to be great.” states Colin Robertson of WillPowered
