I love my job. Teaching fitness has completely transformed my life, my body and my attitude and I am so grateful the right people came along to encourage me along the way. So, I am the first to encourage a student or a friend that wants to become an instructor. At this point, I've helped train so many new instructors that I've lost count and I even went so far as to write a book on how to become a fitness instructor. (Check it out here if you are really interested.) However, before I agree to help someone achieve their dream of being at the front of the room, I ask everyone a very serious question- "Are you SURE you want to do this?" Of course, they always enthusiastically answer "YES!" until we start talking about the down and dirty side of being The One With The Mic. Then, about 40% decide that it isn't for them and they would really prefer to just be a student.
No matter how confident you are, every single class is a test of your abilities. It doesn't matter if you were a rock star yesterday and every student came up and hugged you and smiled and your class was packed. If the class you JUST taught wasn't out-of-this-world amazing, you feel like a complete failure. You stress about the numbers, about that one new person that walked out, about those 3 people who aren't smiling, about that new song that went so much better when you practiced it at home, about that "new' student you introduced yourself to that you had already met last week... It never stops. Its our job to make sure that every student gets a crazy, sweaty workout, follows all the moves, feels confident, gets educated, AND has a great time while they are doing it. EVERY. STUDENT. Which is hard when a student is tired, or having a rough day, or feeling uncoordinated or nervous about a new class or feeling sore from another workout. We don't know about all that, though. We just notice if a student isn't happy and then assume its our fault in some way. And what about us? We have our bad days, tired days, sore days, FAT days... but we hope our students never notice.
Thankfully, for this particular class, most of my students were just running late and a lot of people are on vacation or tired of trying to drag their kids to the gym. Once class got started, people started trickling in and by the time we were 15 minutes in, I had almost 60 and it ended up being a pretty decent class. That initial doubt never really fades, though. And there are days where half the class is missing, or everyone is quiet and not smiling or I screw up all the choreography or get the cueing wrong. Everyone has a bad day or a bad class. The tricky part as an instructor is making sure that our self worth and our belief in our abilities is not all based on that one class.
Like I tell my students at every class, its not about being perfect. Its about SWEATING and SMILING. I did that today. Sometimes, I need the reminder that that's enough, too.
***************** Are you a fitness instructor? Can you relate? Comment and share how YOU keep your sanity with the ups and downs of this job.
***************** Are you a student? What are some of the reasons you miss your regular classes or come into class distracted?
No matter how confident you are, every single class is a test of your abilities. It doesn't matter if you were a rock star yesterday and every student came up and hugged you and smiled and your class was packed. If the class you JUST taught wasn't out-of-this-world amazing, you feel like a complete failure. You stress about the numbers, about that one new person that walked out, about those 3 people who aren't smiling, about that new song that went so much better when you practiced it at home, about that "new' student you introduced yourself to that you had already met last week... It never stops. Its our job to make sure that every student gets a crazy, sweaty workout, follows all the moves, feels confident, gets educated, AND has a great time while they are doing it. EVERY. STUDENT. Which is hard when a student is tired, or having a rough day, or feeling uncoordinated or nervous about a new class or feeling sore from another workout. We don't know about all that, though. We just notice if a student isn't happy and then assume its our fault in some way. And what about us? We have our bad days, tired days, sore days, FAT days... but we hope our students never notice.
Thankfully, for this particular class, most of my students were just running late and a lot of people are on vacation or tired of trying to drag their kids to the gym. Once class got started, people started trickling in and by the time we were 15 minutes in, I had almost 60 and it ended up being a pretty decent class. That initial doubt never really fades, though. And there are days where half the class is missing, or everyone is quiet and not smiling or I screw up all the choreography or get the cueing wrong. Everyone has a bad day or a bad class. The tricky part as an instructor is making sure that our self worth and our belief in our abilities is not all based on that one class.
Like I tell my students at every class, its not about being perfect. Its about SWEATING and SMILING. I did that today. Sometimes, I need the reminder that that's enough, too.
***************** Are you a fitness instructor? Can you relate? Comment and share how YOU keep your sanity with the ups and downs of this job.
***************** Are you a student? What are some of the reasons you miss your regular classes or come into class distracted?
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