I love my job. Most days it is a blessing and one of my favorite things about getting up in the morning. Like anything, some days are better than others.
There are days like last Tuesday when I woke up at 3:30 with a pounding headache and couldn't get back to sleep. I've been stressing over us selling our house and the to do list in my head never ends. The last thing I felt like doing was teaching Zumba with loud music and heavy bass. I got there feeling miserable and tried to put a smile on my face and start the class like I was happy to be there. Within 10 minutes, I wasn't pretending. Everyone was smiling and making noise and there was this energy in the room. Its almost like a static crackle. The whole room has a little extra sizzle and everyone has that light in their eyes. We sweat and laughed and enjoyed the party and I left that class feeling happy and uplifted and grateful for what I do.
Then there are days like today. Today was a train wreck. Mind you, this is the same gym and the same time slot as the amazing class from Tuesday, but it didn't feel like it today. It was rough. Everyone seemed so tired. There weren't very many people there and those that were there were quiet and serious. I had to drag smiles out of people and even those didn't seem to reach anyone's eyes. I had several people walk out and that always kills me. People walking out of a fitness class is an entirely different blog rant for another day; for now I will just say that it is such a huge emotional blow to the instructor. The worst part is that I still don't know what went wrong. I felt fine. Its not like I changed the song selection that much. I taught at the pace that I usually do. I knew all the choreography. I can't pinpoint a single problem that could "fix" the issue. Every once in a while, something is just off. Fitness Instructors pour their energy out to the class. Sometimes, I swear I can almost SEE it moving from me to my students like a blue smoke. The amazing thing about teaching is that as soon as my students pep up and get into class, all that energy flows right back to me and back and forth until everyone is pumped and excited and sweaty. Except not today. Today it felt like all my energy flowed out and was just absorbed. It was just gone. At the end of class, I was physically and emotionally drained. I felt like I had failed.
Thankfully, these classes are rare. I've talked to enough instructors to realize that we ALL have classes like this every once in a while. It doesn't mater how experienced you are, how seasoned the class is or how well you are prepared. Sometimes, it just doesn't mesh like it should. The next class right after this one was great and I'm betting the next class I teach at this gym will be back to its usual joy. In the meantime, it will continue to drive me nuts trying to figure out what was different today.
There are days like last Tuesday when I woke up at 3:30 with a pounding headache and couldn't get back to sleep. I've been stressing over us selling our house and the to do list in my head never ends. The last thing I felt like doing was teaching Zumba with loud music and heavy bass. I got there feeling miserable and tried to put a smile on my face and start the class like I was happy to be there. Within 10 minutes, I wasn't pretending. Everyone was smiling and making noise and there was this energy in the room. Its almost like a static crackle. The whole room has a little extra sizzle and everyone has that light in their eyes. We sweat and laughed and enjoyed the party and I left that class feeling happy and uplifted and grateful for what I do.
Then there are days like today. Today was a train wreck. Mind you, this is the same gym and the same time slot as the amazing class from Tuesday, but it didn't feel like it today. It was rough. Everyone seemed so tired. There weren't very many people there and those that were there were quiet and serious. I had to drag smiles out of people and even those didn't seem to reach anyone's eyes. I had several people walk out and that always kills me. People walking out of a fitness class is an entirely different blog rant for another day; for now I will just say that it is such a huge emotional blow to the instructor. The worst part is that I still don't know what went wrong. I felt fine. Its not like I changed the song selection that much. I taught at the pace that I usually do. I knew all the choreography. I can't pinpoint a single problem that could "fix" the issue. Every once in a while, something is just off. Fitness Instructors pour their energy out to the class. Sometimes, I swear I can almost SEE it moving from me to my students like a blue smoke. The amazing thing about teaching is that as soon as my students pep up and get into class, all that energy flows right back to me and back and forth until everyone is pumped and excited and sweaty. Except not today. Today it felt like all my energy flowed out and was just absorbed. It was just gone. At the end of class, I was physically and emotionally drained. I felt like I had failed.
Thankfully, these classes are rare. I've talked to enough instructors to realize that we ALL have classes like this every once in a while. It doesn't mater how experienced you are, how seasoned the class is or how well you are prepared. Sometimes, it just doesn't mesh like it should. The next class right after this one was great and I'm betting the next class I teach at this gym will be back to its usual joy. In the meantime, it will continue to drive me nuts trying to figure out what was different today.
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