This goes out to all the Class Instructors/PTs and basically anyone who runs their own business no matter what sector you are in….BUT more so the “Fitness Industry”

Do you ever hear this?

“wow you only do 2 classes a day….you much have sooo much spare time”

“wow you get £15-30 a session/class/hour….you must be minted”

“must be great to just workout for a living”

Yes I am sure you have heard all the above (and more) hundreds of times……and I suppose in a way we cant really blame the public for this, because after all this is all they ever see. Ive had clients/class members/friends and even family tell me I am s lucky cos I only “WORK” (being the word) a few hours a day…..hmmmm if only they knew

YES working for yourself is amazing, you can pretty much pick and choose when you do/don’t work, who you work with/for…..and how much you want to work…its amazing and its been my dream forever but people never ever see the other side…..on top of all the classes we teach/clients we train, we spend hours and hours outside of class preparing routines, writing programs, researching, reading, studying looking for specific music and creating class lesson plans…. and guess what believe it or not they don’t just miraculously come to us in class…..but again this is the side no1 ever sees. When we sit at home creating all the above and practising routines and are practically lashing the laptop out the window cos we have “instructor block”, when we stress about programs/routines….no one pays us for this, the endless hours sat in front of the laptop, in a studio or heads in a book…again no money here….

The Life of a Fitness Instructor/PT/Class Instructor is full of fun. laughs, smiles, new challenges, confidence, happiness and the chance to meet people…and this is the side everyone see’s and admires (and the side we thrive off of course), when in truth the other side of the Life of a Fitness Instructor (the side no1 see’s and understands) is full of sweat, tears, nerves, injuries, mental and physical draining, self doubt, fatigue….carrying on when you are sick and having the balls and confidence to stand up infront of a room full of people and be the 1 everyone is concentrating on and looking at when inside you are falling apart….that is the hardest part ever! Its like show business…standing up and basically performing and for that hour (or whatever) putting a smile on your face and forgetting everything. Also Standing up infront of a room of women, who look up to you and feeling a like a big frump in your clothes and feeling like a fraud….even though no1 else in the room feels that way but YOU……thats a toughie too….. There is a lot of misconceptions around the Life of a Fitness/Class Instructor…..the majority of people think because you are a Fitness/Class Instructor then life is all rosy and that we are perfect and eat perfect and don’t need to worry about our weight and how we luck…….OMG how wrong is that! A lot of people also expect that all Fitness/Class Instructors should be size 8 skinny minnies wearing crop tops……oh please as if!

As well as this consider that I personally (and I am sure others do to) do all of this on top of teaching a class:
Tax/Accounts
Routines
Website
Emails
Newsletters
Music – buy and prep
Write Programs
Articles
FREE videos for youtube and clients
Blog
Research
Read
Attend Courses/Online Seminar
And much more

The knowledge a true Fitness Professional has, doesn’t just come from 1 course or reading 1 book (if only), it comes from years and years of endless “unpaid” (and to some extent) unappreciated hours of hard work, research, reading, planning, preparing.

So ALWAYS appreciate the time given to you by anyone……because you never know what goes on “behind the scenes” of a business until you have been there yourself……and this does apply to most business that you deal with (especially small businesses) – always consider that the person behind this business puts in hours and hours of hard work…that you don’t see…its not a case of “abacadabara” and there it is…..this ain’t no fairytale shizzle….this is real life.

Cut your instructor a bit of slack because like me – inside they could be breaking and falling apart but for you they will always have a smile and I love all my class members and a smile I will always have for them

Jen x

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