Counting down to launch…

10

The minimum number of hours each week that I need to fill with client bookings in order to keep a roof over my head.

9

My new bed time each night, if I’m going to be at my best each day to train the early rising clients each morning.

8

The number of professional development courses that I have already either earmarked or booked in to attend over the next 6 months.

7

Basic functional human movements to be observed, corrected, trained & blended together into a great workout for each of my clients at every session they attend.

6

The number of days to my next professional development course, which will be to receive a qualification in instructing with Bulgarian Bags.

5

The new time that I will be getting up each morning, which means that like it or not, I really need to become a morning person!!

4

The actual number of service categories that I will be launching with, with the fifth due to launch this September.

3

The number of weeks that I have set myself to have a nearly full PT schedule, which is a target of around 25 to 30 sessions – or about 12 to 15 hours per week.

2

Days to go until I start hitting the phones at a local gym where I will be starting to build my client base.

1

Happy Personal Trainer looking forward to enjoying the new career that I’ve worked so hard to begin.

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Yes, it’s official. As of 4pm on Friday the 28^th of June 2013, yours truly received his certificates which qualify me as a Fitness Instructor and a Personal Trainer. Only 10 minutes later, I had registered myself with Fitness Australia, and had my insurance paid and set to begin tomorrow, ready to start my first week as a bona-fide fitness professional.

I’ve spent the better part of the last 2 weeks attending to the things that need doing in order to get a small business off to a great start. I went to a 3 day induction in order to start working out of the local Goodlife Health Club, and I also attended my first additional professional development course to give me an extra certification for running group fitness programs in an outdoor setting. I’ve been busy getting all of my other business related stuff together as well, such as bank accounts, price lists, policy documents, making a start on my operations manual, and just way too much other stuff to mention. So in other words, getting seriously organised as I gear up for starting out in my new career.

Part of that getting organised business has been putting together a new website, which is kind of finished… for now. It’s needs more art, and it’s not the perfect layout or colour scheme, but it will do as a first run until I can organise to have someone look after it for me in a couple of months or so.

So as of tomorrow, Compass Personal Training will be officially open for business. I’m seriously excited about all of this, and I can’t wait to see what the next few months has in store.

Busy… Busy…

So much to do, so little time…

How many times have you thought that you didn’t have time to do something important, because you felt that everything else in life was getting in the way and stopping you from achieving something that you wanted to? If there is one thing I’ve learned on my journey, it’s that people can easily fall into the trap of telling themselves lots of little lies, buying into those lies, and ultimately bringing about the failure they predicted in the first place.

“Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right.”
– Henry Ford

So here I am facing a little dilemma, because I KNOW that what I believe is powerful enough to bring about the actions or consequences that I wish to occur, and while I believe I will get all of the work that I need to get done done in time to secure a job, the sheer volume of work that I need to do is frankly quite overwhelming, and all of this has needed to happen at the same time as when I get to see my kids for the first time in nearly 6 weeks!

Reality check time. My kids are more important to me than anything, so I give up the time that I should be working my ass off, because I value my time with my family more, particularly when my kids are concerned given they get to see so little of me as it is. It’s a choice that I make and one I make gladly. Now however, I have sent the kids back to their mother for a week, and I now have only a couple of days to get done all of the stuff I was struggling to get on top of before, and I find myself both stressed at the sheer enormity of the job I need to do, and driven by my own need to damn it all and succeed just to spite myself!!

So where do things stand with me and my goals? Well, I have registered a business name, located a gym only 20 minutes away where I will be able to kick off my new career as a kind of “franchisee”, and I am presently doing a big project for my fitness qualifications, which is putting together a business plan. The nice thing though is that I can kill two birds with one stone, but writing my real business plan, and submitting that as my completed project. Bonus!!

As soon as I finish all of the outstanding assessment tasks, I’ll be able to get my professional registration and insurances, and when all of that happens, I’ll likely be ready to go live with my business. I’ve been quietly putting together all of the stuff that I need to arrange such as website, business blog, and other stuff. My mum has been busy designing the business logo, and when all of the planning has been done and dusted, I’ll be ready to hit the ground running so that I can concentrate on building up my clientèle and doing something that I’ve discovered I am rather good at! 🙂

I attended an induction week for the gym that I will be working as a PT with. It was a lot of fun, and I realised that the course that I attended for my qualifications was better than I had realised, because there were many other people there who weren’t as thorough or as attentive as myself and my classmates were during our course. It’s kind fo cool to realise that I’m already a better quality of trainer than many out there, and I’ve realised that I don’t really need to do very much to exceed the public’s expectations in terms of what I do and quality of services. But before I get a really big head and start thinking I’m SO bloody “superior”, I’m reminded that I really don’t care what the other PT’s are like. I really only care that I am the best I can be, that my clients will always come first, and that I have a really wonderful opportunity here to do some serious good in the world, even if only in my own limited way.

So the “vision” – if you will – is to do the best I can, earn as much money as I can, and sink a good portion of that back into a little research and development. What I’d really like to do is to develop several programs in conjunction with local allied health professionals to provide support for:

• people who suffer with anxiety and depression
• people who suffer with obesity and related illnesses
• families where generation obesity is becoming a real problem
• people who suffer with anorexia and bulemia, and related illnesses

These are all somewhat preventable problems, and knowing  from personal experience how hard it is to keep motivated over a long term in order to get through many of these issues, I feel very strongly that there isn’t enough done to really deal with such problems with the immediacy and the efficiency that they deserve. I’d like to find a way to better educate people in order to try and eradicate such issues, or to at least reduce the impact of such issues on the people who suffer with them, and on the families and friends who are likewise effected.

So I’ll be planning and “scheming” over the coming months, putting lots of stuff together, building my business and preparing to give a whole lot of public talks locally, trying to raise awareness about many issues relating to health and fitness, and somehow managing to prioritize enough time to not only get all of this done, but also to keep in touch with the rest of the blog’o’sphere, and of course to spend as much time as I can with my family while all of this happens. I think that I can do all of this, and like Henry Ford was telling us, I know that I am right!

😛

Study update…

Well, that officially takes care of my second week as a Personal Training Student. I’d forgotten how much fun learning can be, particularly when it’s subject matter that interests me. Here’s the thing though… the more deeply I dig into fitness and bio-mechanics, and all that basic anatomy that they’ve been drilling into me over the last two weeks, the more I can’t help but be in awe at the sheer complexity, and the beauty, and the incredible efficiency of the human body. Yes, sure, there are several “design flaws” with regards to the way the body is put together, particularly this crazy stuff to do with female plumbing and confusion surrounding the placement of both the waste and pleasure bits, and yet if I had the ability to create an efficient biological machine, I would be hard pressed to do nearly as well, and I’d like to think that I’m a pretty smart guy when it comes to understanding such things.

The course itself has been well thought out, and even with some of the teething problems that the provider has been having with some of their on-line content (which is new and appears largely untested), it doesn’t take anything away from the content, the pacing, and the approach to drumming all of this knowledge into the minds of a very broad student audience. I’ve met lots of really wonderful people on this course, and I feel a basic connection with each and every person I am studying with, which is really saying something for someone like myself who spent many years in my youth finding it difficult to connect with almost anyone. Each person brings unique experiences and perspectives to the group as a whole, and I’ve been feeling that it’s a privilege to be able to get to know each and every one of them.

Studying this course has reinvigorated my urge to train regularly, and while it’s been hard to get the extra time, I’ve been finding a way to do it. Yesterday I managed to go for a 6.1km run with my youngest son, and I’ve even squeezed in a couple of sessions in the gym where my studies take place. It’s a good thing too, because the extra exercise will be needed to burn off the extra calories I’ve been consuming ever since my parents-in-law arrived.

Yes, my mother-in-law is a great cook, and she loves to bake. It’s a blessing and a curse both, because her cooking is extremely tasty, and I can’t say no to her, in part because I don’t wish to discourage or insult her, and in part because my resolve to eat healthier and more Paleo is weakened every time I enter the house and see something new and tempting. The good news however is that the prior 3 months of Paleo and lifestyle changing has been great preparation for my in-laws visit, and I’ve been able to find a workable compromise between eating healthy and enjoying a few naughty treats, without completely backsliding into my old habits. This has been a really big thing for me, and shows me just how far I’ve come on my health and fitness journey.

Somehow, I’ve managed over this past week to spend time with my boys, spend time with my wife and her parents, drive everyone about from place to place as needed, and still make the time to study and attend lectures. I’ve grown beyond feeling the need to make excuses about all of the stuff that I allowed to slide, putting aside stress, and simply getting on with stuff as best as I can. it really has been about not sweating all of the small stuff that causes people so much personal anguish and stress, and while the hectic schedule has been difficult, I feel as if I’ve been making the most out of every moment of each day over the past few weeks. It’s like I’ve reached a real turning point where my personal growth gets to accelerate daily and doesn’t seem to look as though it will be slowing down any time soon.

While I’ve been enjoying the education, I’m starting to really champ at the bit for the day when I can finally be turned loose and go out on my own as a PT. I’ll probably look for regular work as a PT or an instructor at a gym or two to start with, while I begin to build a business around this new career that I have chosen. I have a ton of ideas about how to really get the most out of my training, and I can see a huge untapped market out there just waiting for me to not only earn a dollar or two, but to also find lots of people who could really benefit from a little training/ coaching who might otherwise be unable to access (or be unaware of ) the opportunity to have a personal trainer helping them to achieve their health/fitness/life goals.

I’ve been feeling really encouraged by everything that has happened to me over the last few months, and yes I’m even including all of the “bad” stuff. I really feel as if this is my year, and that I’m on the verge of some really great things happening. It’s as if I were a fish that had finally learned to swim with the tide instead of against it, and things just seem to be getting easier and easier. I’m sure there’s a clever psychological explanation for how I’m feeling, but regardless, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been, and enjoying a period of fulfilment in my life that I’ve felt has been long overdue. Every moment ahead – good or bad – is an opportunity just waiting to be taken, and I intend to be there, ready and waiting to do so. This is perhaps and example I can show to others of how powerful positive thinking has been for me, and how far it can carry you if you allow yourself to be open to it.

And yet, my enjoyment of everything that has happened to me lately would not feel so complete if it wasn’t for all of the positive feedback I have received from those of you who have been reading my blog, and for all of you bloggers who I have been reading who have also been turning your lives around. You have all encouraged me to be stronger, not just for myself, but for you also, and you have all been a source of strength for me whenever I have felt my spirits flagging. This wonderful and supportive community has been a great gift when I have needed it, and I hope that you feel that I’ve been keeping up my end and have been able to encourage you also, in my own way.