“Resiliency is the art of learning to repeatedly refuse to do anything
else other than rise again after any and all setbacks!”
–
Brian G. Jett
Personal Training is an emotionally draining career. You are constantly
attempting to deal with your clients' needs; they are constantly
attempting to deal with their wants. You know they need to
exercise, but they want to be lazy. You know they need to
eat healthy, but they want to eat junk, and a lot of it. You know they
need to improve their lifestyle and make good choices and they
want the instant gratification that comes from bad choices.
The
result is that you are left with feelings of frustration and inadequacy
because you could not persuade them to start or stick-with your program.
The harder you try, the more you care, the more intense your efforts-the
greater the negative feelings of failure.
Be
resilient! Be aware of the facts of life. On the planet earth, if you
drop an object in a vacuum it will fall at 32 feet per second -
everything and everywhere on our planet. That is a fact! On our planet
earth, not every human being will start an exercise program, and of
those that do start, a very high percentage will dropout. That is a
fact! There are many, many, opinions as to why 80% of the American
population does not exercise with enough regularity to receive any
health benefits, but let us stick to the facts.
The
facts of personal training are that you will never be able to convince
everyone to start exercising or eating healthy, and of those that do
many of them will drop out. It does not mean you are the world’s worst
personal fitness trainer (PFT), though you should always strive to
improve your knowledge and skill. It does not mean you are an
ineffective communicator, though you should always strive to improve
your communicative skills. It does not mean you are an ineffective
motivator or teacher, though you should always strive to improve your
motivational and teaching skills. Many times it will have absolutely
nothing to do with you and have everything to do with them. Accept it as
a fact of personal training and be resilient.
You
should always analyze why the relationship ended, but do so
unemotionally. One thing you can do is to ask them to fill out an “Exit
Survey
.”
You can often times find out more from a
departing client than you can from someone who has been with you for
years. More emotionally
draining, are the clients who stay! The clients who stay can
actually be more of an emotional drain than those who leave. In my mind,
once a client was out of the program and out of my care I felt no
emotional tie to them. However, I felt very close emotional ties to the
clients who stuck with the program. These clients were putting in the
time, effort, energy, expense and making
sacrifices simply because I asked them to. This left me feeling highly
responsible for their results. In each and every training session I used
tremendous volumes of emotional energy to motivate them through every
session. I felt like I was a pitcher of water and my clients were
glasses. I poured my life-force into them so that by the end of the day
I may not have lifted a single weight, but I was empty, the pitcher was
drained dry.
I
didn’t notice early on because I was still exercising hard and
maintaining my fitness level, but as I began to get busy, my own
workouts started to suffer. Eventually I was working way too many hours
and even when I did attempt to get a workout in, someone would
constantly be interrupting me to ask a question about exercise,
nutrition, sports conditioning, or who won the World Series in 1969?
{N.Y. Mets, 4 games to one over the Baltimore Orioles}.
I am
going to give you some advice that no one gave me back in my PFT days:
(1) Learn to say NO! It is always ego gratifying when someone walks
up to you and says “they told me you are not taking any more clients
right now, but my friend told me I should only work with you
.”
Learn to say no. If you want to last a good long time as a PFT don’t
allow your ego or greed to force you into a situation that will burn you
out.
(2) Develop Professional Emotional Detachment. Just as doctors,
lawyers, and other professionals learn to cope unemotionally with their
client and patients, so must you.
(3) Don’t let yourself get into a programming rut. Don’t be lazy -
it is real easy to develop a one size fits all training program with all
your clients getting the same program, but it’s not right for you or
them. They are not getting their needs met and you are getting bored to
death.
(4) Maintain the health and fitness lifestyle.
(5) Maintain the highest caliber of ethics. Every time you
cheat, lie, or steal it will place a stress
on you that will eventually come back to haunt you. If you don’t
understand, please read Charles Dickens' “A
Christmas Carol.”
(6) Maintain a healthy balance in your life. The Ancient Greeks had
a “Whole Man” concept. The Greeks felt if you did not develop yourself
mentally, physically, emotionally, artistically, and spiritually, you
were not a “Whole Man” {Update to read “Whole Person”-since the IFPA has
as many female as male trainers}
(7) Re-Assign “Difficult Clients
.”
You are not going to get along with everyone, so don’t put yourself
through the stress of trying.
(8) Become a master of your craft! Learn from your peers, college,
books, IFPA CEC courses or Advanced Certification courses, attend the
IFPA conference (Aug. 26th - 28th, 2004), visit
chat rooms online (IFPA-Forum), find a mentor, take advantage of the
numerous venues to learn.
(9) Strive for personal and professional excellence. I have always
believed the marvelous richness of human experience would lose something
of its rewarding joy if there were not limitations to overcome. Be
resilient!
Sincerely,
Jim Bell, President, IFPA
