There are a lot of reasons people get into this profession. They are inspired to help others; they experience a life event that drives them to the industry’s door; some know early on that they will be a sport coach, a group ex guru, a choreographer, a fitness manager or a kids’ specialist. Some come to it with a full heart and mind later in life, as a second career.
But no matter what brings you to fitness, you need to know what compels you stay with it.
There’s no flaw in not being able to articulate a heartfelt value proposition or purpose for your role in the industry (at least temporarily). But until you do, you will probably just float along as a guest of the current until you find the precise rudder and sail to power you toward your true North.
Trina Gray made this abundantly clear today during her presentation “Your Club: The Place to Be on a Friday Night.” It seems out of whack for a marketing session to be so philosophical, but after reflecting on her words and seeing veteran pros in action paying their knowledge forward to eager conference delegates, I realized she was right on target.
After what I observed today, I’d be willing to bet that a good many attendees may have figured out or refined their raisons d'être in the fitness world in the past 12 hours. When faculty are out there leaving all their passion on the floor as I saw so often today, you’d have to be made of Kevlar to remain impervious to such influential energy.
Whether it was Rodney Corn filling in for colleague Michol Dalcourt (who got stranded in Europe by the Icelandic volcano fallout) to teach about training movement, not muscles in “Joint Integrity and Injury Prevention: Shoulder and Spine,” or Pete Twist fully throwing himself into the three sessions he taught from 7:30 am to 4:00 pm, there was some pretty meaningful energy exchange and inspiration happening all day here in Chicago.
The conference video and photo album on Facebook say it all: http://www.facebook.com/ideafit
Have a great evening, everyone. Talk to you all tomorrow.
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