From Architectural History to Personal Training

My favorite benefit of trapeze training — other than the sheer thrill of a fantastic workout– is the people whom I have met.  One of these people, Dr. Laura Faulkner, began her trapeze lessons just after I did.  She, too, was going through a career change, leaving a prestigious university position to become an independent consultant.  She, too, found that trapeze teaches lessons that extend far beyond the rig.

Laura created a forum for sharing her experiences and lessons learned from her career change.  She asked if I would come share my story.  After all, how *did* I decide to make the move from the academic world of architectural history to the seemingly unrelated world of personal training?  I’m going to tell my story today!  You might be surprised to find out that these two worlds have quite a lot of overlap.  I love to teach, and I’ve always been committed to working with passion. 

Come join us for the whole story, and meet others who are going through career transitions as well.

• New Creation Career Group
• Genuine Joe’s Coffee House- “The Cellar”, 2001 W. Anderson Ln.
• Monday, June 1st from 1.30-2.30pm, networking to follow 

Becoming SMARTER

As a personal trainer, I know how important it is for people to have SMART goals: specific, measureable, accountable, realistic, and time-based.  Today I’m going to look at the 2009 goals I made yesterday, and see how I can make them SMARTER– including making them exciting and recorded.

Goal #1- Actively Meet New People

S- Participate in Biz+Balance, both in the yahoo group and the bi-monthly meetings.  Participate in one B+B SIG.

M- Three meetings in the first four months of the year.  Meet (and remember!) at least ten people at each.

A- Record the meetings and new contacts here in the onbalance blog.

R- Completely realistic!

T- Thirty new contacts by the end of April.

E- Think of all the cool women I will meet.  And the fantastic goods/services they offer.  Supporting local mama-owned businesses is good for the local economy and the local vibe.

R- Here!

Goal #2- Eliminate Toxic Relationships

S- Spend less time in online communities where idle chit chat distracts me from being productive AND some of that chit chat is with people I wouldn’t spend time with in a non-virtual relationship.

M- Thirty minutes per day MAX of personal social networking.

A- You’ll just have to trust me! 

R- It’s simply self-discipline.  I can do it.

T- Starting January 1, 2009.

E- Think of all the time and energy I’ll have for work and other productive, satisfying activities!

R- Here!

Goal #3- Improve Marketing for Balance Personal Fitness Training

S- Create a ‘media kit’ to send to local media as well as perinatal health providers; New website

M- Kit to include cover letter, bio, offerings, photo; Website content fine, but new graphics needed

A- Here.

R- Yes.  It just needs to be done.  I know what to write/how I want the website to look.  It’s a matter of making it happen.

T- Media Kit- out by end of January.  New Website up by Spring Break.

E- This is the basis for creating new business.  If that’s not exciting, what is!?

R- Here. 

Goal #4- Continue self-improvement through sewing and flying trapeze (though not simultaneously!)

S- Sewing: become proficient at zippers and yokes for pants so I can make The Bear more RTW clothes; Flying Trapeze: improve swinging and learn second back end trick and one new trick

M- Sewing: can The Bear wear the pants without them looking total homesewn?; Trapeze: can I regularly catch the tricks?

A-  Sewing: post to SewingMamas runway for feedback; Trapeze: the line crew and catcher will hold me accountable

R- Yes.  These are the natural ‘next steps’ in my hobbies.

T- Sewing: by the beginning of the new school year; Trapeze: by the end of the spring session

E- Oh, yeah, it’s exciting!

R- Here.

I’m going to give these goals to my dear friend, M, who knows me well enough to tell me not only when I’m working hard but also when I’m slacking.  She will help hold me accountable, and I’m grateful for that.

Finding my Fire

Today’s reflection challenge is inspired by Steven Covey and his concept of “The Fire Within.”  Feeling The Fire– which is a *good* thing– occurs when your four areas of basic need are met.  Physical, mental, spiritual, and social needs govern our lives (in varying proportion, as seen from yesterday’s balance challenge), and when they are all humming along happily, we feel The Fire.

When thinking about the happiest time in my life, I don’t know if it was The Fire.  I do know that I was physically challenged (training for a marathon while caring for a newborn), mentally engaged (organizing, researching, and leading a walking tour of 1920s London), spiritually active (regularly attending Mass with my husband and consciously choosing to have our baby baptized in our faith), and socially fulfilled (despite being thousands of miles from family and home, I had a fantastic group of friends with whom I identified and felt very close to).  It was happiness.  It was bliss.  But I also knew it was a temporary state, so perhaps I just got lucky for a few years. 

At any rate, I’d love to feel like that again.  My life has changed in significant ways since that time: I have a second child; I live in a fairly suburban environment; I am working to build a business; I am a member of a parish, yet we are not very involved; I have a big group of friends, but my interactions with people tend to be in snippets rather than in long, unhurried conversation.  How can I adapt my current life to the happy, humming state I had before?  Because to live  The Fire is to be genuine….and being my authentic self and acting honestly with others reflects my core values.

But how do I get there?  How do I find my fire? 

I am fotunate because my basic needs are relatively well taken care of.  As I identified yesterday, there is always room for improvement.

Regarding relationships, I feel energized with the progress I have made recently.  I am actively meeting new people and attempting to offer my authentic self to them.  I am not a cocktail hour person; chit-chat is difficult for me.  But give me another person who is interested in having a thoughtful conversation, and I couldn’t be happier.  Similarly, I am working to eliminate relationships that no longer inspire me.  It is difficult to admit that I have continued to participate in relationships simply out of habit, but I have.  And that is not genuine.  I do not offer those people my best, and what I take from them is not positive.  Bottom line: surround myself with people I *want* to be around.

I have so much to learn in the coming year regarding my business. As with most new endeavors, I did not know how much I did not know until I started.  My biggest area of interest is learning to market myself to a target audience (perinatalwomen) so that I can do the work I feel most called to do.  I need to follow through with plans to produce a media kit and to contact local OBs and midwives informing them of my services.

Personally, I want to continue to improve my sewing techniques so that my boys can wear Mama-made love all day while I reap the creative benefits.  I also want to continue learning flying trapeze, as it is a breath of focus and freedom in my life.  If I could sew daily (or whenever inspired) and fly weekly (or as often as the rig is available), I would have a happy balance of creativity, technique, focus, and activity….all of which is energizing.

Bring on The Fire.