Have you ever walked into a fitness class and wanted to just turn around and go home again? The participants all looked keen, fit and ready for an hour of Burpees. Have you ever felt out of your depth going into a fitness class?
I have…and I was the bloody instructor!
In my early days as an instructor I would walk up to the class hall repeating in my head,”I’m the instructor. I’m the man! I know what I’m doing!”
And of course, I did know what I was doing but it didn’t stop the nerves. It didn’t stop me from scanning the room and thinking, ‘Most of these are younger than me, they look fitter, they all know each other.’ Lots of fitness class attendees are hardcore who book their classes early, stand in the same place with their equipment at their feet, ready for the instructor to enter. My first class felt like I was walking into a western saloon bar. The doors creaked open, the music paused, everyone stopped talking and looked towards me. Only it was nothing like that. It was my own anxieties playing out a completely different story.
I have learned to take away the magnifying glass when I teach a fitness class now and I no longer have these insecurities. The nerves will always be there. If the adrenaline stops I might as well as look for a different job. I need the participants to feel my adrenaline. That’s the exciting bit.
But this magnifying glass was something that was with me in every aspect of my life. Everybody else had a better life than me. They were happier, better dressed, had better jobs, more money. And when social media came along and I looked up my old pals from previous jobs and school…you guessed it, they were all more successful.
I had to do something about how I felt about myself. If I were going to be a success without comparing myself to anybody else then I needed to address this magnifying glass. And by success I mean a good dad and husband, a job I enjoyed and somewhere to live and prosper. Success is not a jet set life to me. If our potatoes grow in the garden this year that is a success story!
Our magnifying glass makes anything appear amplified. I often saw everything in anxiousness and fear but now I look for hope, happiness and confidence.
Poet Alexander Pope wrote, “The greatest magnifying glasses in the world are a man’s own eyes when they look upon his own person.”
I stopped looking at everyone else and looked at me. My own dreams, my own aspirations, my own successes and my own life. The magnifying glass is always there, I just need to know where to direct it.
If you are apprehensive about entering the gym or going to a fitness class for the first time, put the magnifying glass firmly on yourself and focus on how fabulous YOU are.
Never Give Up PT 