Fit for Life: Develop Yourself. It’s Your Duty and Responsibility

Fit for Life: Develop Yourself. It’s Your Duty and Responsibility

Last weekend I took my team of 4 coaches to Scottsdale, Arizona for the Fit Body World conference. I took care of their admission ticket, airfare, lodging, transportation, and most of their meals.

 

Someone inquired, “What did that cost you?” I responded, “It didn’t “cost” me anything.”

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The follow-up was… “You all went for free”?

I then said, hell no, I spent lots of money, however, I don’t consider it a cost, but an investment.

The second follow-up was “What if you invest all that money, and they leave you?”

My response was…” What if I don’t, and they stay with me?”

 

I am a firm believer in self-development, and over my fitness career I have spent an equivalent of a college education on myself development and have no plans of stopping anytime soon.

 

I travel extensively and seek out the best in the business to learn from, and whenever the opportunity arises, I invest in my team so they can stay in stride with my learning too.

 

I could just go, learn, return, and try to teach them what I learned; however, the message gets diluted when you don’t hear it straight from the source. Now all I need to do is keep pouring gas on the fire and keep them motivated and engaged in our mission.

 

Yes, I have been burned in the past by investing in teammates only to have them leave. However, their fire will eventually burn out and return them to mediocrity unless they keep reinvesting in themselves. That’s because learning and self-development is like a muscle, you need to keep training it every day or you will regress.

 

It doesn’t matter what industry you are in either. It’s not just fitness.

 

Whether you are a real estate agent, car sales associate, mental health counselor, teacher, hairstylist, massage therapist, restaurant owner, florist, or orthopedic surgeon etc., you are doing yourself and your clientele a disservice if you don’t invest in self-development.

 

Times are always changing, and industries are always evolving, and it’s everyone’s responsibility to stay on the cutting edge of the latest techniques and strategies to serve your clients better, and work more efficiently.

 

I want to back up my statements with some examples of how and why I feel this is so important to everyone, regardless of what business you are in.

 

    1.    You surround yourself with like-minded professionals. If being the best at your trade is what interests you, you need to be in proximity with the best. You become a product of who you consider your network. Hang around party animals, you become a party animal. Hang around unmotivated crop dusters, your motivation diminishes. Hang around people with a fighter jet mentality, you strive to become a fighter jet. We were surrounded by about 500 fire breathing dragons that were all striving to be the best; therefore, we came back with the same mission in mind. Be the best.

    2.    Learn from other people’s mistakes, so you don’t have to make them yourself. It wasn’t all glamor and success stories that were shared this weekend. Many presenters shared their shortcomings and mistakes with the audience. They humbly put the ego on a shelf and discussed some things that didn’t work or set them back. We all get the idea fairy flying into our thoughts, so learning what doesn’t work can eliminate costly mistakes and save us time and energy.

    3.    It shows us what’s possible. Success leaves clues, so taking advice from the most successful Fit Body owners in the brand is as equally valuable as learning from their mistakes. We got some great ideas on how to improve our customer service, and how to efficiently operate at a world class level. These were real world examples that can’t be taught in textbooks. (Although reading is another great form of self-development)

    4.    It confirmed what we are currently doing and supported how we operate as an organization. We are already emulating the best in the industry, and in some cases, doing it better. When one of the presenters was explaining his process, the team and I gave each other the thumbs up, and a head nod that we were on point.

    5.    The human connection. This is by far the most important. We aren’t supposed to be isolated as humans, and in the past couple years this put a lot of people in an emotional, and psychological slump. I think I hugged and high fived 98% of the people at that conference last weekend, and it felt good making that connection. This is something virtual learning or being in a social media group can never replace. The emotion in that room was something words can’t describe. Every presenter poured their heart and soul into the event, and that will carry on in stride with the knowledge we absorbed.

 

In conclusion, it is and has been my belief that fitness professionals have the most important job in the world.

 

I am not overlooking the importance of teachers, police, and doctors, because they also play important roles in society, however we play preventative role in people’s health and fitness.

 

You could live without education (not a very productive life) but you won’t live long without your health.

 

You don’t see your doctor when you want to prevent diabetes, obesity, and heart disease, you see them after the fact, looking for ways to react to the circumstances.

 

Therefore, it is up to us as fitness professionals to seek the best ways to help the most people change their lives for the better, and as long as I am in this profession, I will continue to invest in myself and my team to put us in a position to be the best at what we do.

 

As I said earlier, regardless of your profession, it takes countless hours of continual self-development to put you in a position to be the best, so invest in yourself, and don’t consider it a cost.

 

Committed to your success,

Matt