How do you remain energized so you do not experience professional burn out?
I know a lot of trainers and fitness instructors who focus on training so many clients, that they ignore their own personal need to stay healthy and excited about teaching/training. It would be great to know what other fitness professionals do to stay excited and energized about working with their clients.
Whenever I feel my energy starting to drain, I examine what I’m doing regularly (daily, weekly, monthly, annually) and if each activity has a critical purpose. At one point, I even had my calendar colour-coded to reflect various commitments: client training (yellow), workshops/conferences (green), housekeeping (orange), personal workouts (blue), and personal time to do whatever the heck I wanted (pink), etc..
You know what’s coming, right?: at times of low ebb, there was a decent amount of blue, but not more than a hint of pink on the horizon…just a seemingly endless stream of yellow, green, and orange.
It’s up to all of us to be as proactive as possible when creating our schedule. Sure, they will be times when all you can see for weeks or months is yellow, green, and orange; but in these cases blue and pink should be right behind. Hopefully, your chosen shades of yellow and green energize and excite you more often than not; if not, you need to re-examine if you’re in the right area.
I happen to love all things health, fitness, and wellness-related, but there are times when I just need to chill and do a swift 180: watch a silly (but hopefully funny) movie, immerse myself in a great novel, hang out with people who do other things….
Also, because so much of our jobs involve constantly projecting positive energy (being “on”), physical strength and stamina, critical and creative thinking, I need times where I can let my whole self be quiet and relax; essentially I need and want to be alone (or get a great massage:). I find this to be the best energizer for me. I come out of this period feeling replenished and wanting once again to share myself entirely with others.