Last week, I hit the 300 hour mark in my 400 hours of Pilates certification training. (Yay!) After a fleeting moment of relief and celebration, it dawned on me that now I had to really bring it.
I’m a good trainer. I know my stuff. I can tailor a session to a specific person’s needs and train the body in front of me rather than just spouting generic cues. I’m also a good Pilates student. I pay attention to form. I push my body to do what it couldn’t before. I listen to feedback from my trainers and try to incorporate it into my own practice as well as into my teaching.
Okay then. What’s the problem? The problem is that now it’s about more than just memorizing anatomy, learning the exercises, and practicing how to teach them. My understanding of the why of Pilates and my ability to integrate everything I’ve learned into an approach that inspires and challenges people to enjoy being in their bodies will make me a great trainer. Now is when the real work begins.
There are days that I’d rather just stay at good. I mean, I’m here already. Why not just hang out for a while? Then I remember that people come to me to be healthier, manage pain, feel better in their skin, fit into their favorite pair of jeans, or get their shape back after having a baby. I owe it to them to be better than just good.
In any pursuit – athletic, business, academic – we reach a plateau (sometimes several) of competence that we have to overcome if we want to become experts. Pushing past it is exhausting! And I’m lazy sometimes! Finding the motivation to excel – and hanging onto it for dear life – is often the only thing that gets me past my “why can’t I just hang out at good?” moments. For me, motivation comes from some combination of type A-ness, a competitive spirit (usually towards myself), and a sense of responsibility to the people whose lives I’m meddling with – whether a Pilates client trying to live a healthier life or a marketing client whose business depends on finding the right partner or getting the message out to the right people. So I do it. I latch onto that spark of inspiration and I push.
What about you? What motivates you to push past good?
