My Word for the Year for 2020 was Fearless.
I knew I would need courage and grit to go after the bold goals I set for 2020. I knew I was on the verge of a pivot. But who could have imagined the sharp plot twist our collective narrative was about to take?
I had smaller goals too, like the ones on my 20 for 2020 list. One of those goals was to redo my 100 Dreams List before my 45th birthday, which is tomorrow. Like most of the goals on my 20 for 2020 list, I have fallen a little short. My intention was to start the revision and rewriting of my life goals on a visit to Timber Creek Retreat House that was scheduled for April. That visit, of course, didn’t happen.
Instead, I sheltered in place like most of you for the last part of March, all of April and part of May. I trained some clients via zoom from my dining room but I also got to be home to sit down for dinner. I got to slow down and I started therapy again. I retreated into myself and found bits and pieces of who I used to be before my life was consumed with running my business. I started to understand how burned out I really was. My three words for the new decade – Teach, Travel, Tribe – still held meaning and felt authentic but I knew I could not go back to the way things were before.
Once we were allowed back in the gym in May, reality sunk in. I understood that the model I used for a profitable personal training business was not sustainable in our COVID-19 world. At least not if I wanted to step back from the state of burnout I had been living in.
That’s why today I start a new job. After many interviews with the team, conversations with Bri and rumbling with my own feelings of failure and fears, I am the new Medical Fitness Director at Sharlin Health and Neurology.
This means today is also the day I start the process of working towards the closure of Thrive Personal Fitness. This will be a gradual process, of course. I have online clients who I will continue to serve without any noticeable changes. The new medical fitness facility has not even been built yet but when it is, existing in-person clients can transition to working with me in the new space. I will welcome all the new clients who wish to work with me and the Sharlin team to maximize their health and quality of life.
The best news is that this new role lets me do the things I love and stay true to my three words.
Teach – I will still be a practitioner, so I will continue to work with some clients. But I also get to hire other personal trainers and fitness professionals and help them develop sustainable careers. I’ll work with the team to develop content and exercise programs for Dr. Sharlin’s Brain Tune Up protocol and, eventually, assist in creating online courses.
Tribe – I will have a whole team to work with! There are other health coaches and dietitians in the clinic. Dr. Ken Sharlin is a highly respected neurologist and a functional medicine doctor. There’s a lab for testing, a nursing staff and eventually I’d love to have a physical therapist on staff. I don’t have to wear all the hats and clients can get a fully integrated approach to their health.
Travel – This is on hold right now but in 2021 I believe I’ll be able to get back to seeing the world. As a team, we’ll look at retreats and I’ll have plenty of opportunities for professional development travel as well.
If you had told me six months ago I would be celebrating 45 by starting to work for someone else, I would have said you were crazy. But who would have believed that I’d be wearing a mask in the gym and visiting a drive-up farmers market? The pivot I’m making is a different path to the WHY than I could have ever imagined. The HOW has changed, but my WHY is still very much the same.
As for the blog, I’m going to post just once a month till at least the end of the year. I want to keep you updated on the progress of the new medical fitness facility and how we can help you in even more ways on your journey to health and fitness.
I’m not sure what I’ll do yet with the Fit in 417 podcast or the Thrive Personal Fitness Facebook page. I will be keeping my Instagram account. You may want to follow me there because you are certainly going to want to check out one thing I’ve managed to check off my new but uncompleted 100 Dreams List…my new kitten, Chai.
