I’m at a bit of a crossroad. I am almost finished with my Yoga Health Coaching training, and I should be fully certified in June. And rather than looking forward to relaxing a bit, satisfied with this accomplishment, I’m excitedly asking myself, “What’s next?”
Since enrolling in 200 hour yoga teacher training in 2015, I’ve been on this path of investing in knowledge, investing in education that will benefit the people in my community. The by-product of that, of course, is that it has benefitted me – my physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellness. So in a way, I’m using my personal evolution path to inform the next stages of my professional development. What works for me will work for others too.
It hasn’t always been this way for me. Years ago, I had a sense that at some point I would want to teach yoga, but at that time, I was still stuck in the patterns that many of us find ourselves in. We want to look better, feel better, be better. And we want to get there in the fastest way possible. So in typical American style, we buy things. We consume. Whether it’s the coolest new beauty or fitness gadget on the infomercial we got sucked into watching or a new supplement that will help us lose weight without dieting or exercise, we spend money on things rather than investing in knowledge and support.
When I think of all the gadgets and supplements I’ve bought over the last 20 years, not to mention make up, hair color, tanning, manicures and pedicures, I realize that had I saved that money, I could have taken a month off of work and paid for yoga teacher training in a gorgeous, exotic location, started this journey a little sooner, and been much better off, perhaps even avoiding the adrenal fatigue that set off my autoimmune disease. On an even smaller scale, had I skipped the hair color and pedicures, I could have afforded quite a lot of yoga classes.
Oh, well. Not much I can do about that now. The point is that I’ve seen the light. Spending doesn’t work for me anymore. Investing has replaced spending.
But money isn’t the only thing we have to invest. With any endeavor of personal or professional growth, there is an investment of time, and usually that is the more difficult investment to make. People often tell me, “I just can’t seem to find the time to come do yoga.” And my response is always, “It is difficult to find the time. It’s not as difficult to make the time. Carve it out. Make whatever arrangements you need to make. Put it on your schedule and make it non-negotiable.”
The same is true for investing time in personal or professional development. There’s never a “perfect” time where the stars align, time and space open up, and you have all the time in the world to do the things you want and need to do. It just doesn’t happen. Take it from me. I had this idea that once my kids were grown and out of the house that all of that would happen. But guess what. Other things fall into those spaces of time and we can end up feeling even busier than we were when “Mom’s Taxi” was in service.
There’s another time scenario more akin to “spending” money. In the unusual circumstance where you do happen to have the time to pursue personal development, we sometimes find ourselves “wasting” time doing things that don’t benefit us. Exhausted from work, we come home, eat too much of the wrong stuff, collapse on the couch and binge-watch Netflix. We wake up tired, grumpy, achy, and maybe a little angry that we did this to ourselves. All of that carries over into our day, perhaps affecting the people we live and work with, which makes us feel even worse.
If any of this sounds familiar, if you’re thinking it might be time to start investing instead of spending or wasting, if you’re ready to make some changes in your lifestyle that benefit your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellness, talk to me. I’d love to help. Book a free strategy session with me and we’ll figure out what your next steps should be.
See you soon!