One of the hardest adjustments I had to make in college was having random periods of time in the middle of my day that were difficult to utilize, they were too short to write a whole paper in but long enough that if I spent the time watching TV, I felt unproductive. By the end of my freshmen year, I knew it was time for an on-campus job because a little spending money never hurt, and I figured that was an easy way to fill in the dead space in my schedule. I applied to several different administrative jobs and after being turned down for all of them I decided to reset in a yoga class at our Campus Recreation Center. It was there that I learned that teaching yoga was actually an on-campus job open to all students (who had the skillset). I had been practicing yoga for 3 years at that point but had never considered teaching before. While I knew the behavioral component of the interview wouldn’t be difficult, I practiced over and over for the audition component, and it paid off. I still have the voicemail saved where I was offered a spot as a fitness instructor because I remember how excited I was for my first “real” job.
Although I didn’t realize it at the time, I learned a lot more than the best form for downward dog over the 150+ classes I taught in 3 years. When I first started, I was given the worst teaching times 7AM on Wednesday mornings and 4PM on Friday afternoons. I would bike to class at 6AM, teach my class and then immediately go back to bed (I’m still not an early riser). I spent many weeks shadowing a more experienced instructor and 200 hours earning my yoga RYT certification on the weekends. Although I only spent a few hours teaching throughout the week, I had to quickly learn time management because so much of my time was dedicated to learning how to sequence poses using the proper safety cues. Struggling to know left from right, it took me months to master mirroring and I often had to ask my participants if we had already completed the pose on one side.
But as time went on, I started to grow my following of regulars, and had the seniority to pick the time slots that I wanted. I traded in my 7AM class for a 7PM one and found my voice as an instructor. I even taught private classes for Student Athletes, learning how to design sequences to address specific parts of the body. I found a way to make ab exercises fun and I unknowingly made a positive impact on people who still reach out to tell me they miss my classes.
The fitness instructor staff frequently solicited feedback from our participants which was important for learning how to react and implement constructive criticism. Half my practitioners told me that my music was their favorite part of class and the other half found it to be distracting. I learned very quickly that I couldn’t please everyone, but I could find ways to compromise, in this case building playlists with only instrumental music. Each week I was faced with the challenging task of providing a positive experience for a diverse group of people who had varied skill levels, not unlike leading a team with the goal of harnessing each person’s strength. My time as a fitness instructor also taught me the importance of compartmentalizing, a rough day at school had to be left behind when I stepped on the mat to provide a positive experience for my “clients.”
When I started my first fulltime job (albeit not that long ago), I felt much like I did when I first started teaching yoga, I didn’t know what I didn’t know (especially when it came to PowerPoint). The philosophy I brought to my first day on the job is the same principle I applied with yoga – a willingness to learn. I knew it was inevitable that mistakes would be made, but the countless mistakes I made during my stint as a yoga instructor taught me that how I reacted to making those mistakes and preventing them from occurring again is what was most important. While my current clients can be brutally honest, it is not much different from a college student telling me everything I was doing wrong in my yoga class. As I’ve slowly gained more seniority in my fulltime position, I still believe the most impactful skill I can bring to the table is the ability to compartmentalize and remain positive. In a job that is primarily team focused, I want to be the person that people want to work with in the same way that I wanted to be the instructor with the class everyone wanted to attend.
