Couch to 5K Your Professional Goals
Couch to 5K Your Professional Goals
For those that know me, you know that one of my passions is working out. I LOVE it. It is what I do to socialize, to be healthy, to relieve stress, and to have fun. What you may not know is that I did not grow up as an athlete… at all.
There were things that I always wanted to do.
I wanted to get in shape. I always wanted to run a 5k. I wanted to teach a fitness class. I even wanted to participate in one of those crazy mud-run obstacle courses. I always wanted to do these things, I just never took the initiative.
Until about three years ago.
That’s when I started to set goals for myself.
It started with just one goal: make it to the gym three times a week. That is it. Guess what I did?
Eventually, other goals followed, and as I noticed the success in my personal life from setting goals, I began to apply the same mentality to my professional life. I realized that I had to take the initiative to increase my skill set.
I had to step out of my comfort zone in order to excel in business.
One thing that I have always struggled with is public speaking. I always got really nervous. To the point that I did not even like to speak up in a group discussion. With coaching and support from the Dragon Lady herself, Ellen Didier, it has become a part of my business process. It was not easy to begin with, but I did it.
My advice to you is to train your weaknesses.
That being said, take that one thing that you hate – cold calling, public speaking, presentations, new computer software – and do it. I trained my weakness in the following way:
- Get a coach – It made all the difference in the world for me, and will for you, too.
- Research techniques – Find out what others are doing to improve this particular skill.
- Practice – A lot.
- Start small – I could easily be overwhelmed, but I started speaking in front of just Dragon Lady. Then I expanded to a group of five, etc.
Oh, and by the way, I ran that 5k. I am now a certified Les Mills Bodypump and CxWorx instructor. I completed the Spartan Sprint Obstacle race which marks my fourth mud run obstacle course. And I was called an athlete by my coach (I was pretty proud of that one).