OT-life

[Guest guest]

During the past couple weeks I've been thinking about life and lack

of goals and where my professional life hasn't been going where I

want it to go. I do enjoy my job, but it never was really something

that I wanted to do forever and I consider it more training for the

future. The problem is that I fear if I don't change the course of

events, I will be here in this position forever and a bitter person

one day as well. If I don't set some career goals, then one day I am

going to wake up and wonder why I didn't do something different with

my life. I'm tired of sitting on the sidelines and just letting

things happen. It's time to take control of events and see if I can

make happen what I really want to happen with my professional life.

With BFL, I had a plan and that plan worked to get me in the best

shape of my life. What I have experienced is better than I ever

imagined. I know with many people the benefits seem to spread to

other parts of their life and that may be part of what is finally

happening to me now in my professional life. I've had no problem

with setting fitness and personal goals for myself and even making

progress at achieving those goals. However, I've been ignoring the

career and professional goals.

I often feel I am at a dead end and have felt that way quite often

for the past several years. Yes, I could develop further

professionally, but I really don't want it to be in a business

working for someone else. I don't want it to be for a university

that has all kinds of ridiculous policies that makes it more

difficult for me to do my job. I don't want to be dependent upon the

state for a job and try to continue to better my life with very low

or none at all salary increases they are able to give due to budget

problems that are mostly their own fault. I look at other

opportunities here where I work and other companies and nothing

appeals to me or it requires more skills than I have. I don't really

want to get another BS degree in another field or a Master's Degree

so I've been thinking hard about what I really want and what is

realistically possible. Sometimes it's hard to be brutally honest

with yourself, but that is what I am trying to do.

I've made a decision to what I want and I have a plan to get there!

This is a great undertaking for me since I've never had goals that

are part of a plan for what I want to do career-wise. I just

considerd myself lucky to get whatever job I currently was doing.

With these goals and the plan that I will continue to develop, I will

feel like I have some control. I expect there will be obstacles

somewhere along the way, but I have the confidence that I can

overcome.

The hard part is having the typical American mentality of wanting the

ultimate goal now, but the practical part of me knows that I need to

make some preparations to make the next steps fall into place.

Completing a Body for Life Challenge takes 12 weeks. My ultimate

goal may take 12 months or longer.

So here are the goals I think I will need to accomplish to get to the

ultimate goal:

1. Take Starting a Small Business Class to learn the basics of

starting a small business. (Signed up and am taking the class on

August 12th.)

2. Sign up for CPR/First Aid Class and receive certification-

prerequisite for #3

(Signed up and am taking the 6 hour class on August 22.)

3. Receive ACE Personal Trainer Certification by Nov 8, 2003. There

is actually an exam being given here in Columbia and I think I can be

ready by that date. They say to allow 3-6 months to study so this

will give me 3 months.

4. Research further starting a health club. Talk to franchise

companies to research possibilities. How to fund the undertaking?

Where to locate? Marketing? Services that the club will offer?

Develop a business plan.(I've already talked to the franchise and

contacted other owners and thought about all of these things to some

extent.)

5. Save Money! Money is what it is going to take in the end to make

this happen. With what I have saved now and what I could borrow, I

could possibly pull this off. Of course this will all be determined

in my research. I do have a fear of the financial risk involved, but

feel that I can overcome that to some extent as I do my research.

6. Offer personal training services part time until I am ready to

open the business unless I'm able to open the business in the near

future.

I'm looking at going the franchise route since they have a higher

rate of success. I'm confident that I can make this successful and I

feel that there is room in the Columbia market for several more

clubs. This is something I feel that I have a passion for and am

excited about doing this. I've considered having my own business

before, but everything I considered didn't sound appealing to me. I

believe that health club services are going to be in great demand in

the future in this country and that with some of the ideas that I

have I can make this work.

You all may say " quit your whining and consider yourself lucky you

have a fairly secure job with benefits. " I've already tried to

convince myself of this, but feel I am in a position to do better and

do something I enjoy that could have a positive impact on people. It

will also be good for me to have something to focus on other than how

much bodyfat I am going to lose or muscle I am going to gain in the

next 12 weeks. It's time to stop ignoring unpleasant areas of my

life and do something!

If you made it this far, thanks for listening!

Andy