Being a personal trainer or health and fitness professional takes far more than the surface knowledge required to sit for a national exam.
It takes passion, intention, dedication, and a willingness to examine your own weaknesses and identify opportunities for growth.
Holding a certification alone doesn’t define industry success. Take it seriously, put in the effort and constantly evaluate your performance and intentions to ensure a prolific career as a fitness professional.
Training and Coaching is a Career – Not a Job
Advancing in the health and fitness industry takes thoughtful planning and an eye on strategy.
Viewing your presence in the industry as a career versus a temporary job or holding pattern will facilitate tremendous growth as will pursuing advanced degrees and certifications.
Behavior change is about guidance – not direction.
As fitness professionals and coaches, we should be focused on facilitating meaningful behavior change. Often, early on in our careers, it’s easy to take a more directive approach. This often doesn’t ultimately result in sustainable or client-centered change.
Clients are Humans and Human Health Behavior is Complex and Not Easy to Change
Clients struggle to “unlearn” less healthy habits and replace them with health supporting habits.
This takes time and intention – not strict rules from an overbearing trainer or coach.
Health and fitness professionals are uniquely positioned to influence and facilitate behavior change, but we must bring that to the forefront of our individual practices and businesses.
Trainers and Coaches Need to be 360° Professionals
Being successful in the industry isn’t just about knowing your craft. It’s about honing and elevating your craft by investing in branding, marketing, sales, customer service, and continuing education.
We must be both a master and a student of our industry. We must continuously focus on growth (both personal and professional) and invest in all aspects of this career – from business basics to the more complex topics of functional training, fitness counseling, and workout programming.
Our Confidence and Success is Linked
Success in life and business is intrinsically linked to the confidence factor. Having confidence allows a person to overcome fears, take direct action, say yes to new challenges, seek mentorship, and ask questions – all components of achieving professional success.
It’s impossible to achieve success by skipping struggles, experiencing failures, and taking wrong turns. Confidence allows us to face fears and traverse the obstacles ultimately helping us reach goals and build ourselves both personally and professionally.
Your Personal Training Career
Check out what it takes to start a career in personal fitness training. This is your most affordable and fastest way to become a highly qualified personal trainer.
There is always something exciting about earning a new training or coaching certification and applying that new knowledge of how you train your clients. This also helps you hit the reset button.
NESTA coaching programs are open to anyone with a desire to learn and help others. There are no prerequisites.
That’s it for now.
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PS: Click here to see many helpful business/career resources