An important life-changing moment
In 2010 I decided to change careers and become a personal training. I walked away from the high paying technology industry to start a career in the health and fitness industry. This was not the important life-changing moment, but it's the beginning of a journey that would lead to it.
Before I get to the important life-changing moment, you might be wondering why I would share this story?
Well, I've decided to hit the reset button, take a moment to check in with my values and contemplate who am I?
Am I living a life that aligns with my values, and if so, how are these values showing up in my life right now?
"Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.” — Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
When the way you think, speak and behave match your values, life feels great – you feel whole, content, in your power. Life feels full of meaning and purpose. But when these things don’t align with your personal values, then things feel… wrong. Life feels uneasy. You feel out of touch, discontented, restless, unhappy.
This is why making a conscious effort to identify and live your values is so vitally important.
What are your Values? What's truly important in your life?
Few people choose their values. Instead, they adopt the values of their parents or the dominant values of society.
Values are who you are in your own deepest nature, not who you think you should be to fit in. They’re like a compass that points to your “true north”.
One way to discover your true north is to recall important life-changing moments and question what values were being expressed and felt at this time?
An important life-changing moment
So, back to my life-changing moment story. I decided to become a personal trainer because I loved exercise and nutrition, and I decided I wanted to prioritise my health. I also wanted to share my passion by helping others live their best and healthiest life—a common story for most aspiring personal trainers and coaches.
Working at a commercial gym was possibly the worst job I'd ever experienced. I've done some hard jobs in my life, but this one was horrific.
Commercial Gym Industry Rant:
Rewarding personal trainers for quantity over quality.
Zero career growth or personal development.
Zero management.
Focus is on profits and not the health and wellness of their staff or members. They promote health but fail to support it.
Create a lacklustre environment that leaves personal trainers undervalued, underappreciated, lacking support, lacking skills, underpaid, overwhelmed and burnt out.
This was a terrible introduction to the fitness industry, but it didn't stop me from becoming a personal trainer.
My goal was to own a gym within five years and to be financially secure.
I left the commercial gym after 8 months and hired a personal training studio. Within 3 months this allowed me to be financially secure and this is where things started to change.
It took me just over 4 years to reach my goal. Becoming a gym owner was a life-changing moment. I can still remember the day we opened the doors at Momentum Training in London. I was lost for words. I couldn't believe that my dream of owning a gym had come true. For the weeks and months ahead, I couldn't stop pinching myself. Was this real?
It didn't bother me that I was working seven days a week.
It didn't matter that I felt a little out of my depth, and I learned as we went.
We managed the accounts, the memberships, the training programs, the staff, the cleaning, the inbox and everything that comes with owning your own business. It was ours, and our membership list was growing quickly.
The gym went from strength to strength, and soon we had over 250 members coming to us for group classes, personal training, nutrition consultations, supplements and more. I was feeling blessed to be a gym owner.
We continued to grow.
We hired coaches, cleaners, accountants, and we let out space to a physio and a sports masseuse.
The business was a huge success, and this was one of my happiest moments. It was surreal. I can still remember closing the doors one night after a busy day and thinking how amazing it was to be having such a positive impact on our incredible community. I was tired and running on pure adrenaline, but I was proud.
Momentum Training was a lot to many people, but this post is about my life-changing moment. So what was Momentum Training to me?
Growth - I've never worked so hard in my life, but it didn't feel like work. In my 4.5 years as a business owner at Momentum, I never stopped learning and I loved being on the floor coaching.
I wanted the gym to be the best in London. I wanted it to have the best program, the best list of services, the best staff and the best client results. I wanted the business to be a success, and I was willing to do the work. I did countless courses and certification to learn more about strength training, mobility, gymnastics, Olympic lifting, nutrition, energy system training, recovery and more.
There was a lot of work behind the scenes that I won't bore you with, but the opportunity for personal growth was huge, and this is definitely one of my key values.
Learning more granted me the ability to deliver a top-notch service.
Contribution - I become a personal trainer because I wanted to share my passion and help others live the best and healthiest life possible.
Momentum Training gave me the chance to do this on a large scale. At our peak, we had close to 320 members.
London is a very transient place with people coming and going all of the time. Although it was sad when our members were leaving London, it was always nice to see them when they’d visit or they sent an email saying how much they missed Momentum. The gym community was like one big family.
I left my corporate I.T job because my job satisfaction was zero. It was never about the pay, or helping a corporate company increase their share price. I wanted a job that changed peoples lives for the better. I wanted to leave work at the end of the day knowing that I was doing something that was having a positive impact on peoples lives.
In 2015, 2016, and 2017 I set up the London Box Battles, a grass-roots fitness competition. At its peak, the London Box Battles included 15 CrossFit gyms and over 300 competitions across London. My goal was to give CrossFit gym members of all levels the chance to compete in a fitness competition.
I wanted to feel like I was contributing in a positive way that supported a healthy community.
Trust - when working as a personal trainer, you're often a sole proprietor. As a gym owner, you can’t do it alone. I needed help, and I need to be able to trust those around me.
Trust is earned, and it's easily broken. To build trust, you must be willing to admit when you are wrong, tell the truth, be open and honest, and be willing to hand over responsibilities. It can be hard to let go of micromanaging every aspect of your business, but being able to trust others is definitely something I learned at Momentum Training.
Growth is a common value, and delegating certain responsibilities to other coaches gives them a sense of pride, trust and value.
Trust in others is important, but trusting in myself was also essential. Working with business partners is not always easy, especially when your values are not aligned. As 1/3 owner, I was never one to back down or take a back seat. I stayed true to my values and spoke my mind in some very tough and tricky situations.
To this day, I'm proud of how I acted and how I stood up for what was right.
Authenticity - Momentum Training gave me the chance to be authentic. I never wanted to wear a suit and tie to work. I wanted the hoodie and trainers.
Being authentic was more than just the outfit. I loved everything about the gym environment that we created. As passionate coaches, we are always learning and trying to improve. Honesty and authenticity go hand in hand. It took me a long time to clear a path through the fitness industry BS. Everyone’s an expert who thinks they know it all.
Knowing the theory is great, but putting it into practice and witnessing the results is essential to our role as coaches. I hired coaches and mentors and spent endless hours improving my own knowledge, skills, and abilities to be a better coach.I invested a lot of time and energy in my own personal development as I wanted to be a top coach. I spent hours tweaking training programs and figuring out different ways of creating inclusive programs for all levels.
I think Bruce Less said it best:
“Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless and add what is specifically your own.”Freedom - I feel that owning a gym took away my freedom. When I decided to sell my share of the gym, I recognised how much time I was devoting to the business. I ignored many other aspects of my life and allowed the excitement of owning my dream business to take away many of my freedoms.
I was the one to blame.
I was the one who was not paying enough attention to my relationships, to my health, to my adventurous side. In the end, I was feeling a little trapped and realised that it was time to make changes so I could regain my freedom.I wanted to travel. I wanted to be my own boss. I wanted to choose when I worked, trained, slept, spent time with my family, my partner, and my friends. I wanted time to take more care of my own health and wellness, something that led me to the industry in the first place.
The top five values that I take away from this life-changing moment are:
Growth - learning new things, exploring new places, and experimenting with new ideas. Questioning my limiting beliefs and trying to overcome them.
Contribution - contributing to the world, not just consuming it. Being the type of person that both I and others can count on.
Authenticity - Permitting myself to be happy with who, where and what I am right now. Living life as the type of person I claim to be.
Trust - trust in the universe, trust in myself and trust in others. I don't need to have the answers or to do it all. I can trust others to help and support me.
Freedom - being both mentally and physically strong. Prepared for unexpected challenges. Carving out the time and space for living the life I want.
What are your life-changing moments?
Why do you feel they were life-changing?
What values can you uncover from your life-changing moments?
