So, a lot has happened in the past few months. I started college (again), got a job teaching PE for K-8th graders, and started leading movement and strength training classes at a local assisted living facility. And yep, I am still teaching boot-camp and Zoom classes, have a few personal training clients, and for the next week, I am still on deck for water fitness classes once a week.

I’ve always loved my fitness side hustle. It’s what energizes me and has allowed me to stretch and grow as a fitness professional. And while I also enjoyed my “other job,” I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to be wearing workout clothes for most of the day and not sitting in an office!

All new things, however, require the application of current skills to suit a different role and the quick development of brand-new skills. Managing a class of 5, 6, and 7-year-olds, for example, is quite a different feat than sending a dozen 40 to 50-year-olds on a run for a warm-up. (Side note – kids sprint right out the gate. They don’t walk or amble. They take off. Why is that?) So I’ve had to turn my focus on setting expectations, behavior standards, and water breaks and then break down the skills into small, manageable, short chunks. Otherwise, it’s simply put, chaos.

On the flip side, my assisted living clients are mostly seated and doing things at a much slower clip. This requires me to slow down, talk slowly, and not rush through the workouts. I also take the knowledge I have of the human body, how it moves, mobility, and range of motion, to create classes that don’t require moving from one place to another or even from a sitting to a standing position.

And then there’s school. Quick, when did you last take Statistics and Probability? I’m guessing, for most of you, it’s been 20 years or more. So yes, college is another learning opportunity. In this class, however, I just get to sit, write notes, and force my brain to remember the steps to create a frequency distribution table.

Don’t get me wrong, I love it all! None of it is easy, and none of it (save for Stats/Prob) is hard. It’s just new. It’s different. It requires me to think, plan, and organize my time like I haven’t had to do since I was working full-time with small kiddos at home. And when I tell you that my days are blocked out and color-coded so I don’t end up at COM when I should be in Nicasio setting up for PE class, I’m not lying!

As I’ve shared in this blog, I’ve been consistent with my training and running for the past 6 months, and that structure has come in handy as I’ve added classes and work. Blogging and my fitness posts on social media, however, have taken a back seat, but now that I’m feeling more comfortable with everything, I’ll be able to get on a consistent schedule. I’ve missed blogging, I’ve missed posting, and I’m eager to resume with some fun new content to take us through the end of 2023.

I’m curious: are you doing new things? Stepping out of your comfort zone to realize a goal, a dream, or to just do something different? If so, let me know!

Now go run!

Keli 🙂