I hope you are well, safe and somewhat sane! Gosh, what a challenging period it’s been for everyone, not least those of us in our industry.
A year has passed since lockdown was first announced in March 2020, since then our worlds have dramatically changed. Not just in our personal life, but in our dance and fitness businesses too!
I have been reflecting on the past year… thinking about what life was like before COVID-19 affected us, pondering on what I have actually enjoyed (and have not enjoyed) about our time spent in national lockdowns and, finally, what I would love my life to look like as we enter into our ‘new normal’ in 2021 and beyond.
Are you excited to return to teaching your fabulous clients in person, however are feeling worried about rebuilding your classes/business post-Covid? If you answered yes then you are certainly not alone!
In this blog I am going to talk about the importance of reflection when it comes to rebuilding our dance / fitness businesses post-covid!
Remember that feeling before lockdown when life was a little (or a lot) more hectic than we’re used to now?… maybe you felt busy, stressed, over-stretched, burnt out, no time to spend with loved ones. Yikes! It’s all too easy to fall into the trap of being a ‘yes man’ when you’re self-employed and need the money- I totally get it, I’ve been there!
‘I’ve got no time to spend with my friends and family’ is something which I have so often heard fitness instructors say. With that said, recent lockdowns have certainly given us some of that time back. Now is the perfect time to reflect on this… what is working now that maybe wasn’t working before?
In my opinion, we have been presented with an opportunity to reflect and make any changes we want to make in our business and our personal life. As much as this past year has been a very challenging time, I do believe that a big positive we can take from it is the time that it has given us to really take a step back from the hustle a bustle of our otherwise fast paced life.
If there are things that were not working well for you in life or business before covid-19 and we end up going back to those things, then we haven’t learned anything from it!
In other words, if we just go back to the things that weren’t working well for us just because we want to get back to ‘normal’ and what we feel is expected of us, we are not going to get any different results. Therefore nothing has changed!
Myself, and other dance fitness business owners that I work with, have used these questions to reflect on both life and business and found it super useful.
With each question, think about both your personal life and your business.
- What do you love and miss about your classes pre-covid?
(Eg. Missing a social life. Missing seeing clients in person) - What do you NOT miss about your business or life pre-covid?
(Eg. All the admin. The travel to classes. Worrying about people not turning up to classes). - What do you like about your business right now?
(Eg. being able to teach more people at once with online classes. Having more time). - What do you NOT like about your current situation in life and business?
(Eg. Technology issues. Being unable to interact socially. Not being able to see your clients).
I encourage you to really consider those questions. This is your opportunity now to make those changes!
As you start to think about planning to reopen your dance/fitness classes this year, think about adding MORE of the things you love and miss about your pre-covid life into your future plans. In contrast, be sure to take this opportunity to cut out the aspects you did not enjoy!
For me, I am enjoying having more time, less stress and less admin and I am loving being able to teach so many people in one class thanks to the beauty of technology. These are the things that I aim to keep in my life and business moving forwards. I don’t want to go back to where I was before, when I was working loads of hours and spreading myself too thinly!
Now is the perfect time to reflect and embrace our opportunity for change.
We have been given a rare opportunity to reflect and tweak our lives for the better. I feel that it is super important that we use this time to bring about positive changes to our personal life as well as to the future of our businesses.
Remember, we are not alone! I strongly believe that as a community we are stronger together.
Katy xx
PS… Reflection and opportunity for change is one of the four modules in my POST COVID-19 fitness business recovery plan. If you enjoyed this blog and would love to find out more about how you can eliminate some of the worries you have about rebuilding your classes, then I would love to invite you to my online course. This is a simple 4 STEP, stress-free guide to re-building your dance/fitness classes post-COVID.
I’m excited to share with you some of the tools I’ve learned in building, changing and sustaining my successful dance fitness business over the years, and not least during the last 12 months.
It is my hope that, by sharing a little bit of my knowledge, it will help in some way, as we in the dance/fitness/group exercise world, start to think about returning to some kind of normality and planning for the future. CLICK HERE to sign up and find out more!