I work in an incredibly fulfilling yet fraught with 'challenges' industry...in many ways it is the 'Wild West' Being a Personal Trainer and Coach is a career with a short shelf life, usually do to the fact that most people never last more than a year or two in it. Here I am in my early fifties, been doing this for ten years give or take, and by all accounts successful. I am very grateful for that. It is a very rewarding career. I do have concerns about getting old, but as it stands right now, I am in the very enviable position of being able to turn work away. Once again I try to practice gratitude.
Perhaps its my advancing years, and age doesn't necessarily convey wisdom but with the explosion of social media something I've noticed is a curious kind of angle to my profession, no not the evil old group fitness ladies who as part of their satanic religion worship bosu balls in a forest at midnight, or the juiced up roid monkey's who saunter into a gym reeking of B.O. and axe body spray and glare at you if you say 'Hi'..I'm talking about something that's so endemic to our industry- the utterly oblivious narcissist
I get a lot of people adding me to Facebook largely because of where I work. In the past I'd simply add them , give them their due as another professional wanting to network and hopefully maybe interact once or twice in passing: "Hi How Are you?
It didn't quite work that way.The few times I'd see some [ not all] of these people at an industry event, more than once they would look at me like I was a piece of shit on their shoe.Look I am not trying to be their best friend or share warm spit with them , just trying to be pleasant. I deleted most of them.I can't believe these people are in a service industry-dealing with people.
Here is where I scratch my head... and this has happened numerous times.I have someone on my FB page whom I've never met. Not once that I recall. They added me. They seem very qualified etc. although even on FB we have never interacted at all. Never got Birthday wishes, no 'likes' as far as I can tell. Nothing. Apparently they are a very qualified professional, do well etc. so ..OK then. But I thought maybe I'd delete them as I don't know them. I decided to do a bit of creeping on their posts.
And then it hit me. As I scrolled through post after post from this individual , all I saw was: "I'm teaching this!" "Wow so excited about going to this".. "Photographs of me for this video" etc. Not once was there a single post about a client achieving their goals. Not once in any of the posts I saw. There were however photo after photo of this person. I said it out loud:
"Do they actually even have any clients?"
And I see it again and again. In my previous post I mentioned why I left a facility- the Trainer at the centre of that storm that triggered that letter about sleeping on the job and checked out their FB profile...and what did I see? yep the exact same thing I mentioned. "Me hitting my PR", 'Look at me doing a heavy workout" look at my friends and me at this event." Same thing . Not one mention of how a client was able to hit their PR...All of this oblivious narcissism is like a party in a ballroom where a warped record is played over and over again, but no one can hear because they are all busy taking selfies.The cycle is endless and the industry promotes it...
Contrast that with an amazing guy I know. Worked at my current facility for a while. This guy was very quiet ,very easy to get along with until the day I was walking through the Gym and he was walking behind me.. ON HIS HANDS. It was hilarious. We have been friends ever since . Great personality and as smart as a whip... he left to open up his own Gym, and of course publicized the hell out of it on Facebook, but again as he should.....I get regular posts and updates from him. And it dawned on me.. almost every single post he has done features clients. With encouraging messages. The focus is on his clients. I wish him continued success. Oh and yeah he just expanded his Gym, I'm guessing due to the demand. He deserves it. Contrast this with the Narcissist I mentioned previously.. which one will still be doing this in five years? Maybe? Maybe not.
The uniqueness of my profession is that it attracts these oblivious narcissists and rewards them. They get high off of being seen 'Fitnessing'. All of its ego driven. If you combine monstrous egos and a low barrier to entry it's a perfect storm of well.....'Clash of the Douchebag narcissists' [I'd like to see them make a movie with that title]..I'm a shameless self promoter, and yeah to an extent you have to be..... but I've always felt that if you put your clients first and foremost , all of the magical stuff you have wished and hoped and worked your ass off for will take care of itself. And yet if you tried to explain it to these self obsessed sociopaths you'd get a cold blank stare and defensiveness.
It's enough to make you heave.
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