This week we’re going to discuss what they don’t teach you at college. These are lessons I’ve learned since graduating over the last 2 years, and while I belong to Strength and Conditioning and the fitness industry I’d argue that the lessons I’ve come to learn can be transferred to many different professions.
But first I want to take this week’s life update section to say a huge and massive thank you to everyone who has read my blogs. Whether you’re a weekly reader you dip in and out you’ve helped me get this far. This week’s post is my 20th blog, a milestone I never thought of achieving while setting this up. Every Sunday, for the last 20 weeks I’ve uploaded a post to this website filled with information i feel needs to be out in the public. I always thought I’d have nothing to write about and nobody would be interested in reading what I have to say, I was wrong on both accounts. Since setting this up 20 weeks ago my life has changed dramatically. Not because of the blog but it’s been a real comfort having this to focus on every week to keep myself grounded. So before we go any further, I would like to say a massive thank you for supporting me. I have plans for this website that will hopefully come to fruition over the next 12 months but nothing is possible without all of you.
Like I said, this week we’re tackling some of the things that are left out in college courses. I can’t speak for any other industry or course, only my own but in my experience, college does a great job equipping you with the bare essentials needed. By this I mean, I learned all about anatomy, physiology, weight training, different methods of programming, lifting technique, coaching technology etc. I was equipped with tools needed to train someone, and I developed an understanding for how the body works. But, there was stuff left out. Today I’m discussing the 3 things I consider just as essential.
Developing Meaningful and Impactful Relationships
As I said above, college thought us what methods to use to train someone but I feel it let us down in educating us how to coach someone… or more importantly, a wide variety of people. If any of you know me or have been reading my blogs weekly, you’ll know how much I believe in the idea that the person comes first. Coaching, like many professions from teaching to medicine, can be considered a face to face job. I need to be able to deal with people face to face all day, every day. The importance of developing meaningful relationships is huge for me in my job, I’d even go as far as to say my ability to build relationships is what separates me (and others) from coaches who don’t put an importance on those techniques.
When working with general population, not every single person understands good training vs poor training. But they do understand nice and not nice. There’s an old saying that sums it up nicely… Don’t be a dickhead.
Fortunately for me, a lot of smarter people have done some great research on behavioral science and social interactions. So I just had to find some good material that applied to me and I studying and read and worked to apply it to my coaching tool box. It’s not rocket science though, if you work with people please just show a genuine interest in them. They have come to you in good faith and are paying you money for your service, whatever that service is. You could be a coach, a mechanic or a barista. Treat people with respect and you’re on the right track. There is obviously a lot more that goes into relationship science and creating better buy in with your clients, athletes or customers but for me, putting the effort in to learn about it and apply it has been one of the most significant things I’ve done for my career. From building better relationships with the members I coach to networking with other coaches to personal life relationships, everything has benefitted from me improving my interpersonal skills.
Time Management
One of the biggest causes of stress is without a doubt poor time management. Educational institutes, in my opinion, expect you to have good skills in this area. I feel it’s something that really isn’t highlighted enough. And as an extension, nobody talks about the negative mental health aspects associated. Not managing your time or taking on too much for the time you have can lead to lower productivity and failure to meet deadlines. In turn, this can then lead to a sense of becoming overwhelmed and stressed.
The biggest lessons I’ve learned from this over the last few years is to make sure you take some time out to invest back into yourself. I’ve done a full blog post about this already about 4-5 weeks ago. New graduates coming out of college want and need to impress their new employer now more than ever due to the amount of competition for jobs on the market. It’s easy for people to fall in to a spiral of having their mind on work 24/7! Some people need to learn to switch off and leave certain things at the door when leaving work, this doesn’t mean you don’t care but it shows you’re able to focus on yourself and shift your focus.
This is where time management techniques can come useful. Having to-do lists, either daily or weekly, can help keep you focused on certain tasks that need to be done and stop you from wasting time on things that have no relevance. Schedules help with this as well, the importance of regular routine to psychological health cannot be understated. Different techniques will work for different folks. It’s up to you to determine what’s wasting time and what projects need more time. This simple act, in my eyes, can save you a lot of stress in the long run.
Avoiding Burnout
Burnout in coaching is a real and scary thing. There’s a lot of factors that add to a coach experiencing burnout in their profession. Poor time management is definitely one, if you have a young coach who is working 13 hour days and not focusing on some downtime guess what, they’re likely to burnout over the next few years.
This is a huge topic of conversation within GAA at the moment in relation to the players and the playing calendar. Everyone is talking about player welfare and the best techniques to avoid burnout but when they schedule different competitions year round and players are on scholarships, county panels and club panels they’re not getting a break. Anyway, that’s not what I’m here to discuss today.
Avoiding burnout, particularly in the first few years of your profession is vital to staying in that profession. Again, like everything else I’ve talked about today, I don’t feel there’s enough education on this particular issue. Don’t get me wrong, I was told to get used to long days and weeks but that’s not really educating me on coping mechanisms. I mean like I can’t just say to someone in the gym for the very first time go deadlift… I need to teach them how to deadlift.
For as much as I love the strength and conditioning industry it has major flaws and exploits a lot of young coaches. We hear a lot about student nurses and doctors and the hours they need to do but rarely does mainstream media hear about intern strength coaches. To make it worse everyone is trying to outdo each other and you’re left in a situation where people are arriving to the facility at 3AM for a 6AM session and trying to stay later than everyone else to prove they can hack the ‘grind’ of being a coach. There have been a lot of discussions underground lately about the need for a strength and conditioning worker’s union to avoid things like this happening. Like we’re at the point where coaches are being hospitalized because of burnout. Many leave the industry all together. Unfortunately, despite what some would tell you, a sheer love for the job won’t be enough to avoid this.
Don’t be afraid to speak up and ask for help from your friends and family. Let your employer know you’re struggling and see can they help you out a bit. If you are struggling you are no good to anybody, not the athletes or people you’re training, not the company you’re working for and above all not yourself. Take the time to relax and unwind, whatever way you choose to do that. Enjoy your holidays and don’t feel guilty for taking them. When you’re working, work your ass off. Be present, be punctual and be useful. But when you’re off, make sure you use that time well. And that might mean using it to catch up on sleep, there’s no glory in skipping sleep to do extra work if it’s going to catch up on you in 5 years’ time.
Fingers crossed there’s at least one person out there who takes something away from this week’s post. They are important lessons and key considerations for any profession.
I’m going to wrap it up there for this week guys, closing off a very special post for me personally with one more massive thank you to everyone who’s made it this far. Thank you for all the comments and nice words, the texts and praises, the topic recommendations and requests it all means so much to me. This may be my blog but by no means is it for me. I started this to blog to try and help more people and reach more ears. If you feel this can help someone else, please pass it on. It’s for all of you who read what I have to say week in, week out.
Have a great week,
Rory.