Monday...

I collect quotes that I like. Quotes and cartoons from the newspaper. My grandmother did the same thing. I heard a good one this weekend..."If you love what you do, the world will fall in love with you." Now don't take that the wrong way, I LOVE being a spinning instructor and I do not expect everyone to "love" me. But I understand that feeling you get when you experience someone who has passion and energy about what they do and it always seems contagious, at least to me.
I remember years ago, I was flying home from Phoenix and I was checking my bag with the Skycab guy. This man was the happiest, jolliest skycab I have ever seen. He made me feel special in just the minute or two he spent with me. It was obvious he loved his job. I can still remember his smile and it was over a decade ago. I think we always picture people who love what they do, are the kind of people who always knew that's what they wanted to be, a greater calling of sort, like they always wanted to be a doctor or a teacher. Does one grow up always wanting to be a Skycab? Or is it the being able to interact with people and make them feel special, make them feel taken care of? You find something you weren't expecting.
I know for me, putting that little extra effort into preparing for class hopefully shows that same sort of enthuasism and energy. That I love what I do and it shows. I didn't grow up wanting to be a group exercise instructor. I wanted to be an attorney (actually took the LSAT last year, but that's a whole other story) but ended up in Education. I really enjoyed teaching but I think with young children you don't get the same kind of immediate feed back like I do now. And to be honest, I spent a lot of years around babies and little kids, it's nice to be in grown-up world for a little.
I actually became an instructor kind of by accident. Once I started taking spinning class on a regular basis, I seemed to be very aware of music that would be good in a class. I started to share some with the instructors who taught where I took class. It crossed my mind that I could possibly teach, but I never really seriously considered it. Then one day a few summers ago, I woke up very early because I had no time later, to go work out. I really wanted to take the Spinning class at 6am. Well, the instructor didn't show up. I was pissed and so was everyone else there waiting so early in the morning. I did put my iPod on for all the other members to listen to and we all just did our own thing to my music. I got a lot of positive feedback about the playlist, so I looked online and signed up to get certified. Luckily, FFC gave me a shot at teaching, even though I had no real experience in front of a class. It took sometime, but now I feel completely at home in front of a big spinning class. I can't describe the rush I get after I've taught a good class...I hope everyone can find what they love to do, and get the chance to do it.

I'm working on a bunch of playlists so stay tuned. "Move it" is the name of this week's so far. Songs with movement in them like, run, walk, jump, etc... Should turn out to be a good workout!

Hope your week is starting out good!

Portia:)