I am contacted daily by people who are looking for work as health educators, wellness coaches, instructors, personal trainers, the list goes on. Many of these people tell me that they want to be a (fill in the blank here) yet some of them have little idea as to what that particular job actually entails.
I have mentioned in past blogs how important it is to job shadow to help you begin to understand various job roles, skills, and responsibilities. What I have not talked about is the need to be on the receiving end of some of these services to gain some really good perspective. I think it would be very hard to be a really good instructor when you aren’t even attending classes on a regular basis.
I know that I would have reservations about asking an investment banker to handle my money when he doesn’t have a bank account himself. The same is true for a health-fitness professional. Not only do we need to strive to lead a balanced life that is proactive about disease prevention, but we must also have a viewpoint as to what makes a good personal trainer, instructor, health educator or otherwise.
So let me ask you: Have you ever had a personal trainer? Have you ever utilized wellness-coaching services? How about attending a cardiovascular health workshop or a cholesterol check? Get busy trying some of these things yourself to see what it feels like to be on the receiving end of these services. Or better yet, learn some really great tricks of the trade from an experienced professional.