Just the other day in fact, we were having a chat with a client. We’ve known them for ages but we were in a group setting and they said something that completely threw us! Being in a group setting, we didn’t have the luxury of time when it came to a response and so happened we actually offended them! Now there’s a few layers to this and we’ve spent the last few days going over them. Did we say the wrong thing? Could we have phrased our thoughts a little differently? Was our heart in the right place? And finally, do we need to accept that we’ll offend a few people in order to get the message across and we simply can’t please everyone all the time? As the role suggests, Personal Trainers have a role to play in their clients lifestyle and without knowing, can sometimes cross the line. For instance, we know all of our clients niggles, their kids names, partners names, what they did on the weekend, what they’re doing the rest of the week and of course where they work. We’re really involved with them so that we know what does and doesn’t make them tick and in turn help them get the best results possible. On this occasion, we crossed a line and we knew it as the words came out of our mouth! Don’t get us wrong, we weren’t abusive, use derogatory language or even raise our voice. We simply chose the wrong words and it created a completely different turn on the conversation. Being very analytical, this played on our minds for the next day or so and all of the above questions were asked. It’s given us the chance to sit back and rethink how we’ve treated other scenarios and if this could be used as a lesson for future client conversations. Having apologised to our client on a couple of occasions, we already know that we’re thinking about this much more than they are but there’s no better training than the training that you get in real world face to face settings and we’ve chosen to use this as an opportunity to step back a little, try not to be as intense and let our clients approach us about a problem rather than helping them with something that they haven’t asked for help with. All in all, it’s a win for everyone and will almost certainly free up more of our time to focus on things that do need fixing.
So why did we decide to dedicate an entire article focussing in on a mistake that we made? We’re always trying to better ourselves, be it communication, how we treat others or finding the next physical challenge. It’s an area that we often forget about, but one that we could all make some improvements in (unless we’re already perfect that is).
We’ve already started the week on a more positive and relaxed note knowing we’ve made improvements that will avoid another situation like the other day.
This is just another way of saying be nice to one another and don’t be afraid to admit when you’ve made a mistake. We hope this resonates with a few of you and you’re able to make a couple of changes for the better. To experience the Push Your Limits Personal Training way contact us now and get started with a Personal Training session today.
Justin Beard Pn1