Rejecting hustle culture
Posted on October 26, 2021 by pilatesnative
Running a business + honoring my own needs
Good morning lovely people! Just a quick reminder that this is my week off from the studio.
When I first started down this path as a Sports Therapist for a Chiro clinic, I was working 40 hours a week and seeing patients on 30 min intervals. It was fun and I learned a ton, but man…between the patient notes, individualized planned sessions and demonstrating, it was mentally, emotionally and physically exhausting. After work, I’d get home and just sit on the couch just staring into space for an hour before gearing up to take the dogs running or doing normal life activities. One of the reasons I went back to engineering was because I needed something that was a little less energy intense.
When I opened the studio, I knew 3 things:
burnout was the number one reason fitness professionals move on from the industry
overwork and underpay killed the passion for most small business owners
my own energy limitations
Unlike most small businesses where we jump in 100% working 24/7, this little studio was designed with strong boundaries around my energy, including the number of clients and hours worked. My first openings for availability was limited to 3 clients per week! That sounds CRAZY, right? Who starts a business limited to just 3 clients?!?!
But here’s the thing. When I honor my own energy needs and limitations, I can give my clients 100% every session. I LOVE being in the studio, I LOVE creating that safe calm space for you guys. And I LOVE every minute we are together.
When I was working 40 hours a week, I didn’t love my job after about 20 hours. And that sucked big time.
As my ability to take on studio hours increased, I wanted to make sure I was honoring my own energy needs and decided my business plan would include limited hours/clients per week AND the ability to give myself a week off every 6 weeks.
This was a HUGE decision. It meant I had to be brave enough to walk the walk and talk the talk, following all of my own advice to clients on the importance of self care, prioritizing your needs, and knowing when to take a break BEFORE you break.
It meant going against all conventional small business advice of hustling, nose to the grindstone, don’t stop ‘til you get enough.
And it meant either closing the studio for a week every 6 weeks and no income that week or finding a dedicated sub that I could trust to keep things rolling.
In theory, it was a terrible idea.
In practice, it’s been the BEST business decision ever.
My clients were amazingly receptive and supportive of the idea.
I’ve found two amazing subs who have started to create relationships with regular clients and provide incredibly valuable insight and variety to the client practice.
And I’ve even found that some clients will schedule their own trips, appointments or other self care things during that week break. Together, we’re walkin’ the walk.
Long story short? Rejecting hustle culture, honoring my needs and building a business with strong boundaries around those needs has allowed the culture of self care to thrive in the studio. It’s not just some catch phrase we throw around. It’s what we do.
Hell ya.
Have an awesome week! I miss you already and can’t wait to see you next Tuesday!
Honoring all the good stuff,
-Rubecca
Lessons from the Garden: What Sunflowers Taught Me About Strength, Stability and Flexibility
Posted on September 11, 2020 by pilatesnative
It was 90 degrees in Denver on Monday and snowing wildly on Tuesday and Wednesday. Our pollinator garden went from incredible summer project to disaster zone in less than 24 hours.
To be honest, I almost cried on Tuesday when I got home from work and saw the destruction the snow had wreaked on our sunflowers. As I surveyed the damage, I started to think of my grandparents and how stoic they were and how they always seemed to weather any storm with an eye for what lessons we could take from the destruction. What could we learn? What could we do better next time? What did we forget this time? What was the course of nature? What did we need to let go? With that reframe, I noticed so many more things about the garden.
The sunflowers that were big and tall and strong but lacking flexibility, snapped.
The sunflowers that were smaller, and more willowy but lacking stability, didn’t snap but were uprooted.
The sunflowers that were flexible and stable but lacking strength were contorted into strange shapes.
When we think about it, we can easily apply that to our own lives. When we are so strong but lose range of motion or flexibility, we are more likely to have posture issues, or rip, tear, or strain a muscle, snap a tendon, or herniate a disk.
When we are super flexible but lacking in strength, we lose the ability to function at full capacity and start to see things like poor posture, loose joints, weak muscle tissue and all of the associated pains with those issues.
When we have no stability, we again experience poor posture, loose joints and poor balance. Poor balance leads to running into things, falling often, or being clumsy in general. Poor balance can also be associated with lots of over use injuries as our body does what it can to hold us together.
Unsurprisingly, the sunflowers that were strong, stable and flexible, got a little beat up, a little bent and they’re tipping like drunks but they survived the storm intact.
Whether it’s a slip on a patch of ice, tackling a 14’er, training for a marathon, enduring an MMA fight, or whatever else we subject our bodies to, when we are able to balance our strength, stability and our flexibility, we are better able to survive whatever trauma comes our way. We may encounter a few bumps, bruises, scrapes and minor injuries, but for the most part, we’ll be alright.
The same is true for the sunflowers. The balanced flowers will need a little extra TLC and some rehab, but they’ll be alright. The uprooted sunflowers can be replanted and stabilized. The contorted sunflowers can be tied up and retrained. The snapped flowers, unfortunately, can’t be fixed or rehabed. The damage those guys sustained was too great.
The lesson here, for me, was that strength without flexibility was the most damaging condition. The same is true for people. Our most traumatic injuries stem from inflexibility.
Unexpectedly, there was one more casualty in the storm…flowers that were strong, stable and flexible got crushed under the weight of other flowers who were unable to maintain themselves in the storm. These flowers suffered under the stress applied by an external force.
The same can be true for us. There are so many times when we have found the right balance of strength, stability and flexibility in ourselves but are crushed under the weight of external stresses. No matter how solid we are in our condition, the external stress can destroy us.
Whether you need to focus on developing flexibility, stability or strength, Pilates Native can help.
If it’s a break from external stresses you’re needing, we can help with that too.
Everything we offer is designed to help you balance flexibility, stability and strength while also relaxing the parasympathetic nervous system and giving you a much needed break from the stress cycle.
Best wishes from the garden,
Rubecca