Fearlessness in the Pilates Studio
What does it mean to be fearless? To have no fear? To not be afraid of anything? Hardly. One of my favorite authors and teachers talks about fearlessness as an openness or willingness to see the thing that is creating the fear and move toward it. I know, it”s counter intuitive, but if you can think about moments when you reacted out of fear instead of stepping into the fear and seeing it more clearly or from a wiser perspective, I think you”ll likely find that the outcome was less than desirable.
I certainly know that has been true for me. In the process of leaving my studio as an owner, I’ve come up against countless moments of terrifying fear: fear of loosing my identity as “owner”; fear of who I would be without that identity; fear of succeeding; fear of failing; fear of the end and fear of a new beginning. There have been times in the past six months when I have deeply regretted my actions made out of fear. I found that in those moments, in order to truly be the person I wanted to be: kind, honest, generous, and open, I had to back track and change course; not weave around fear but walk into it.
I wonder how many times in our interactions with our students we respond from a place of fear? When we are asking for their patronage? When we are deciding what to charge, how to market, or who to hire? How does fear affect our ability to run our businesses according to our values and vision?
As a teacher and entrepreneur I am continuously aware of my fear and how, if I let it, it would lead me down a path I was not proud of. Learning how to be fearless in our work is likely one of the most important skills we can develop to support our authenticity, the longevity and creativity of our work.
In honor of this idea, I”d like to offer a couple of relevant resources. Author Michael Carroll recently released a new book called “Fearless at Work.” His other books “The Mindful Leader” and “Awake at Work” have been tools by which I have run my studio and my business and make up much of the foundation of Skillful Teaching.
I hope you take a peek at these tidbits:
How are you showing up? Why are you showing up? Why do you teach? What IS teaching? Why do you care? This is Skillful Teaching: A Whole-person approach to being an expert teacher, not an expert technician. There's a difference. Want to know what it is?