Profiling your Future Self and How To Get There as a Yoga Teacher

I did an online course about the business of yoga about about 2 years ago. It was with a teacher that was also a life coach. In one of her video sessions, she asked us to free-write and do a vision board about our future.  I did as she asked. I wrote on a really nice journal to make it look/feel more engrained in me while I collected images via Pinterest. After doing my homework, I was told that this served as my blueprint to success. 

It did not. 

Not only was my journal filled with esoteric ramblings of indecision, my visual inspiration left me with the question: How do I get from point A to Z. Z because my dream looked so out of reach from the images I collected. I would have to be a millionaire to achieve all this! Eventually I closed my journal and left my pinterest board without updates. I started working the problems. What resulted in this was a timeline, a cost sheet and self-reflective inventory on what made me unique__more importantly capable of arriving at the dream version of my job. 

How to profile your future self to actualise your career

1. Professional Inventory

In most of my articles my first tip is almost always look within simply for the fact that we are yoga teachers and we should practice what we preach. We are stronger thank we think, more adept than we believe ourselves to be. I am sure you will be able to bring something to the table no matter what.  I want  you to answer these questions: What degrees do you have? List what you learned in your 200 hour TT in detail. Go back to your lessons, your manual, list down your continuing education, everything.. even the non-yoga related. You’ll never know what you can create once you’ve taken stock. When I did this, not only did I realise that it makes for a really interesting resumé, I started getting ideas on what I can offer for retreats and workshops.

2.  Interests Inventory

Of course you need to love what you’re doing. If you have just created content to make a buck then that’s just selling out. you need to love what you bring to the public.That said, What makes your eyes shine? Better Yet what makes your soul light up?  Your students? Your studio? What about these aspects in your professional life do you treasure? List the moments that made you love your job. After this write down your favourite things. Nature, travel, raindrops on roses, whiskers on kittens__ pen it down and read through it when you are done. The desired effect is that you find a combination between the professional inventory and your interests that opens up your mind to strategy. Which is where it all starts coming together. 

3. Imagine your day and work it up to a year. 

In my Pinterest vision board, I had everything from beach houses, studio set-ups, aerial yoga rigging and quotes like “Work until your bank account looks like a phone number”. I laugh at it in hindsight but at that moment it brought me down. Primarily because when we look at a plethora of images at once, somehow we think that we need to have it all instantly. It doesn’t work that way so we need to take things a step at a time.  Instead of random images in a collage with hopes of creating something cohesive, picture your day-to-day activities. what time do you want to wake up? how many classes do you want to teach? will you have privates? Work your way up to more specific questions. Be realistic.. 12 months go by fast when you plan these things out. Use your ‘Interests Inventory’ and your ‘Professional Inventory’ to find out what’s best for you. Make sure that you leave time for your personal life and practice. Being part of a big family in the Philippines and starting my small family on the other side of the world obligates me to have a structure in my work Otherwise it all comes crumbling down.

4. What do you need?

Assuming that you have done points 1-3, you now have something basic to work towards. Maybe you want to live as a digital nomad, a studio owner, or traveling teacher. What will you need to get there? contacts to other studios, retreat centers, schools etc. will you need to take more continuing education? Personally, I would like to do my first yoga retreat by next year. With that in mind I will need a destination and something more to impart on my students other than yoga classes. Again, be realistic. have your big picture in mind but resolve the small achievable goals. Its like losing weight. You want to lose 20 lbs. but you work on losing half a pound every week. 

5. Get Started. 

The scariest and easiest thing to do. I remember my first audition piece for Momoyoga. I liked to write but I never wrote for a public. I must have stared at that blank untitled document for hours. What if they don’t like it? What if I don’t get the job? I should have been asking ‘What Then?´ If I don’t get the job, What then? I’ll look for another job. If they don’t like the article, what then? I’ll post it on my website. We are a very resilient species. we mustn’t forget that. keep this in mind when you make things happen. If you still have some apprehensions, understand that the first step is usually inquiries. Making calls, asking for available dates, the student capacity in a space, starting a focus group, even just asking your students if your idea is something they could be interested in. All these little things are starts and  good ones at that. What I’m trying to say is that the difficulties of taking that first step is all in your head. In reality you have nothing to lose. 

These 5 points are all about working the problem. To meet the desired results One needs to know what you have, what you want, what you’ll need, and lastly what is out there. After you put these all together start moving. Sounds easy enough but what makes us impede ourselves into taking these steps? Fear. While it may be the loudest voice in the universe, you can lower the volume with every step you take. 

Good luck Momoyogis!