The Subtle Art Of Learning Instead Of Preaching

"We are what we repeatedly do, excellence is therefore not an act but a habit" - Aristotle

For many years I worked as a personal trainer, giving people the knowledge I have learnt over the years from various people, courses & my own self education of what is right & wrong. Throughout those years the rise in the "transformation specialist" became a trending scene on my newsfeed & lately this has started to come back up as a new theme. I think if lockdown taught us anything is that we all have time to look after ourselves and maintaining not only a healthy body but also mind. I mean I even started writing this blog as a way to put into words the questions and arguments I have in my own head. It also gave us all time, time in which we learnt new skills or picked up old ones, time is the greatest currency we can own & the beauty of it is that we don't know how much time we have. Unfortunately during this time it has given people the knowledge of a new skill but not yet mastered their craft. I can name a hand full of personal trainers that will agree with me and also those will be the ones that I would recommend to people, because I know they are committed to actually helping people and have the skillset and knowledge of their craft to give the best advice (i'm using personal training as an example as I know about this subject matter and have witnessed this first hand, you may have seen this in other scenarios but with the same key facts).

Lately I have seen a number of people who were "clients" of personal trainers now becoming "Personal Trainers" or "Transformation Specialists" without the experience and without implementing their own knowledge on themselves & understanding how their own mindset works without the backing of a qualified & accountable person behind them. Recycled training plans & diet plans simply copied from their old Personal Trainer, preaching to the world about how they did what they did off their own back and cutting all ties with the actual person who gave them the knowledge and push they needed. I guess you can tell this happened to me a number of times and became the number one reason why I left the industry (that along with a lot of other things, but we shall leave that for another day)

Understanding the level and experience you need when dealing with someones body & mind takes years, we are all different and require different approaches. Unfortunately I have seen people with borderline eating disorders try and pass on their technique to others and this aggressive chain of shit understanding is one of the key factors to why we see so many mental health problems and body image related issues in the world today. If you read my blog you know I have a love hate relationship with social media, it is the biggest load of shit in terms of misinformation and so far from reality it is actually unnerving how much people will believe and the extents some will go too just by simply seeing a blue tick and over a certain amount of numbers. We have to understand the subtle art of learning instead of preaching, turn the fucking reel camera off, stop filming yourself talking nonsense that you know isn't true & for the love of god learn the basics before advertising yourself as a "personal trainer" or "transformation specialist" take time to know how it works no matter what skill you are approaching.

Unfortunately in todays world the more over complicated you seem the more knowledgeable you seem... relating back to training, I see people starting out in the gym not learning the basics, watching "instagram workouts" from some over followed dick head who is probably on enough gear to take down an elephant. It's the younger generation that are lost in this world and seeing this happen first hand is worrying, I see 16-20 year olds asking for steroids, over complicating their workouts and not learning the basics of training or even approaching a structured diet plan. TIME & SELF EDUCATION is what you need, as we know there is no quick fix that will get you there. Grow up and understand this, as the quicker you learn this the further ahead you will be & I don't just mean that in terms of training but in any aspect of your life, no one deserves anything and no one is coming to give you what you want, you have your own back so get up and deal with it.

How can I go from a quote from a Greek Philosopher to talking about being a personal trainer I hear you ask? The ancient Greeks are known to be one of the most philosophical, athletic, creative and technological generations in terms of advancements for any given time period. To this day we still use lessons taught from that time period, the olympic games is a prime example of this and as olympians we can use these athletes as a lesson for any aspect in our daily lives. As stated earlier we are all different, we all have different approaches to daily tasks & also the approach to the outlook on life and thats fine, but what I don't understand is those that claim to be an expert on a subject matter but have not put in the time or effort to really understand their craft. Why do you think people look up to entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, Steven Bartlett, they spent years chipping away at their skills, taking onboard criticism, failing & coming back and to this day they will still probably say they are still not experts in their subject field. If you are reading this and feel it is aimed at you then I can guarantee their is room for improvement (which there always will be, but the lessons learnt today will massively improve your tomorrow) in terms of your output and your interaction with others on what you are educating them on, especially if you are taking money off people.

Usain Bolt puts this perfectly "I trained 4 years to run 9 seconds and people give up when they don't see results in 2 months."

Tierneys Top Tips

Walk before you run & understand what you put out into the world no matter what format this may be, know that someone is always watching & taking on board what you say, even if this is one person or thousands. As a human being you need to believe what you're saying is true to yourself and for others & that you too can follow.

Thanks

T.