300-Hour 2019 Is This For Me?

Do you have a personal yoga brand/business?

The biggest mistake I see yoga instructors make is thinking they’re better off alone. They announce that they’re no longer teaching at a studio like they’re “above that”. Then 2 years pass . . . 4 . . . 5, and nothing much comes of their plans.

Most entrepreneurs who move beyond the small business stage say this: it’s all who you know. As a young yogi with my own brand, I didn’t understand how that worked. Now I see. It’s all who you know. You don’t need a lot of connections - in fact, that can work against you (it’s like having too many friends where none of your relationships are quality). One good contact can open up the entire world to you. Also, the good contacts tend to be friends with one another. And they tend to blindly trust one anothers’ recommendations. So do their followers. You see how quickly this builds.

If you want to do your own thing, DO IT!!! It’s a beautiful experience to have your own business and your own brand. Just . . . stay connected. To specific, strategic people. And do a really good job with those relationships.

I’ve got huge plans for this studio and I’m taking huge steps to pursue them. I guarantee there will be ever-growing opportunities. I’m not guaranteeing every person will get them - you still need to be the right fit - but the teachers in this specific round of the 300-hour will have a leg up on everyone else. No pun intended. It’s a promise I’m making to the Class of 2019.

All of this aside . . . you need to set yourself apart. Personality can get you far when it comes to teaching yoga; it’s a big part of it. But at some point if you want to charge more or take your business to the next level, you HAVE to back it up with a deeper knowledge of yoga. As good as you are at teaching right now, you will legitimately be able to offer more when you’ve completed your 300-hour.

After I got my 300-hour, I was a lot more confident and spoke with a lot more authority when it came to yoga. Rightly so! It had big implications on my business.

“I just finished my 200-hour.”

Get in here!! If a new yogi said, “I’d love to study more, but I just started so I’m not ready for that,” wouldn’t you say, “get your foundation now! Before you ingrain bad habits! Knowing the finer details will make a profound difference every time you step on your mat for the rest of your life! It will turbo-charge your progress!”

Yes, you would. That’s how it sounds when a 200-hour teacher says he or she is not ready for a 300-hour training.

“I need that time with my kids.”

I preface this by saying I am not a parent; this is my opinion but it is not backed by experience. Also, parenting is intensely personal. AND every situation is diffrent. Please know I recognize and respect that.

Time with your kids is a LOT of being a good parent. Who you are as a person is also a LOT. It’s both.

Ditto for being a good partner. It can be good for a relationship for you to pursue something that’s “yours” (we’re not talking every weekend, people - this is not an unfair amount of time). We had an epidemic of improved marriages after the last round of Yoga School.

Anyway, think how empowering it would have been if your parents had modeled the importance of investing in yourself. What if that was a paradigm you grew up with? Think how much better of a parent you are because of the investment you already do in yourself.

One-on-one time with your partner, a grandparent, or any other GREAT person (there are lots of those out there) who loves on your littles can be good for them. It creates dimension in their lives. It creates dimension in yours. Obviously this isn’t available to everyone and I fully respect that. But for those of you who it is . . .

I think the combination of how much you LOOOOOVE your kids plus how much they need you plus how busy they make you makes you feel justified saying, “I’ll do me later”. I tooootally get it. Having said that, I see parents use it as an excuse to cop out on things that take them out of their comfort zones. Not saying you’re doing that; am saying be honest with yourself and double-check. A lot of moms deal with depression and I think this is partially why.

Parents put themselves on hold while they raise their kids and then have mid-life crises. Sometimes they blame/shun their grown kids for it and that’s just painful. You not doing what you wanted to do with your life is your choice, not your kids’. Besides, it's good for your kids to learn that the world doesn't revolve around them.

Your kids will likely be under your roof for at least 18 years of your life - longer if you have more than one and longer if they don’t move out ’til they’re 30 lol. That’s a LOT of your life. That’s a LOT of opportunity. That’s a LONG time you could be simultaneously developing your practice, your teaching, your thing that you have outside of your kids.

Having something that’s yours, outside of your kids, is important to 99% of the moms I talk with. Especially the really happy ones with really happy kids.

P.S. Need a way to pay for babysitting? Would any of your friends enjoy free yoga with you in exchange for watching your kids? Perhaps several could rotate babysitting, and you could teach them all at once - maybe even teach their kids! A special circle of friends with special memories could come of it.

"I feel guilty spending money (or time or energy) on myself."

Technically we’re not supposed to say this because we’re yogis, but it’s a struggle for a lot of people. I used to deal with it, BIG-TIME.

What freed me was understanding the subconscious root: if I didn’t think I was worth spending time & money on, what did that say about how I valued myself? As I lived with this idea of valuing myself, I saw repercussions all OVER my life - most of them having to do with the quality of my relationships and how I expected people to treat me. Who’da thunk?

Perhaps you feel guilty spending money on things you don’t really want or need. But that’s different from investing in yourself in super-heathy ways that your higher self is asking for.

It's so cliche I almost don't want to write it, but SO true: when you're your best, you're better for EVERYONE else, too. There’s nothing selfish about working hard to be better for the people you love.

“I can’t tell if it will be worth it.”

Do you preach that yoga will change your life? Then practice it. Think how much your 200-hour changed you. Yoga is a portal to healing, success and discovery. Knowing that, inaction carries a far greater price than jumping all in.

“If you telescope out 10 years and know with 100% certainty that it is a path of disappointment and regret, and if we define risk as the likelihood of an irreversible negative outcome, inaction is the greatest risk of all.” - Tim Ferriss

“It’s not good timing. I’ll do it next year.”

It’s not good timing for personal growth? Grab life by the horns, yogi!!

Life is a lot shorter than I used to realize. The older I get, the more I see that every day has potential to be a game-changer. The amount that can be accomplished (or changed, or healed) in a year is staggering when you open yourself up and jump into it.

I tried being lax for a season and before I knew it 5 years had passed. By then I was older and disoriented, out of practice. The open doors from before took a lot of HARD WORK to get back. Most of it had to be scrapped and rebuilt from scratch. It was a sobering wake-up call.

Now I don’t want to spend a year - not even a week - biding my time at half-mast. Eastern medicine views stagnation as the cause of disease. Don’t let busyness be a mask for what is actually stagnation (i.e. an excuse to never get around to personal and professional growth).

Beyond that, if you want cool teaching opportunities I reference the first discussion point: this particular Class of 2019 will get first dibs at the opportunities here. This is in part because I’m looking for action-takers and in part because of the timeline I have in mind. It tells me a lot about you, if you’re the type who makes it happen vs the type who waits for it to come along (and/or thinks the opportunities will always be there) . . .