My Job

It's really an amazing story how I came to be a personal trainer.

Three short years ago I was a third grade teacher and pregnant with my first child. Although I really liked my job, I knew it was not something I could do and also be mommy. I worked an amazing amount of hours.

I now realize that administration has never been a gift of mine (never something that came easily to me) and that's why teaching was so time consuming for me. I am so thankful for my experience as an educator because I really feel God was preparing me to be a different type of educator. A fitness educator! But having a taste of the teaching world has left me with a great respect for the teachers that will eventually instruct my little critters.

So here I am, a new mommy-to-be, bringing in more than half the income for our family and desperately wanting to be home with my wriggling baby boy.

So for months I racked my brain. What could I do at home that would contribute to our family income? I thought about tutoring (which I did in fact do for the first 18 months of Caden's life). I thought about First Steps (an educational program for pre-school children with disabilities). Although this program seemed perfect, I slowly realized after 2 failed tests and listening to F.S. testimonials that I did not have a huge heart for children with disabilities (that sounds awful...but it was true).

While undergoing financial counseling with my husband, our friend/counselor asked the question, "So Rachel, what are you passionate about? What are you gifted in?"
I was floored. No one had ever asked me that before. I had always thought that my career had to be something that "provided income". Just something I could do to help my family out. Dave Ramsey would say I thought I had to have a "J-O-B". When in fact my J-O-B could actually have something to do with who God created me to be??? Weird that it took me 25 years to discover this.

So here I was on a search for me. I had a teacher friend (Kirsten Bays, I love you!) who was amazingly inspiring. She always looked at her job as a hobby. She was amazing at what she did and LOVED doing it. So she inspired me not only as a teacher, but as a person to realize that my job could actually be my hobby.

And my hobby was running, fitness, and a new interest in nutrition as more and more of my friends talked about and tried this new Adkin's Diet. (It was still new at that point)

So suddenly I realized that I would LOVE to help people live a high quality of life. I grew up with several relatives in the morbid obese category. I watched as they struggled to get in and out of their cars. They struggled to climb steps. They had multiple health problems. If Jesus called us to live a "life to the fullest", these people were NOT experiencing the full life that was available to them.

So after a TON of encouragement from my amazing husband, nine months of studying, 3 hands-on classes in Chicago and Detroit, thousands of note cards taped all over our section of Athena's house, I was an ACE certified trainer!

Unfortunately there's not a lot of people in Anderson, IN looking for a trainer. But a few months later I live in a major metropolitan area with 7 amazing clients who are all making key life changes in the area of fitness and nutrition. I'm so proud of them all and will hopefully highlight their progress in future posts.

Later too (this post is getting way too long) I will tell how I got my actual job at Doran Fitness. That's a funny story in and of itself.