Recommending certain practices to better your clients’ lives is one thing, but actually practicing those same habits to better your own life is another.
People will not believe what you say, they will believe what you do.
You should be living, walking proof that what you say truly works.
Think about it:
How often do you recommend that your clients get a massage versus how often you get a massage?
Do you recommend dietary changes to your clients to reduce inflammation, but not pay attention to the inflammation in your body and diet?
So, you recommend stretching, but you never stretch yourself?
Are you a massage therapist that has more physical pain or stress than the clients that you work on?
Are you overweight but know that losing weight would remedy your knee pain?
As a trainer, massage therapist, or health care worker, you have access to some of the greatest remedies that exist out there, so why not try them? Why not utilize them to better yourself?
A saying that I truly stand by, and one we have all heard before, "If you can’t walk the walk, then don’t talk the talk." Simple.
Practice What you Preach
Practice what you preach on a daily basis and your body, mind and soul will thank you in the end.
In addition to mind, body, soul, your successful practice will thank you as well.
My Continuing Education Workshops are living, breathing proofs of what practices have helped me become a better massage therapy professional.
If I preached that my safe practices offer career retention, comfort, enhanced general health, and career longevity, but they actually do not, I would not have as successful of a career as I do.
If I did not practice what I preached, I never would have made it to where I am today.
I am living, breathing proof that practicing what you preach is most beneficial for your career.
If you practice what you preach, people are more likely to trust you, to believe in you, to take you seriously, and hopefully… to give you their money so that you can teach them your successful ways on how to enhance their own lives.
Change your Actions, Change your Course
If your actions do not match up with the beliefs that come out of your mouth, then you are either lying to the world or yourself – both of which are wrong.
Allowing yourself to be a walking contradiction will only set you up for failure in your career. Contradictions do not make progress and do not thrive to great successes; they remain in your uncertainty which is the sole purpose of their existence.
Stop contradicting yourself and start practicing the remedies that you desire to teach your students because they are the remedies that will ultimately benefit your present and future self.
The common denominator for all of us is progress. We all have an innate factor of progressing towards something but if we are constantly following counterproductive paths, paths leading to different destinations, we are never going to progress in the ways that we want.
Every time that you make the decision to either practice what you preach or to ignore what you believe is the right thing to do, then you are actively deciding to stay on the course that is leading away from progression and success.
If you change your actions, you change your course. If you change your course, you change your destination and your outcome.
Walking in circles never made the progress that one needs in order to reach your final dream destination.
How to Practice what you Preach
Striving for progress and success sounds so simple, yet there are many steps to take in between.
Practicing what you preach can be tough but if you have the right mindset, anything is possible.
Practice Before you Preach
It would not make sense to preach a practice that you have never experienced before.
If you preach health and fitness, yet have never entered a gym, then your career as a fitness trainer probably will not be successful.
If you preach self care yet have never fully achieved a peaceful mind during meditation, then your students will not adequately learn how to achieve peace either.
Practicing the remedies and techniques before you preach about them, will only increase your success with training your students those same techniques.
Putting yourself through those practices will help you better understand exactly what your mind, body, soul feels like during your experience with those practices, so that you can teach your students to do the same.
No Excuses
There is no reason to make excuses on why you are not practicing what you preach.
Making an effort to rid yourself of excuses will empower you to take your life into your own hands instead of waiting around for someone else to.
Your life is yours to live, and nothing good in life ever came from excuses.
Be Consistent
Make an effort to practice every day.
We are all busy; running around trying to make it to that meeting, answer that email, return that phone call, pick up that child from school.
We all have the same 24 hours in a day to make our lives what we want.
Consistency provides a better practice and a better practice creates more room for success.
Don’t Give Advice You Wouldn’t Take
This seems obvious but think about the times that you have given your friend advice that you would never take yourself to do.
Sometimes, we do it without thinking about it, but it is paramount that you preach what you would practice.
If you would never go to the gym and do XYZ workout, then why would you suggest your clients do it? If you never use a certain massage therapy technique on your clients, then why would you teach about it?
Practice before you preach, don’t make excuses, be as consistent as you can, don’t give advice that you wouldn’t take, and your practice will fall into place because you’ll finally be practicing what you preach.