Diary of a yoga teacher faced with Covid 19; Phase 1 – Day 8 – After the panic – DO something!
In the last article Diary of a Yoga teacher faced with Covid 19: phase 1; Handling the panic! I talked about how a natural reaction to a crisis which threatens our safety and security can send us into a spin, and a funk!
It did me!
Funk is natural!
Just don’t stay there! I talked about the three states you actually DO want to cultivate and spend more time in instead – that of openness, curiosity and creativity and a willingness to think about what you can do instead of what you can’t.
But for some people, the thinking about what to do
becomes as much of a black hole as the funk!
Believe me, I fall into the trap too…until I catch myself and give myself a good talking to!
Because it can become a spiral of muddled thinking; of “Maybe I could do “x””, or “Should I do “y”?” and all this stuff goes round and round in your head until it hurts and you decide you’ll come back to thinking about it tomorrow!!
But when tomorrow comes you fall back into the circle of muddled thoughts and jumbled and half-baked ideas.
Either that, or you rush headlong into taking action and it falls flat; doesn’t work out as you hoped leaving you feeling disheartened and back in that funk.
Thinking for too long means you’re caught in “freeze” mode – and believe me, nothing ever happens there!
But acting out of desperation doesn’t work either: there HAS to be a balance of thought and ACTION.
After pulling myself out of my “funk”, I decided I would get off my back-side and focus on getting something online for my students – particularly the long-standing, regular students who were already saying to me, could I do something online. I mean, come on! There was a buying signal right there if ever I saw one! If I was worried about the sudden black hole of income (which I was) then there was an opportunity right there to at least bring something in reasonably quickly – so why was I stalling?
I was stalling because my gremlins were worrying about the tech; about what to offer; about being on camera…..
But I had promised my students I would look at setting something up – I’d physically told them in an e-mail I would – it was out there, in the ether! If I didn’t try, what would they think of me?
PHSYCHOLOGICAL TIP! Humans do NOT like to be seen to be inconsistent – so if we SAY were going to do something, we tend to try ensure we do it so we don’t lose face!
So TELL others what you plan! Better still, add a date to it! Nothing better than a deadline for making you pull your finger out!
Within 5 days I had:
I got over 100 students signing up – and generated over £3000 in income, within 7 days!
Those gremlins were well and truly astonished I can tell you!
Here’s what I’ve learned:
- 1TAKING ACTION MAKES YOU FEEL BETTER
If this whole Covid thing has taken the wind out of your sails or left you feeling disheartened or stuck, then make a commitment to yourself you WILL do something to move yourself forward. - 2TRY TO ACT AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN BUT NEVER ACT OUT OF DESPERATION
People can sense desperation……”selling” anything from that place never works.
Act from a place of service.
Act from a place which asks, "Who are my community and what do they want and need from me more than anything right now?
And then make them an offer which fills that need and want.
Did you know the original root meaning of to sell was to be of service?
If you had a community pre-Covid – understanding who they really are and what they really liked about working with you as a teacher will help you take action which is more closely aligned to their needs. The minute you align what you offer to the real needs of your community, is when the magic happens and when students join you because they VALUE what you offer. - 3SEE WHAT ACTION YOU TAKE AS AN EXPERIMENT
I’ve spoken to yoga teachers who, since the pandemic, have given online a go, but been disappointed with the results and it’s fizzled out. They’ve told themselves “It doesn’t work,” and they’ve given up.
I’ve spoken to yoga teachers who are so paralysed by the fear of trying online classes; getting their head round the tech and putting something out there for people to see that they have done nothing.
Have you ever tried something and it didn’t work?
I have! ALL the time!
It hurts! I’ve seen me smart for days, weeks or even months, before I got back on the bike and tried again!
And I’ve seen other yoga teachers fall into that trap too. They over identify with what they’ve created and feel: “If people don’t want what I offer then they don’t want me.”
It’s easy to take failure personally. It’s easy to equate your sense of self-worth with your idea, when the truth is value is NOT something you have or own or possess. It’s something you create and give.
THAT’S why I like seeing the actions I take as an “experiment.”
When you see the actions you’re taking as an “experiment” a lot of that pressure goes away; because by their very definition, experiments are just that: experiments!
And we all know experiments frequently don’t work out – BUT they’re there to help us figure out what works and what doesn’t; helping us realise we may need to tweak something and try the experiment another way!
No-one can see an “experiment” as a failure, so I encourage you to adopt the mindset of an “experimenter!”
So to sum up phase 1 of a crisis hitting:
- 1When panic hits, adopt the 3 states of openness, curiosity and creativity, instead of fear, anxiety and despondency.
- 2Do something – as quickly as you can to help you move forward. Taking action ALWAYS makes us feel better.
- 3Do something from a place of experimenting rather than desperation, so you’re less likely to feel bad if some actions don’t give you the results you hoped for initially.
From this place, you’re ready to move into phase 2 of handling a crisis: working out the best strategy for YOU based on a solid understanding of best business tactics.
If you want to join a community of like-minded yoga teachers, determined NOT to let the Covid-19 define or destroy them, make sure you’re part of the Yoginiors Facebook group, where, over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing what works and what doesn’t at a time like this.
Namaste,
Shona
Actions you can take
Join our FB group; and tell us your story of how you’ve coped with the Covid -19 crisis. Whether you’ve successfully transitioned online or struggled, I’d love to hear your stories. They will help others either realise they are not alone or help inspire them to take some positive action to move them forward.
