What Do You Stand to Lose if You Don’t Build a Successful Yoga Teacher Career? (And why knowing the answer to that can be a powerful motivator!)
I realise this is a strange title for an article – but if you’re an aspiring yoga teacher who’s currently struggling a bit to find a way of making your yoga teaching into a career which actually sustains you for a living, then bear with me – because this is important!
I know from all my psychology studies, we humans hate loss! It’s an uncomfortable feeling.
But I’ve been a coach for a long time, and I’ve learned that loss can also be a powerful driver and motivator too. Like all things, loss, challenges and adversity of any kind can be a double edged sword – and the happiest, most fulfilled humans I see tend to be those who look for the opportunity that comes from those very challenges.
It starts with understanding what you hope to gain from becoming a professional yoga teacher, as opposed to someone doing it for love and/or “pin money.”
So let me ask you the same questions I ask yoga teachers who have a strategy session with me:
What would you like to earn from yoga teaching in the next 12 months?
How different would your life be if you were a professional yoga teacher earning that income you’ve just said you want to earn? (Think of everything that would change for you.)
Fast forward 12 months. You have achieved the answers to the first 2 questions. Visualise yourself achieving those things. (And as yoga teachers you should be good at this!)
How does that make you feel?
Now fast forward 12 months and nothing has changed. You found yourself stuck in a trap of inaction – held back by fear, things not working for you, uncertainty, or others who think your ideas are unrealistic.
How does that make you feel?
Here’s the thing:
Whatever income you would love to earn as a yoga teacher,
5-10K or even more,
if you haven’t reached this in 12 months – then that’s the financial COST to you. – right there.
But there’s an EMOTIONAL cost too.
It’s the lack of confidence; the feeling you’ve “failed.”
It’s the fact you might still be stuck in a “dead end” job that you didn’t really want to do.
It’s the fact you’ve done all that yoga teacher training – for what?
It’s the fact you feel you have so much to give which could help others, but you just don’t seem to be able to reach the students who need your help.
The truth is, becoming a thriving and successful yoga teacher will take time, energy and commitment (although, if you follow the steps I teach it can be a far quicker road to success.)
There will be challenges. There WILL be things you try which don’t work.
But reminding yourself of what you stand to lose if you don’t achieve your yoga teacher dream can sometimes be the thing which helps you keep going when the going gets tough.
This definitely has worked for me.
In my first business, starting out as a coach and trainer, there were days when I would think, "Oh, I'm just gonna give up. It's too hard." Literally, I could feel I was on the edge of a cliff, worrying where the next income would come from, and thinking I’d just have to go back to my old job to make ends meet.
What stopped me?
Imagining the things I would lose if I gave up in that moment.
Imagining having to go back to that old job……
And the more I thought about what I stood to lose, and the life I’d have to go back to or stick with the more I thought: "No way. No way. This is not happening!
I'm going to make this work."
And I’d roll my sleeves up, dig deep, look for support, and keep going taking as much action as I could.
So, if you’re reading this at a time when you’re beginning to doubt your dream; when you’re thinking of giving up or when you’re just feeling plain stuck – remind yourself what you stand to lose if you let this challenge beat you. In one of my other articles I talk about how we need to practise Warrior if we want to be successful yoga teachers. (Check it out here: Why you need to practice Warrior pose if you want to build your yoga teacher career )
There are students out there – within a few miles of where you live – who need you right now. Go take your yoga to the world!
Good luck! Let me know how you get on!
Namaste,
Shona
An action you can take:
