20 Dec residency program spotlight: Lee Rayment
Come along with our recent resident, Lee Rayment, as he shares his insight into kinected’s residency program.
My Mind is like a Crockpot
Yes, you read that right, my mind is like a crockpot. More on that in a bit…
My shift from being a pilates teacher-in-training to a full-time instructor happened quite fast. I knew I was going to be transitioning out of my previous job as a mid-level desk jockey for a nameless and faceless multi-national organization. I had planned a slow several month transition, allowing time to build up clients, pad the coffers, and generally make sure my life was stress free. Unfortunately (and I’m sure you saw this coming), that transition happened about four months sooner. Two days before I was due to leave for a friend’s wedding for a week, I was unceremoniously pressed to the ledge in my old position and had to quit.
Panic ensued.
Those of you who know me might see a relatively placid exterior. You’d be right to observe that. So you know that when I say I was stressed, I was stressed. There were several months where I had…many jobs. But I was teaching, doing something that I loved, and that was wonderful. I was just a bit overworked. And with overwork came a bit of exhaustion.
This exhaustion lead to a period of time where I was just running fumes in my teaching. I felt stuck, I was doing the same thing over and over again. I was in a rut.
What fueled the rut was the isolation that can sometimes come from teaching. Yes, you are seeing clients and interacting with them, but gone were the days in training where you could sit and observe and ask questions and see new things. You become like a broken record, repeating the same things to your clients.
At our annual staff meeting in late 2016, Matt and Carrie introduced the Kinected Residency Program, a program they had been developing over the past year. Based on the medical residency programs that doctors complete after their time in med school, the Kinected Residency would provide ongoing lectures, informal chats, and mentorship sessions throughout the course of the program. Suddenly I had something help get my out of my rut. It was exactly what I was looking for.
Back to the crockpot: it takes time for me to process new information. I learn best when you throw many things my way and let me stew (you see what I did there?). The more you throw in, the longer it takes for me to churn out something that I can then apply to my clients.
Having a dedicated space to discuss and learn has really helped me get through this first year of teaching. Even having completed the residency, I know that there are still ongoing lectures and chats that I can drop in on when I want to see something different. There is dedicated space where I can discuss the successes (and failures) that go along with teaching. This atmosphere has been key to my success and I hope that it will be meaningful and helpful to those in the future.
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