What the 4th of July mean to you?
Backyard barbecues? Fireworks? The big parade?
For me, it’s all summed up in: Independence Day!
I love to celebrate the independence of being self-employed as a Feldenkrais® practitioner, because it gives me opportunities that would be so much harder to come by otherwise. For example, when my daughter Samantha graduated from UBC, I was able to take 10 days off to be with our whole family. I didn’t have to worry about how to get the time off from work — it was mine to decide!
Before I enrolled in the first North American Feldenkrais Training in 1975, it was one of the major factors I considered. The fact that my training would give me a way to earn my living on my own was one of the biggest reasons I took that training — because at that time, before we had thousands of practitioners worldwide, there was no easy way to discover what Feldenkrais work was actually about. I made my decision based on other factors that had nothing to do with understanding the magnificence of the work I would devote the rest of my life to spreading!
After decades, I haven’t regretted my decision, though at first, being self-employed was an incredible challenge.
The thing about being self-employed is that you go from having a boss you hate because you have to do too much that you don’t like, to having a boss who has the potential to be voted “Worst Business-Person on the Planet” because you never give yourself anything to do that you don’t love!
It got a whole lot easier once I realized that who I am is even more important than my credentials as a Feldenkrais practitioner! When it really sank in that it meant that WHO I AM has to be a person who can keep people walking through my door for a consultation, I was finally on the road to developing a practice in which over 90% of my first-time clients signed on for 1o sessions or more.
This kind of shift in my practice would not have been possible if I had continued to subscribe to the notion that I should be the practitioner I thought everyone expected me to be! It was only possible because I declared my INDEPENDENCE as the practitioner I am, stopped making excuses for not being someone I am not and fully embraced being the person my Ideal Clients love to work with!
Which part of who you are not do you have to let go of, to be found by the people you’re looking for?
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