The best decision I ever made was taking the greatest risk to move away from a decade of everything I’d ever known. I will never have regrets of being a teacher for 10 years, I will never view my 3-year English degree and everything that came after that as a waste of time, simply because so many skills I acquired have made me an even better Fitness Coach. For those of you who don’t know me that well, this is my story of how I turned from a teacher to Fitness Coach, and why I’ve never looked back.
LIFE AS A TEACHER
The truth is, without an air of arrogance, I really was a great teacher. Graded by Ofsted on numerous occasions as ‘Outstanding’ (not that I’m sure anyone knew what that even meant), as well as by Headteachers, Deputy Headteachers, and Heads of Department, with a handful of ‘Good’ grades under my belt, I quickly progressed to being a Head of English. Running a department of 10 people under me, as well as being responsible for everyone else’s classes as well as my own, with the school’s overall results hanging on my shoulders, this burden really did take its toll on my physical and mental health. This list really sums up what my lifestyle was like, as well as providing some insight about what a day in the life of a teacher is like:
· 12-13 hour days, (even more if you brought the work home) and every weekend there’s always work to do.
· Teaching Saturday School nearer to exam season as well as coming in during the school holidays to teach extra revision for GCSE and A-Level
· Planning lessons weekly (this would take
me about 3 hours)
· Marking (1 set of books of 30-32 would take about 3 hours) I would have about 7 classes and marking of everything had to be done every 3 weeks. IMPOSSIBLE. Regular testing usually every 6-8 weeks meant even more marking!
· Sitting in meetings after school until 5pm, parents’ evenings until 8 or 9pm, as well as Open Evenings
· Answering emails - as a Head of English I would sometimes get 50 a day!
· Behaviour managing: making phone calls home, writing up or dealing with incidents, even if they weren’t my students (the joys of more responsibility)
· Observing teachers when I was a Head of English and supporting aspiring teachers, writing termly reports for them
· With more responsibility on many occasions I had to lead meetings as well as plan for them, give whole school INSETS and assemblies
· Constant monitoring and scrutiny: being part of a system that grades your whole teaching on a 10-minute
viewing of your lesson (not realistic at all) with regular lesson observations, sometimes you’d get learning walks (unexpected observations for a few minutes that were drop-ins), others you’d prepare for in advance, plus the quality of your marking was regularly checked)
· Writing reports on every kid for regular data drop deadlines as well as regularly changing seating plans
· Poor eating-sometimes there wouldn’t be time for breakfast etc, dinners would be poor because I was stressed and tired.
· Bad sleep: I suffered a lot with sleep paralysis
· High stress levels and anxiety-getting the Sunday night blues at 3pm onwards and thinking about work constantly, even if I wasn’t there. At my worst, I suffered a panic attack
· Counting down to the holidays, but would always have lots of work to complete during the holidays especially exam marking for all year groups (double and triple exams to mark for GCSE)
Towards the end I hated the politics, dealing with staff who would bully and I hated that the goal posts were always changing. The thing is, schools make you feel like you need them, but you soon realise you don’t. I was so unhappy. Every day I would wake up feeling lethargic, no energy and wishing my weeks and years away. I would often think to myself I HATE MY LIFE, but often was very good at hiding this from friends and colleagues. Towards the end of my 10th year of teaching, my lack of enthusiasm was dwindling away and I came to notice I had no sense of fulfillment anymore. As much as I loved the kids (because no one goes into teaching hating kids), I didn’t agree with the curriculum either, but you are forced to teach it. When I realised my passion was dying and that I would stand in front of my classes feeling like I was living a lie, I knew something had to change. Every day I would watch the clock until it was the end of the day because then my excitement would arise knowing I was going to the gym to weight train.
MY LIFE AS A FITNESS COACH
Fast forward to today, I have never felt so happy in my whole life. I never truly believed when I made this leap of faith that I would come to love it just as much as I did teaching in the beginning. I have been training people since October 2019, I have been training myself since 2016. I competed when I was still a teacher. Yep, so I get it when current and future clients tell me how much their job takes over so much of their life that they NEVER HAVE TIME to train. But, my view is, if you really want something, you will MAKE TIME. That buzz for training that I always felt in the beginning has been a permanent stain ever since.
This sums up my life now:
· Healthiest I’ve ever been food-wise and training
· I train the best clients, all who want body transformations and they are always successful (I have a good track record)
· Some days are long days (7am starts and 9pm finishes), but because I love it so much, it doesn’t feel like work. Even working a 6 day work doesn’t phase me.
· Instead of marking, I do client programming every 4 weeks
· I write a weekly fitness blog post
· I promote myself on Instagram, and trust me, it’s a lot more technical than it looks in terms of planning posts in advance, sharing my journey and my clients’ and keeping it raw, real and educational
· I have a secret goal which no one yet knows about, but I will share one day, something I’ve been working on for over a year
· My own accounts
· Client check-ins every week
· Networking as much as possible, including face-to-face meets, zoom calls and phone calls
I guess my own message to you, is if you know you have been unhappy for a long time, whether it’s a job or relationship, DO SOMETHING TO CHANGE IT. People complain so much, but they don’t realise how much power they have to control their own happiness. I have had questions by people: ‘Tash, why are you always happy? How are you always happy?’ The fact is, I spent far too many years being so unhappy that I would struggle to leave my bed let alone my house, due to my depressive state, and never imagined loving life again.
Once you take that jump, with whatever it is, when that fear slowly disappears, you realise after why you had that fear in the first place. Lastly, if you think about something enough, and it is always on your mind, then you know your answer.
Want to transform your mind and your body? DM me today on IG: @natashakostalas
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