If you have read my bio, you know that I got started in the group fitness industry with teaching Step Aerobics. I have been commended on my fantastic Step workouts, and, had you asked me not long ago if I thought I was a great Step instructor, I would have said “yes.” In fact, I would have said I’m among the best. As Proverbs 16:18 puts it, “pride cometh before the fall.”
A lady named Alison Ousterhout teaches an Advanced Step class on Wednesday mornings at Life Time Fitness Austin North. Alison is a Step machine!! She has 20-years of dance experience that she beautifully applies to her Step Aerobics presentations. Combining that with the choreography she borrows from fitness personality, Rob Glick, Alison is a Step Aerobics force! I took her class a few weeks ago, and wondered: How does her mouth speak so fast, yet give ample cuing time to prepare us for the next move? How does she add umpteen million rhythm changes, yet keep the entire class on the same counts? How does she spin us around like ribbon dancers then end us on the proper side of the bench with the proper lead leg? I didn’t know, but when she asked me to sub Advanced Step for her, I was determined to find out. I proceeded to study choreography; watch Step DVDs from the best in the biz (Petra Kolber), and intended to prepare a workout that would show those participants that Alison isn’t the only chick in town that can dance circles around that bench. I know that my gift is in teaching intermediate athletic Step, but just for this class, I wanted to dominate in the advanced dance-style Step arena. I choked. In front of 20+ participants, including the general manager of the gym, his wife, the group fitness department head, and a class full of “Alison” fanatics, I completely choked. I had created so much choreography that the words were coming out too late or I was making the wrong calls, and by the time the clock hit 17-minutes into the 60-minute long workout, I would have given my right arm to have class time over! I would have paid cash money for someone to relieve me from this situation. Eventually, the clock struck 12:15 (ending time); I don’t think I’ll rejoice that much again until the day Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, returns.
I prepared more to sub Alison’s class than I’ve prepared for some of my workout DVDs. I was determined to fill her shoes. I wanted to “be” Alison in that class, and I thought using Petra’s moves would enable me to pull it off. Do you want to know what it did? It made me confused and utterly frustrated! Trying to be like somebody else made me an inferior version of myself.
Maybe you aren’t looking to sub any Step classes anytime soon, but I hope this lesson can be applied to you in some way, too… whether you’re breaking your back to be the “Queen Bee” mom, wife, friend, employee, etc. Get out of your own way and get over yourself. Somebody is better; somebody is worse. Somebody is fitter; somebody is fatter. Somebody is Alison; somebody is Brook… somebody is YOU, and that somebody is pretty dang special. Embrace your unique strengths with gratitude and a humility. You’re amazing, just the way you are.
I really like the moral of this story!