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Who Do You Think You Are?

This past month I had the chance to travel to NJ for a wonderful seminar with the folks at 567 Academy.  Nominally this was a “fitness” induction; we were meant to talk about our businesses and how we might improve what we do.  I was excited to see the keynote speaker and nervous about being in a room full of people.  I had wanted to get to a different conference earlier in the summer, so this felt in some ways like a second choice, but I was hoping to pick up one or two things I would take back to my people.

Early on in the first day, the MC said something I don’t think I’ll ever forget.  We were talking about a problem so many gym owners face: at the first sign of trouble, we revert to manual labor mentality–I’ll handle this myself and so forth.

Setting aside the pitfalls of that approach (islands don’t run great businesses), there’s a worthwhile germ here: we want to help people.  It’s in our nature, for whatever reason.   Thinking on that, really hearing that…it was like a dam broke inside of my head.

For so many of us, I think there’s a voice in our head that asks “who do you think you are?” when we step forward in action.  We make a presentation, we put out an idea, we decide we want to make a change, and that voice tells us we’re supposed to BE something grand before we do something worthwhile.

I don’t know where it comes from, I don’t know whose voice it actually is, but it sucks.  (Pardon my French.)  But sitting there in the conference room, I realized for the first time that voice is HOT GARBAGE and can be summarily dismissed.  I don’t need to be somebody to help somebody.  No one does.

This doesn’t mean we’re needed at NATO Central Command (although…), but it does mean we can be what we do.

So..who do I think I am?  I’m someone who wants to help people.  Sometimes I’m good at it, sometimes I could be better, but I’m proud to keep trying.

What about you–Who do you think you are?

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