I’ve been teaching yoga for over 10 years now and I fucking love it. But I only love it when the people I’m teaching are showing up to work and learn and not passively participate. I’ve taught way too many classes where people show up and think they can do whatever they want, and when I address their lack of effort, they get incensed, they’re offended, they complain, and now I have a problem with management, because management doesn’t give a shit about growth, they’re only in it for the fucking money.
Look, we’ve all been there: there’s some thing that you’re passionate about and you’re willing to show up for, put your head down, and do the fucking work to improve at that thing because it matters to you. And then there are the people around you interested in the same thing and a few of them are putting in the work, but the rest of them are just there wondering why they’re not making your kind of progress or seeing your kind of results when they’re literally not doing anything that’s worth a damn.
Sometimes, those latter types just need the right motivation. Sometimes. But I’m not interested in dealing with those types because those types often aren’t really aware of what they want and what they’re willing to pay (attention, time, effort) to achieve it. They’re energy vampires taking up the space that someone else who actually wants it should be occupying. And I’m in a place where I can take the person to the next level who’s ready and willing.
Don’t get me wrong, there are great trainers who are willing to work with those who are ambiguous or otherwise noncommittal about their engagement with the work. I am not one of them. I am the asshole on the top of the mountain who wants to recognize commitment before I invest myself. This is my professional dilemma. I could just deal with whoever and take everyone’s money. And if I did that, I’d be much better off financially. But honestly, fuck everyone who doesn’t want to show up and is willing to waste an instructor’s time pretending that they do. Figure out what you want, and then make your moves. Seems pretty fucking simple.
Anyway, here’s a poster of the luscious @mataro rocking a headstand in her set Dharma:
