Ep 54: Goal-Setting: Building a Vision for Your Teaching Career

Transcript

Monica: 0:00

In this first episode of the new year, let's talk about setting goals and why they're vital to your teaching career, whether you're an intentions, resolutions, or goal setting type of teacher. That doesn't matter. What does matter is that you have a vision for what you want to put in place this year, some goals you want to reach and some outcomes you'd love to conquer. Welcome to the Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers podcast with me. I'm Monica Bright, and I've been teaching yoga and running my yoga business for over a decade. This is the podcast for you if you're a yoga teacher, you're looking for support, you love to be in conversation, and you're a lifelong student. In this podcast, I'll share with you My life as a yoga teacher, the lessons I've learned, my process for building my business, and helpful ideas, tools, strategies, and systems I use and you can use so that your business thrives. We'll cover a diverse range of topics that will help you whether you're just starting out or you've got years under your belt and you want to dive deep and set yourself up for success. I'm so glad you're here. Listen, I don't take myself too seriously, so expect to hear some laughs along the way. Now, let's do this together. Happy happy new year, first. I don't know where 20, 24, when it feels like January of every year lasts forever and the rest of the year just flies by. I am so excited for this upcoming year full of podcasts episodes made, especially for you. I've received some requests for episode topics ranging from sequencing questions to teaching for a specific populations. More injury and anatomy episodes. And as always answering questions from you. In this first episode of the new year, let's talk about setting goals, whether you're an intentions, resolutions, or goal setting type of teacher, that doesn't matter. What does matter is that you have a vision for what you want to put in place this year, some goals you want to read and some outcomes you'd love to conquer. But first let's answer the question. Why is goal setting? Essential. And the answer is that goal setting is a powerful tool that helps you create an intentional and sustainable career. It helps to provide clarity direction and a sense of purpose so that your teaching aligns with your values and aspirations and helps you avoid spinning your wheels and the dreaded. Burnout. So let's talk about why you want to set goals for your teaching career. Think of it as defining clarity in your career path. Teaching can be a diverse and dynamic field with opportunities ranging from studio classes and workshops to retreats and online courses. Your teaching schedule can, and probably does look very different than mine. And that's exactly how it should be because we have different interests, different backgrounds, different populations that we may want to serve without defining your goals. It's easy to feel scattered. Or overwhelmed by all of the possibilities. For example, if you set a goal to specialize in yoga for seniors, This gives you a focus path for choosing the type of training you want to invest in. The marketing that you create and how you go about building your student base. Goals act as a compass and help you prioritize opportunities that align with your longterm vision rather than chasing every new idea or every new trend somatics has become popular lately. And before that mobility, but what if you are an Iyengar. And guard teacher, or you love to teach power Vinyasa classes. You need to be clear on that and set goals that align with your interests. Get in alignment with your core values, learning your core values involves time, deep self reflection, and exploring what truly matters to you. Your core values are the guiding principles that shape your decisions, your behaviors, and your goals. Not really sure what your core values are. Well, first you've got to reflect on significant life experiences, identify moments of pride. Take some time to think about the times. In your life when you felt most proud or fulfilled? What was happening at that time? Who was there with you? What values were important in those moments? Then reflect on the challenges in your life. Think about the times when you felt upset or frustrated, these moments can often reveal some of your core values as well. For example, if you felt frustrated by someone's dishonesty. It might mean that integrity is one of your core values. Next, when you reflect on your lives, a significant experiences reflect on your role models. Who do you look up to? What do you admire about them and why? For example, if you admire someone's kindness and empathy, then compassion could be one of your core values. Also think about what brings you joy? What makes you happy? What activities people or places make you the happiest? For instance, if teaching yoga brings you joy because you love helping others grow, then service, growth or connection could be among your core values. You could use a core values list to identify your core values. and highlight or circle the values that resonate most with you. Then narrow your list down to five or 10 by contemplating, whether you would feel unfulfilled if each value were absent from your life. I want you to think about motivating yourself towards a specific goal. Teaching yoga can be physically and emotionally demanding, and it's easy to lose motivation, especially if you have a busy schedule. Defining a specific goal gives you something tangible to work towards. All you have to do is set aside the time to work towards getting it done. For example, when I was preparing to launch this podcast. I knew I needed to set aside time to come up with ideas for episode topics. Plan for recording and editing And promotion. All of that thought went into the development of the podcast before I launched, because I could have easily let life get in the way. Did you know that some statistics say that 90% of podcasts don't get past episode three. I think that's crazy and I didn't want to be part of that statistic. So it was imperative for me to plan ahead of time. I've also got other big goals for this year and I'm currently in the planning stages of how to work them into my schedule as well. So, what is it for you? Do you want to launch an online beginner yoga course by June, maybe. Make that a specific goal, then start to work backwards from there. What should you be doing now in order to have it ready for June? Defining this specific goal will keep you motivated and focused on progress even when your life gets busy. Then focus on sustainable growth. One of the biggest challenges of teaching is balancing your classes. Your personal practice. And self care. You probably know, I am not a big believer in adding more and more classes to your schedule in order to increase your income. For one, there are only so many hours of the day and days of the week. You'll burn out fast with this mindset. Instead, I believe you should be diversifying your teaching, whether it's one-on-one or small group, private yoga classes. Corporate classes, specialty workshops, retreats, or online options. There are so many routes you can take. And each of these pieces of the puzzle, add to the whole. Help you create a schedule that won't burn you out and also gives you variation in what you teach, keeping you interested and helping your career become more sustainable over the long run. But you don't have to do this all at once. Sustainable growth will help ensure that you can maintain your energy. And your passion for teaching over the longterm while you add to your offerings. This will help you avoid burnout as well. If you take on too many classes or say yes to opportunities that don't resonate with you, you might find yourself in a state of resentment setting goals can help to act as boundaries and help you say no. To what doesn't serve you or your vision. Have you ever experienced imposter syndrome? I have teaching yoga often comes with periods of self doubt, but when you consistently work to achieve your goals, no matter how small it'll help you build confidence and help you measure your success objectively. So instead of comparing yourself or your growth to someone else's compare your growth to the goals you have set, it's kind of like that saying that you only compare yourself to your prior self and not someone else. Are you growing? Are you getting closer to your goals? Are you putting the necessary steps in place to build your schedule and offerings? It doesn't matter what someone else is doing. You have no idea. If they have a team of people helping them, if they have children or not, or what their personal life experience is. And if you remember anything, please don't go by social media standards. People typically don't post and share the challenges they're facing on social media. I was in conversation with a yoga teacher sharing that. It had finally happened to me. Someone came into my zoom class and was, we'll call it misbehaving. Uh, to the point that I had to remove that person from class. And I was sharing with this teacher, how it affected me emotionally. And what updates I was putting into place in my live classes. So it wouldn't happen again. I did share this experience on social media also, but the teacher I spoke to said, ah, this just happened to me too. And I was like, what? First off. I thought we had a closer relationship than we actually did. But this was proof again, that people are not sharing the challenging stuff that they deal with. So you have no idea. So please. Don't compare yourself to other people. Think about how goal setting can help you serve your students better setting goals. Doesn't have to just be about your own personal growth. It can also be about improving the experience for your students. if you set a goal such as I want to learn three new sequencing techniques this year. It demonstrates a commitment to your ongoing learning and development so that your teaching remains fresh and engaging. As you continue to learn new sequencing strategies and incorporate them into your classes, you'll be offering your students a more diverse. Enriching and interesting learning experience in your yoga class. As you continue to learn and evolve as a teacher, your students will reap the rewards of your evolving skills and deeper knowledge. They'll benefit from you expanding your teaching techniques, your increased competence in the yoga room and your passion for lifelong learning. By investing in your own professional development. You're ultimately investing in the future success of your students as well. This leads you to evolving your career over time as your teaching journey evolves. So do your interests and aspirations. Goals, provide a framework for continuous learning and adapting to new opportunities. For example. If your goal is to get certified in trauma informed yoga. That's going to open the doors to a variety of new niches and teaching environments. What I was interested in learning has evolved over the years. This is a natural progression. As you realize the type of teacher you want to be, and the types of populations you want to serve. When you get intentional about setting goals with your teaching career, you'll find that you create a roadmap for a career that's not only successful, but also fulfilling and aligned with your core values. Goals, keep you focused, motivated. And adaptable So that your passion for yoga can thrive for years to come. So, what are your business goals? Do you want to launch an online course? Or create passive income streams. Or maybe build a stronger social media presence or email list. It could be that you want to focus on offering workshops more. Or seeking out the populations that you want to teach. Take a little bit of time to write down the goals that you want to set for this year in the last round of the business of yoga, 2.0, I worked one-on-one with a teacher who wanted to begin hosting yoga retreats. But had no idea where to start. We worked together and now she has a solid understanding of how to find a retreat location plan for it, promote it, and get students interested in signing up for it. I love retreat. So this was a super fun one-on-one working relationship. In the past, I've offered the business of yoga as one-on-one and group coaching and have found that I really enjoyed the one-on-one model, the best, Y because we're working on your specific interests. So the next round of the business of yoga, 2.0, will most likely be a one-on-one VIP offering. Okay, this is what I want you to do. I want you to write down. Three goals for your teaching career. I started journal for your goal setting this way. It's out of your head and down on paper. And finally you share your goals with me, someone in your life you trust or on social media. And tag me if you like. My Instagram handle is in the show notes below. Remember being accountable to someone goes a long way. Having a strategy and setting goals helps you stay deeply in love with teaching yoga and gives you a clear direction on where you're headed. It's so important for us to have these conversations so that you remember that there are so many opportunities for you in the teaching world. You know that my goal is for you to love the yoga teaching life and allow it to be fulfilling and rewarding. And as always, it takes some work and some time, and maybe some conversations to get there. If you loved this episode, let me know. I've added a link in the show notes for you to send me a quick text message about your thoughts on this episode. If you want to be held accountable for your 2025 goals or any topics you'd like me to consider for 2025. I won't know your phone number. It's just a neat addition to the platform I use that allows for this new and super easy way for you to communicate with me. Once you click on it, it'll take you to your messages, but don't delete the code. That's how your message will get to me. And I would love to know your thoughts on this topic. Subscribe to the podcast. So you're always in the know when a new episode drops and share it with another yoga teacher who you think would love to be in on these conversations. Thank you for helping to spread the word about this podcast. And if you've been taking notes in your journal, as you listen to these episodes, I'm so glad you are. And I would love to hear about it. Don't forget to download the ebook sequencing for different injuries. The link is in the show notes. I promise you it will help you form a foundation for teaching students with injuries. And it'll be a great resource for you to return to again and again. When you download the ebook, you'll be joining my newsletter. That's just for yoga teachers. I've got more exciting teachings coming soon. So I want to tell you all about them. The link is in the show notes below, and I would love you to join it so we can always stay connected. All right. That's it for now. Happy new year. Bye. Mhm.