Back to school

Over the past two years I’ve been taking courses, writing tests and studying all with one goal in mind: become a BCRPA certified Personal Trainer. Today, I’m proud to say that I have achieved my goal.  And I am proud to say that I am offering my services in Victoria. 
 
As part of maintaining this certification, I must continue to pursue education in the field, with a certain number of credits every year. This is great, because I love learning new and helpful things, and it means that I can offer my clients even more.
 
Part of becoming a Personal Trainer is to first gain a designation as a Weight Training Instructor. To this end, I’ve decided to further my knowledge of strength training. I’m dedicating myself to learning the Olympic lifts so that I can teach them properly and safely to my clients and offer a higher level of training. 
 
This week, I am taking an NCCP course (National Coaching Certification Program) for Road Running Instructors. This will allow me to offer road running clinics, for example, for the very popular TC10K in Victoria. Watch out in January for a running clinic!
 
My new long-term goal is to go back to school. In the next couple of years, I will be starting the Bachelor of Athletic and Exercise Therapy program at Camosun College. At the end of this four-year program, I will be an Athletic Therapist as well as a Strength and Conditioning Coach. Currently, this designation is about the highest level of education and training I can aspire to. I want to be able to help people through an entire process, from injury diagnosis and treatment all the way through to getting them back to their previous prowess and beyond. There is one minor hurdle in the way to this goal however: there are admission requirements, and my grade for Math 11 does not meet them. 
 
I barely passed Math 11 the first time (C-); this time around I will kick its butt. In high school, I would have told you that I was just not good at math and that it is not “my thing.” This time I don’t accept that, and I will succeed. I have been taking math courses online in my spare time and so far things are going really well. Many of the tests and assignments I’ve written are in the 90% neighbourhood. Full credit to my brother Nathan, the math genius, who has been helping me a lot. 
 
The truth is, I first looked into going back to school for this program two years ago. But even then my hang-ups about math kept me from doing it. I can’t do it, I told myself.  Well, I’m telling myself something different today. I can do it. I will do it. If I had started two years ago, I’d be further along now. But it’s never too late to start. So what else don’t I think I can do? What else am I holding back on? What will I kick myself for in two years for not starting now?
 
And how about you? What are you going to stand up and do today?