Happy Tuesday Friends! Oh my goodness, I am sooooo excited about today’s “Inspire Me Series” post! Christina is a friend and fellow Crossfitter! I see her multiple times a week at the gym and I am regularly inspired by her strength, beauty, and passion for fitness! But the truth is Christina wasn’t always so passionate about the job she woke up to go to every day. Today, Christina is going to share about her journey and how she found her way into a career that she never expected! Here’s Christina. . .
Two years ago the proverbial bottom dropped out. I had quit my full time, impressive title, steady paycheck kind of a gig to try and start a new and honestly scary business endeavor. I thought it was finally my chance to get out of corporate America and fulfill my dream of working for myself. You know, the kind where you don’t have to avoid your boss every day when he saunters by your bland office asking you to stay late…again. I was the kid who had her own “corporation” at the age of seven. I was a self-made woman back then and I thought this was my big chance to fulfill the dreams I created so long ago.
But as always in these hard times, things happen. And that big, I’m finally doing it idea came to an abrupt end as that business dissipated. Suddenly my three-year plan was ripped out from underneath me and I was left standing there with my immediate future shattered around my feet. There I was, without hope, without a job holding a staggering student loan payment to deal with. I needed to reassess.
For weeks I looked for another marketing job. Resume after resume went out, call after call. I would have taken anything at that point and just about interviewed for anything I could. Every day those around me whom I sought out for guidance would ask, “if you could do anything in the world, what would it be?” I would answer meekly that I didn’t know. And I didn’t.
It’s easy to sit around and fantasize about your ideal job when you already have one. There is no risk and no chance that it will actually happen; it is the safe zone, the sky is the limit. But what happens when you are actually faced with a blank future and the opportunity to go after that dream? You hesitate. You question yourself. You lose faith in your abilities and talents. And that is exactly what happened to me. I started to believe I wasn’t good enough.
Luckily, a few months prior to this sudden life changer, I had gone and gotten certified in my favorite hobby, Crossfit.
I started working out and doing Crossfit in 2008 when it was still fairly unpopular and very “underground”. I was the only one I knew who did it and I loved it. I loved every sweat drenched, sore muscle, ripped hands, heavy lifting day that I did. My family thought I was weird and my friends quickly tired of hearing about it. But I couldn’t help it I was hooked. I loved the way it made me feel both physically and mentally. After most of my Crossfit classes, I felt like I could take on the world.
Christina doing an overhead squat.
I had already started training a few beginner classes at Crossfit Jenks after the owner let me “intern” under him for a while. I would come in every evening after work and watch him teach, demo movements for him and hang around soaking up every ounce of knowledge I could. What better way to train people than learn the craft from the very person who inspired you? He motivated me to be better than I was, seeing the potential in me that I couldn’t see. I wanted to be that person for other people. I wanted to push them past their limits like he did and watch as their eyes lit up with pride in their accomplishments. I am sure he doesn’t know that was what he was doing for me at the time, but it definitely made a lasting impression.
Breck Berry- the owner of Crossfit Jenks and my motivator.
I think internally I decided I wanted to train Crossfit classes and personal train people full time before I actually said it out loud. I was scared to declare my new direction in life because of the horrible outcome of my previous attempt. Slowly and wordlessly I stopped taking job interviews and began to try and use social media to promote myself and brand myself as a trainer. I was worried about what my friends and family would say about my new career choice.
I started taking on any group classes I could. I took over as the Crossfit coach at the YWCA, asked Breck at Crossfit Jenks if I could take on more classes and eventually designed, programmed and started running a completely separate class at Jenks called Power Camp. One by one I added more classes to the schedule and took on any personal training client I could.
Photos from Power Camp
It was hard at first, really hard. The group classes at the YWCA barely covered my expenses and interning at Crossfit Jenks was not yet a paid job. I had to get creative to figure out ways to pay my bills. I felt like I was in college again, pinching every dime out of my paycheck trying to make it to the next. I had had plenty of practice at being “broke” in college so I buckled down and returned to my thinking to those college days. Luckily my fiancé was incredibly encouraging and supportive during these hard times. Without him, I surely would have been living on the streets.
It was scary for me to think that what I wanted to do with my life was something that I never expected. Something that I never saw coming. The hardest part of this new career choice was getting over the stigma of declaring myself as a Personal Trainer. Honestly, I felt like I was wasting my degree on something that seemed so silly, and I am sure a lot of people around me felt similarly. People would ask what I was doing now and when I answered, teaching Crossfit, I was usually met by a confused look and the same reply, “Wait, didn’t you go to the University of Tulsa.”
Yes, yes I did and guess what? Nothing in my life has given me more pride, made me feel more accomplished, and given me more success than teaching and personal training. Sure the hours are long, I get up at 4:00 am and don’t stagger home until 8:00 pm. But it’s worth it. I used to dread going to work, and now it is what I look forward to every single day. My parents think I work too hard. And yes, sometimes the 12-14 hour days are hard and challenging and my feet feel like cement blocks, but I always leave work with a smile and very few people can actually say that.
Christina competing in the Crossfit Regional games. . . and kicking butt!!
“It is impossible to win the race unless you venture to run, impossible to win the victory unless you dare to battle.”
If you don’t give yourself the opportunity to be successful than how will you ever know you can? It is like wishing to win the lottery every night but never buying the ticket. Eventually you have to take some sort of action towards achieving your goals. Will it happen overnight? No. It took months of sacrifice to get where I am now. Will it be easy? Absolutely not. But the end is always worth the journey and it is that journey that will make you stronger, and able to learn from your mistakes.
I can only impart a few things I have learned along the way.
Start small. At the beginning of doing anything new it is easy to get wrapped up, excited, overwhelmed, etc. Start small and you can always expand and get bigger as you gain more experience. If you take on too much at the beginning you might bite off more than you can chew.
Be confident in your decisions. No one is going to believe in you if you don’t believe in yourself. If you don’t believe you are going to be successful, why would anyone else?
Put yourself out there, people will not come to you. You need to be your best salesman. Get on Facebook, send out emails to friends and family pimping out your services. The people you already know are your best customers.
When you fail, and you will, get back up and try again. “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
Doesn’t Christina’s story, never quit attitude, and obvious passion make you want to go out and conquer your own crazy, never thought I’d end up here goals!? What I love is that Christina shared how much work and how many long hours she puts in every week, yet she is energized and focused because she is doing what she was created to do.
This post and this series is meant to inspire you to figure out your own dreams and to instill a confidence that you an achieve your own goals. Some of you may have a fitness goal that you need to conquer in life. If you do, Christina and I definitely encourage you to try out your local CrossFit. They are all over the country now. If you are in the Tulsa area, I want to urge you to try out Christina’s Power Camp! The May classes just started and it’s not too late to sign up!! Don’t talk yourself out of it, just sign up and go! You will experience so much more than a physical change as you begin to work out. Achieving goals in the gym gives you confidence to take on the world outside your workout. It’s not about being skinny, it’s about being strong in your body, mind, and spirit. Christina, Power Camp, and CrossFit will help you in your journey! Send Christina a message via Power Camp on Facebook to sign up!
Brandy- One of Christina’s Power Camp success stories!!!! Doesn’t she look awesome?!!
That’s it for today folks! Go out and do something that brings you a little bit closer to achieving your dreams!!!
Brandy- One of Christina’s Power Camp success stories!!!! Doesn’t she look awesome?!!
That’s it for today folks! Go out and do something that brings you a little bit closer to achieving your dreams!!!
(Read the post that started this series right here!)
I love this series and especially today’s story! So inspiring!
This is a great post! I have an education that I’ve never directly put to use and I always feel guilty about it…however, Christina makes the very important point that you should be happy with what you do each and every day. Why let a piece of paper turn into a prison cell? Thanks for the inspiration!
I’ve been doing CrossFit since 2006 and while I’ve read your blog for a bit, didn’t realize you did too! Thanks for bringing an inspiring story to us all. Way to go Chrisina!
Christina was indeed created to motivate people to be their very best. She inspires me every day. It’s only by following her heart that she has found true happiness. Thank you for the article!