Ethics & Professionalism

Welcome back. Congratulations. Do you know how much heavy lifting you've done? You have looked at your belief systems about polities. You defined, you know why you love this subject. You know what your purpose is as a teacher, you know what kind of teacher you want to be in. You aspire to be.

You know who your ideal client is, ways to up your income and what kind of business, what you want out of yourself as a business. You know how to manage your money. Do you know that you are head and shoulders? You're in a different realm, and I hope and for you that you beginning to feel that you have your feet on the ground with an appropriate grasp of what it takes to thrive as a teacher and you're becoming that person that has all the skills and tools and where with all inside and outcomes of themselves to actually thrive and do well in this career. And to be honest, you can take these teachings and use them in any other area of your life as well, because the basic structure applies to anything.

Now with all of this awareness of where you're going, what do you want the, how do you want the world to see you? How do you want people to interact with you? This is in the realm of professionalism. If you are really committed to your life at a certain level and bringing the best of yourself forward, what will this look like? What does it actually mean to be a professional?

There's an interesting definition of that that I would like to share with you, so the definition of professional, I will read it. The conduct aims or qualities, a characterize or mark, a professional person or the way a business is delivered. Interesting. There is actually qualities of what you can stand behind that will be part of how you want to be in the world. Definition of ethics, very important because then you're in the process of a business and a service.

I'll read the definition, the principles that govern a person's behavior or the way an activity is conducted and this is often linked with morals. An example of that is do classes start on time? This is the way the business is conducted. The way things are run and morals. The definition of morals is your values regarding right and wrong.

These are very key foundational operations. Again, as you embody them properly, you will sleep better at night. You will have respect for yourself and what will come back to you from the world is the world will respect you and again, this is a process of raising the bar so you come out and turn up as the best person you can possibly be. What does it mean to be professional? What does it mean to behave ethically? What are the guidelines that you want to apply in this line of work?

As a teacher, I would like to share with you some of the, some of the examples of the guidelines that I applied to myself. I dress appropriately for the job. I turn up representing what I want to be sharing the information and the educational platform that I represent. I always greet my clients when they turn up. I always follow through with my clients.

If I tell them that I'm going to find research something, they asked me a question I don't have the answer for, I say I will get back to them and inform them accordingly. If there's a change in the schedule in some manner, I attempt to notify them as soon as possible. If there is a last minute change of plans on my end that they were unaware of and I am aware there's an inconveniencing regarding, I make every effort to do effort to make good by them in the sense that maybe I give them an additional free complimentary workout just to make up for the fact that I unintentionally change their schedule around for them. I always let them know about the financial side of this agreement between us so that we can have a fair and respectable transaction. When I work with people, I always stay in touch with them, so if we're, I'm doing a joint project, I keep them abreast and informed of where I'm at and I answer questions and stay informed of where they're at.

I always make sure I know what is expected of me and I make every effort to deliver above average expectations. I try to deliver 120% to the best of my ability if anything goes wrong or there's some kind of an upset with the client, first of all, I take 100% responsibility even if it wasn't my fault. So it empowers me to always be proactive about things that go wrong. I attempt to make sure that nobody is leaving an event or anything to do with me, upset, angry, or in some way bitter. I will share a little example of this, of something that happened a few years ago.

I had a partner and we were going to do some kind of retreat together and that person was receiving all the funds and payments for this retreat. It was an overseas event. The people coming were old clients of mine that knew me. They, I was the deliverer of this event. And then something happened in the retreat, got canceled and someone contacted me because they had signed up and they given this person money. And then this person didn't have the money to pay them back. And she was very upset. She contacted me.

I refunded that person, the funds, even though they had never come to me, cause I did not want anybody who was wanting to buy a service of mine walking away because of a cancellation at the loss. I was one I 100% deliver. Was it my fault? No. Was it somebody else's fault? Yes. But I did not want my reputation and my, I, I will deliver. It's very important to me. My honor stands on that piece. It's a part of what I consider professional. For me, this is my ethics value and these are some of the guidelines that I use to, uh, to control how I work in the world.

So I respect myself and I honor myself. Please pause the video here and write down some of your own value systems, your own guidelines for what it means to you to be professional and be ethical. Think about how you dress. Think about how you talk to people, how you bring yourself to the table. What is a professional in your mind? Do this now. [inaudible] [inaudible] was that interesting?

Do you realize that you beginning to design a policy for how you're supposed to behave so that you bring the best of yourself to the world? I do want to address some things that I observed that can go wrong in case there was some kind of oversight and I'm doing this only because I want to empower you and see how you can cross-link, what you believe, how you see things in an ideal, your ideal client that all interrelated in somehow in some manner. For Myself, I'm very clear that my job is to put a person through a workout. When they come to see me, they're supposed to be moving and dealing with body education. Very often people turn up and they want to tell me all about the gossip of the morning, what happened for breakfast, the shopping spree, who knows the clients love to talk and I've seen many a session where the the time is actually spent discussing day to day affairs and not focusing in on the material at hand.

To me this is not up to speed in my value system of being professional, so I have a talkative client and I make sure they are on the reformer and they are moving and maybe their mom does mouth is going, but I don't feed into it. I keep putting their mind back towards the focus and the purpose of the session. It's my own little trick to stay on track. I do not get pulled in to their activities, but this is an important thing that I bring up. I have seen teachers dress, they wear two different colored socks.

They look like they've never cut a comb, their hair, and then they're complaining that they're not getting clients and they're in a high end studio. You don't look professional enough, so I'm pointing out some negative things. Just again to tweak you to become leart about yourself. Now please pause and just have another look at your list. See if there's anything else you wanted to add to it. [inaudible] wonderful.

Do you see how if you apply these and behave this way, you will get a lot of ad admiration and respect. And remember, this is not knowledge. This is not university did a degree in PyLadies or whatever else I have. I know teachers, students of mine, friends of mine a whole career in beginning or math. Then life is change. They bring themselves to the table very professionally.

They're very passionate about teaching the beginner mat exercises and they're held in high regard in their community as experts, literally because they're just turning up 120% they give 150% quality service at the level they can. And they love what they do. They believe it. They're aligned with it. So this is very important and it will refine you and bring you to a whole other level. So imagine the impact you will have when you hold your own this way. Now close your eyes. Settle in.

Imagine yourself professional to the nth degree. What do you look like? What do you sound like? How much impact are you having on your clients and peers and the people that you meet when you bring yourself forth in this way? By the way, doesn't it feel nice to be respectful of yourself as you're respecting others, having no insecurities about you bringing 100% of yourself to the table, you're being honest and clear and in integrity. It's a wonderful feeling. Enjoy it. Feel into it.

Imagine where this will take you in six months, in a year, in two years. What kind of person will you be as you embody this professionalism on a deeper and deeper scale? Take a deep breath in. Take all of this, place it in your heart center. Know that this is you. This is growing. This is you becoming breathe out. Open your eyes. Well done.

You've now defined all of the policies for how you want to be in the world, the rules and regulations that are true and right for you in how you want to be as this professional in the world for your fun practice before next session, look over everything you put down today. Refine it, add to it, tweak it. Practice the state yourself. If you already teaching, bring yourself to the table. Next time you're teaching in this manner. Be consciously aware of being a professional.

Be Consciously aware that you're delivering a service to the best of your capacity. Really embody it. It's fun. You're going to grow and your wills thrive. Share what you discovering. Share what you're clarifying and defining for yourself with the community. See what other people are posting. Get inspired, applaud others.

Enjoy your journey and I will see you in the final lesson. You've done all the heavy lifting. Now we will just be pulling everything together for your final vision.