November 26 - Path of Least Resistance

It was a great summer, by far the best one I’ve had since moving to Malta. In fact, it is the exact lifestyle I moved here to live in the first place…a couple of client sessions in the morning, off to the beach for the rest of the day and back home for dinner, ice cream and a bit of chocolate. Tremendous.

​There was a five week stretch right in the middle of it for my London thing but that weirdly made it all even better. One summer before London and then one when I came back, when I really do need to rest...even had a UK heatwave but that didn't really count.

​Admitting that I enjoy chocolate and ice cream probably doesn’t sound very “PT-like” to the fitness purists but it is realistic and it’s where I am now.

That doesn’t mean I’m letting everything slide and am fast tracking to elephant status again. It just means dropping the extreme self imposed restrictions, that can make life less fun.

A couple of summers back, I was a silent vegan and used to train in the middle of August with the windows shut, fans off and two hoodies on. People told me I was mad and looking back, they were right. What did I actually get out of doing that? It kept me very fit obviously but it was a bit extreme just for the sake of it. I’ve realised that I don’t need to do those types of things to myself anymore.

​That shift toward happiness and wellbeing is where my business and personal focus have landed over the last year or eighteen months. Yes I could be fitter. Yes I could achieve more business wise and have more money but I’m very happy with the lifestyle I have, I’m not greedy, so why would I want to change it?

​Shifting priorities naturally means a few clients through choice, have fallen by the wayside along the way. Am I disappointed when people leave me? Not really, that’s just life and you can usually see the signs beforehand.

​I always tell people the same thing, it’s not a marriage and everyone has a “PT life expectancy.” Regardless of how well we get on whether someone stays for a day or six years, eventually that chapter ends.

I don’t hold grudges or go mad at ex clients, I'm grateful for them paying me however long they did. if I see them in public, I'm not going to randomly attack! On the mad scale, I like to think I sit comfortably on the nicer end, rather than the psychopathic end. There’s no awkwardness, there’s nothing to worry about, it’s just business and we move on.

​Choosing peace over unnecessary grief has also meant turning down a couple of big opportunities offered recently too. One I had agreed to start in September, at a for a prime location venue in St Julians. On paper, it was the perfect location and would have been a brilliant showcase tool for the My PT Mentor side of things. ​The other was helping to bring an established UK boxing brand to Malta, with a view to organizing shows here.

Ten years ago, I’d have jumped at both opportunities and worked endless hours to make sure that they work. But experience and shifting priorities, changes how you view things.

Sure, there was decent money on offer but there was also huge amounts of friction guaranteed with it.

It came down to simple question, is the money worth the time needed and stress it will cause me? No was the simple answer.

​I can understand people laugh when I explain that I follow the path of least resistance but I actually do and it’s working really well for me. I listen to stories and witness with my own eyes, how most people live nowadays...it's not for me

​If there is any friction in my life at the moment, it comes from the My PT Mentor side of things…and it’s probably a bit self inflicted. Unfortunately questions like, Apart from gym owners, who has actually benefitted from the free gym scheme? Is the client always right?, have upset the local fitness group admins and they wont post them.

​The ethos behind My PT Mentor is simple: get personal trainers and gym owners to stop copying each other and actually look at their operations as proper businesses. I know saying that can sound arrogant but the general level of business acumen in the Maltese Fitness Industry, is shocking!

​You can’t put all the blame on individual trainers because the system around them is broken but the numbers speak for themselves. Of all the new clients who come to me having previously used another PT, 87% left their last trainer because the PT either didn’t turn up for sessions and/or tried to shaft them on session counts (like selling a block of 10 and claiming all 10 were used after 8).

​Turning up on time and not stealing from your clients isn’t a big challenge for me, it is the bare minimum of basic professional decency. The fact that standards are so low here, is great for my advertising costs but not good for the industry or fitness of the nation at all.

For me better standards and conditions for PTs, means a greater chance of a fitness aware society and more business for everyone. Instead of being the fattest nation in the Europe and seemingly quite proud of it, how about someone else has that honour?

As said previously, I’m not going to be a crusader because it will only create hassle. However, I am very happy to be an irritant and as my ultimate goal is to help the industry that I work in, I will continue irritating until someone finally scratches.

Which brings me nicely onto LinkedIn, as that's where I have post now. Obviously it was never going to be straight forward, despite being able to connect some of the greatest business minds alive, they couldn't reset my original account password. So I now have a new account mainly for PT Mentor, I do use long words and try to avoid swearing, feel free to go all corporate and ‘reach out’ here

​Going forward, I’m hoping to launch at least one more Punch Club session in January, one which I've been working on for ages! I’ve wanted to do small group sessions again for a while but the main hurdle previously was finding the right venue. Thankfully the location we have now is just around the corner from my old gym and is spot on.

​We’ve got the heavy bags set up, a large matted training area and the whole place to ourselves, which is ideal. The sessions are friendly, lively and completely detached from any ‘gym bros’ or fighting egos. People turn up to work hard, improve their fitness, learn proper technique and have a laugh.

​Although Russians can be viewed as a bit marmite at the moment, they apparently have a saying that sums it all up very well...more people, more problems. Looking back at this summer and the lifestyle I have built over here, I could not agree more.

But the secret and not just personal training terms, is not about having no clients, friends or people around you at all. It is about being choosy and having the right ones around you. That way you do not waste your time, avoid friction and you actually enjoy the work and the people you spend your time with.

Keep the standards high, keep the noise out and stick to the path of least resistance.