PT/Coach task for today: envision your client’s motivation, or reason for coming today, as a large Elephant. How can you move this Elephant? If you are riding on the back of this Elephant, how would you get it to move? How would you steer it to get it where you want it to go?
I was asked the other day if I wanted to take part in a mini triathlon in the gym. This is a row/cycle/run format on stationary equipment .The distances vary between each exercise. For instance, the row is 2500 meters. All exercises are done one after the other, no rest in between!
If the PT/Coach wants to persuade me to take part in this, it will have to be on my own terms. I do not know what a row at that length looks like. I don’t know how long it will take. I don’t know if I will be fit enough to do it. Will I finish or drop out halfway through? Too many questions. Too many doubts. I am now stuck. Do I take the risk?
A possible solution for overcoming these uncertainties is to find ways to moving/driving my Elephant. My Elephant needs to see the bigger picture. I will need some certainty that by the end I will be alright. That I will have survived and enjoyed the experience. I may be encouraged to test the rowing distance first, so that I can find out for myself how I will feel. We tend to only see the beginning and end of an exercise. But what about the middle? While we’re in the heat of it, doubts may spring up in our minds. Can I face the humiliation of dropping out, of not succeeding? Or, can I find a rhythm to reach the finish?
Reframing the Role of the Personal Trainer. 
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