If you want something bad enough you will do whatever it takes to make it happen! For those who do not already know I have tried to get certified through another fitness company before and didn't have any luck. After my attempts and not being a success it left me really wondering if I had what it took to be a personal trainer. I thought perhaps I was meant to give motivational help like I do right now. After a day or two of feeling sorry for myself I decided that I did want this more than anything and it was time to fight for it. It was after all the final goal I had left to complete. After doing some deeper research I found out that the province offers a certification as well. I looked into it and decided to sign up for it. I was supposed to have my first class early in Jan. and I was super excited. The day before the class was to start I found out it was cancelled. I was crushed. It was starting to seem to me that it just wasn't meant to happen. Again, I sucked it up and signed up for the class that was taking place a few weeks later. Unfortunately I was going to miss one of the classes though as I was supposed to be in the US for a concert. The instructor was nice and suggested that she would cover the "easy" stuff while I was away and do the intense stuff while I was in class. I thought that was so nice of her! As it turned out I didn't get to go away anyway and our class was cancelled due to a snowstorm anyway. The class was held the next weekend and I attended both classes. Then we had another weekend when the class was cancelled and bumped ahead because of a snowstorm. It was a pretty long drawn out process for only 4 classes. I'm thinking it took almost a month and a half to get the 4 classes in.
After the last class was when the real hard work started. It was time for me to study and prepare for my exam. I had lots of quizzes to do and even a mock exam to study from. That may sound like it made things easy but that was not the case. I sat down and made notes and studied them. It took me about 2 weeks to do the quizzes and my friend was kind enough to review them so at least I'd know what I was studying was correct. I also had my trainer who was always there to answer any of my questions and allowed me to shadow him as well, and a past trainer who was there to help too. I felt like I had so much help and support that I couldn't help but pass this exam.
I decided my game plan was to have my quizzes all done by the end of Feb. so I could have the whole month of March to study. I couldn't have planned things any better as I finished studying my notes on the last weekend and spent 6 days studying the quizzes and exam.
Stress, what stress! lol I think I handled myself pretty well but I did have a few melt downs. Graham said I was a bit cranky but really I don't remember. I became so consumed with this stuff that I don't remember much of the last month. I studied before work, at work if I could call it up on my computer without my boss seeing it, after supper, before bed and sometimes I would fall asleep hearing Graham telling me to shut up and go to sleep as I was trying to go over things out loud. I have NEVER studied for anything quite like this!! I had two or three nights that I just had to move away from it or I was going to go crazy, I was convinced of it. :)
Before long it was exam day! I felt oddly confident that I knew what I needed to know but that in itself scared me. I guess I kinda felt like I couldn't possibly know enough to pass this exam. I didn't before so what would make this time any different? I stopped studying about 4 pm on exam day as I was starting to second guess what I knew. Not a good thing!! It's funny because my resting heart rate is normally about 56-60, nope that night it was 90, a bit high for me. :) I got in the exam room and tried to take a deep breath but it wasn't really happening. Ok...it was time to do this! I went through and filled out the questions I knew for sure. If I didn't know the answer immediately I skipped it. Then I went through a second time and read the questions a bit closer and found that I knew a few more answers. Great news for me! I went through a third time and tried to figure out what the questions I had problems with. Some of them I think I figured out, some of them I blindly guessed at. I went through a 4 time but stopped about half way through as what my PT said came to mind. He told me NOT to over analyze the questions which is exactly what I was doing. So, I accepted that I had given it my best try and passed it in. I felt like I did well but again, my past exam history played on my mind. Now I played the waiting game!
I was supposed to get my mark within a week or so but I figured it would be a bit longer knowing that it was a long weekend and my instructor wasn't actually there to give me the exam, a PT did instead. So when an email from my instructor popped up on Friday I just opened it without thinking. I figured she was telling me she picked up the exam and would be in touch. OMG....what a shock I got. I remember seeing "Great news....that I passed my exam and then the mark". I'm sure the whole world heard me yelling with excitement! I don't remember the last time I was that happy. I was truly on top of the world!! After about 10 mins I calmed down enough to email directly email those who helped me in any way and then posted it on facebook.
What did I learn through this process? I learned what real hard work is all about. I learned that this certification means as much to me as I tell everyone it does. I learned that it was worth a few tears and lots of stress. Most of all, I learned that I am tougher than I thought.Nothing that is really worth it comes to me easy and because of that it's even more meaningful to me. I plan to study for my next exam the same way as this one. At this point, I am one step closer and am starting to believe I can really do this. I know others have said I can but now I am REALLY starting to believe it myself.
So to all you who have stuck by me through this exam, thank you. I know I drove some of you nuts, may have been a bit cranky, bored you with my trainer talk, muscles especially but you all helped in more than one way.
Only one more to go, I will be giving it my all...that's my promise to you!!
