Cultivate Your PT Career

 And you talked about beginning to seek opportunities that take you out of your comfort zone that is not something that’s second nature for a lot of people, do you have any ideas on maybe how students can cultivate that if it’s not in their nature or if it’s kind of sink or swim kind of thing obviously having guidance from a mentor that pushed you out the window a little bit is important, it’s a tough question but if you have any thoughts on that?


 I’m really fascinated by the types of people that pursue different professions, that pursue different industries and I think there’s some insights. When you’re looking at a profession, it’s more important that you know yourself, that you need to understand what your own strengths and weaknesses are, so in those like kind of personality tests that you may not think are all that important, they really are because the more insights you have about yourself, for example, this is somewhat of an epiphany for me recently, I’m an extrovert, I talk quite a bit, I like to be around people, I get my energy from other people, so when students and people are around me, it doesn’t matter what the setting is, I get energy and life out of that, I get excited, I get motivated, I’m inspired because I like being around folks who want to learn the passion.

 But when I’m by myself, because I’m an extrovert, I tend to get more pessimistic and kind of negative about that and even almost kind of somewhat depressed about where I am and what I’m doing, so having that insight, that has encouraged me to welcome lots of students, I love having students because I know that I’m a better clinician that way, so know yourself, I guess that’s a first thing. My analysis of our industry is that extroverts, people who can make other folks to be welcome and feel comfortable, they are the most successful and so I think fundamentally whether you’re in medicine or you’re in fitness and wellness, you’re clients need to like you. That might seem like cheesy or sort of a well dug kind of a moment but they have to like you at some level. Now I would like to back up my likableness with results and science and a service that they see value in, cause I don’t just want to be likable guy, I want to have a relationship and I want to have results, that’s part of my personal life statement but you have to like people. If you don’t have strong personal skills or high levels of emotional intelligence and you don’t connect well with others quickly, then you come in to find a different avenue for your mash, you find a different industry and so maybe research is for or writing or something else but in our profession, it’s service based and you have to be around people all day, you have to be comfortable with that and the more natural that it comes, the higher chance of success you’re going to have.