This is a busy time of year. If you’re not already stressing about the upcoming season, getting your uniforms, bows, and apparel shipped in time, getting your routines ready and reviewed for legalities, and prepping for upcoming events – you’re not a gym owner. OK…you might be a gym owner without all star teams I suppose! For the rest of us, this is one of the craziest, most chaotic times of the whole season, only rivaled by end-of-season events and tryouts. For my gym, we have our three biggest events of the year all in a total of 30 days, followed by our first competition of the season mid-November. (We compete early here in the Midwest.)
So, right now, it feels like we’ve got a thousand things going on and we’re headed in 50 different directions. On top of all that, I homeschool my youngest daughter and we have two foreign exchange students in our house right now. Needless to say, I can empathize with everyone on what it feels like to endure short-term chaos.
That said, this was the first week I walked into our homeschool co-op and didn’t feel the need to rush out of the building and get to work. It’s not that I didn’t have work to be doing. In fact, Next Gen has never been busier helping owners achieve their goals. My gym has never had more athletes than we do right now. Our rental units have never been busier than they are right now with lease renewals and prepping for winter. But, I spent the last three weeks enduring absolute chaos trying to be prepared early for these upcoming events.
I started months ago in preparation for some of these events so I wouldn’t feel rushed at the last minute. According to my staff I’m a detailed and meticulous person, who likes to have things done a certain way…and that way often means I’m not able to pull off last-minute planning. I’ve got big visions for how I would like to see events run, and that means I’m often needing all hands on deck for planning meetings to see my visions come to life.
So, if you’re feeling crazy at whatever level you’re at – you’re not wrong. What I can tell you is – life cannot be this way 365 days a year. If you feel like you’re running a mile a minute every hour of every day, you will burn out.
You will burn out so much that you won’t enjoy owning a gym anymore.
Eventually you will succumb to the stress and your passion for cheerleading – while still alive – will turn into resentment.
Your family will burn out. Your spouse will be burned out. Your kids will develop new habits and traditions that you’re not a part of. Your friends will move and be used to you never being available. My least favorite meme in cheer is the one that says, “Sorry, I’m not available. I have cheer.”
Guys, I love cheerleading. But I’m not putting the rest of my life on hold so I can do one thing and one thing only in life. Cheerleading is part of life. It’s a part we love, but it’s not life. You cannot do this alone, and you can’t do this until you’ve reached the point of burnout.
Short stints of chaos are inevitable. Long-term chaos is not necessary.
If this is something you could use help with – getting things together, planning sooner, learning how to better utilize your already-busy staff, we can help. Book a call with Justin today and learn how the Next Gen Academy has taught owners to live out their passion while still having a life outside of cheerleading.
