Vera Wang, you know. Molly Wizenberg, you probably don't. Not yet, anyway.
Molly is a remarkable young woman who ran our front desk for about a year and a half and after leaving, she buckled down and started writing about her first and most passionate love, food. She's since become famous (Mol, stop blushing!) - her first book is due out in '08, her website is www.orangette.blogspot.com.
On Molly's food website, search for "Rebecca" and/or "Jimmy," and you'll have an insiders' view into my life on Sunday mornings and my eating habits - prepare to be shocked! I digress.
But Molly's success extends way beyond the professional.
Through her writing, she found herself the best beau that's ever come a callin', and in two weeks, they're getting married.
But it's not just any wedding. No.
It's a huge wedding in an idyllic setting with everyone who's anyone in the lives of these two young lovers in attendance and the flowers and the food and the three hotels completely booked out and the events before and after and the spa treatments and the B12 injections . . . wait! I could be wrong about that last part.
But this, I know for sure.
Molly's walking down the aisle wearing a jaw dropping Vera Wang.
And not just any Vera Wang. Four Burano lace makers went blind making this dress, it's ruched, it sways like no body's business, it's the palest shade of pale and our exquisitely beautiful, perfectly pink Molly is going to make us all cry like babies when we see her exquisitely glide up the aisle.
What's Brandon wearing? Who cares! I assure you, whatever Brandon is wearing it will not reveal his body like this Vera Wang is going to reveal Molly's.
With Molly and Brandon's engagement lasting over a year, we've had lots of time to work extra hard on body parts especially important to this Bride, and now, with the wedding right around the corner, our entire mat population has just about had it with what I call "Vera Wang Mat."
Goal setting is an important part of helping clients make efficient and effective progress and at my studio, we're aggressive goal setters.
With Molly, we knew we needed to hit the resistance pretty darn hard in order to get her arms cut with just the right amount of ripple and to have her lovely upper back show all the most interesting contours.
Schedule wise, she's able to most consistently attend mat classes so whenever Molly is in mat class everyone knows it's going to be another Vera Wang Mat and everyone knows to get a band and a ball and to prepare for some hard core pushing and pulling, all the way through the hour.
For the pull, we use a medium resistance Theraband and for the squeeze, we use either Magic Circles or a Fitball Mini. The push and pull comes from the upper body but since the arms are the delivery mechanism for the power, they get nicely toned in the mix.
Molly's goals were straightforward so we didn't get all structured in support of them.
Structure, you ask?
Structure, I say.
Think it, ink it.
Goal setting begins with you, the teacher, helping clients set reasonable, attainable goals. Then, you've got to write it down to bring it into reality. Left in the abstract, a concept is very difficult to motivate off of; we need to see it, talk it, feel it, work it, remember it and expect it in order to be efficient and effective in making changes.
I love making goal folders for clients. Inside the folder and using templates I created years ago, I recap of the goal and set out detailed homework on what they're to do outside the studio to achieve it. I include a spreadsheet with columns for the date and length of time they spent working on their homework, and I leave lots of room for them to write what they're observing as they get stronger, more flexible and spend more concentrated time working their bodies. I also take "before" pictures but I keep those at the studio and don't give them to the client until it's time to take the "after" shots.
In case you're wanting to maximize your billable time and wring every cent possible out of your clients, it's reasonable to use your private or semi rate for a goal setting session and folder preparation. I do not charge for goal setting, but hey, you do it the way you need to and I'll do it the way I need to. It's all good.
I consider a short term goal one that can be achieved within 3 months, a mid-term within 6 months, and long term within a year. It's nice having a couple short term goals at any given time, one for strength and one for flexibility, and linking them to something that will come once the building block of the short term goal is in hand.
Every single goal book I've done, for clients 7 years old or 47 years old, they've never, ever thought they made any progress, even though they may have completed spreadsheet entries for every single day of the review period.
Good thing I use my trusty Polaroid to capture the "before," otherwise, they may not believe me that they've totally nailed it. Totally.
And if you're wondering how you photograph the "before" Roll Up, for example, you have them come up as far as they can with excellent form, right to the point where they're about to jump, throw, lurch or bail and that's where you have them hold the pose to snap the picture.
In the case of flexibility, a plain old sit and reach, Spine Stretch Forward, Saw or Open Leg Rocker are all good ways to see what's what on any given day.
But back to Molly and the Vera Wang gown.
This Saturday we're going to take a group picture after mat class and send it to Vera with a note about what we've been doing and why. I'm going to ask Vera that she spiff Molly the dress and invite her to class next time she's in town (which is surprisingly often since apparently everyone in Seattle but me is filthy rich and buying tons of Vera's dresses - personally, I have her latest fragrance and I'm just going to have to make do with that.)
I'll keep you posted on Vera's generosity.
In the meantime, set some goals, create some structure and let me know how well you do.