Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/68178
where your citizenship among a small group nullifies your remote and aloof status. We need social support, especially as we age. Tend to your circle carefully. When you're old in a small town, your former clients may be the only people you know. Most important here, what impression do you leave with people? Things go awry sometimes. A single thoughtless remark, a joke taken the wrong way or an accidental breach of confidentiality can ruin you professionally and personally with an awful lot of people. Marketing experts have noted a profound tendency among people to repeat a business horror story over and over to many people. The good things you do get much less word of mouth. How are you perceived? What do people remember about you? That is your most personal legacy and it will determine your place in the world long after you've stopped massaging (if you stop massaging.) Tip: How do you think of the people you treat? Are they patients? Clients? Guests? Are you so busy they are file numbers rather than people? Are you their healer, technician, facilitator, confidante, humble therapist, or paid friend? Each of these labels can carry some heavy positive and negative baggage. Think on it. LEAD BY EXAMPLE I've often treated high-performance athletes and occasionally professional athletes. I don't look like I could. To put it bluntly, I'm a fat massage therapist, and not just by a few pounds. It's been a lifelong struggle I have alternatively dealt with and ignored for years, yo- yoing up and down the scale. No, it's not healthy. And that's why I finally decided to make big changes in my life (and I hope I'm not too late.) It no doubt affects me professionally in ways I'm happily not too aware of. There have been potential clients who have written me off and gone to therapists who look how they perceive massage therapists ought to look (i.e., bodybuilders or rail-thin marathoners.) On the first day of massage school, my instructor told us we should be an example of what we do. This struck to the heart of who we were as people. To instill relaxation, we should appear relaxed (especially when we are not.) To instill confidence, we should appear confident. To restore health, we should radiate health. I've fallen down on that score, though the healthy changes I'm making in my life are not for the cosmetic reasons that might draw in reluctant clients. I have no patience for bigots of any stripe and I'm frankly appalled at opinions that denigrate overweight clients and therapists—particularly when they are uttered carelessly by people who are therapists themselves. To our pixie-like judges: if you've always been thin, don't criticize others for not being able to pay for something you got for free. You don't share our genetics or our hunger, so lay off or I'll sit on you. I admit I should have been more conscientious about weight- management long before now. However, since I don't own a time machine, now is the next best time to start. I'm doing it for me, but also for my kids so they'll inherit the legacy of a dad who can keep up with them and be around when they're getting married. In the short term, I joined them on a rope course at camp this summer. I need them to see me active so they'll be active. Besides my sardonic worldview, I want them to inherit healthy habits, too. Tip: Evaluate. In your presentation and demeanor, are you showing the best you there is to show? Are you meeting the high standard you set for yourself when massage was new to you? connect with your colleagues on massageprofessionals.com 79