I am enrolled on a Personal Trainer qualification course with my friends at ICS Learn, and have been since the back end of last year. But I’m writing this post, to confess that I need to hold my hands up and tell you I’ve been struggling. Big time. My epic plans of originally doing the ICS Learn Personal Trainer qualification course whilst I was working freelance have gone to pot, as if you’d read my previous blog post on, why I quite full time blogging, you’ll know I had to leave freelancing and return to full time work this time last year. So obviously my lavish plans of doing a course on the side to become a personal trainer with ics learn, was now needing to be juggled alongside a very hectic full time digital marketing role, a job I was no longer remotely based.

Initially I waited to get myself organised and settle, I’d hop on the ICS Learn site as when I could, but found it started to become the last thing on my mind. I was exhausted from a hectic job, training for triathlon, blogging, vlogging… let alone sitting down to actually focus on study. To top this off I did nerve damage in my leg and have since been told not to run as I’ve got plantar fasciitis, so getting down to the practical has been so far down the line. Injuries and general non-stop hecticness basically took its toll on my course and I’ve been so disappointed in myself.

The support from ICS Learn has been absolutely amazing, when I hadn’t logged in for a while they dropped me an email to see if I was okay and if I needed anything. I’d reply explaining how I’d changed to full time work etc, and they’d give me some great advice. But regardless it started to actually make me poorly from the worry. They reassured me it was all fine and I could extend my course, or speak to tutors for help if I needed it, but I’d still go to bed fretting about how little I’d done. I even tried to get up at 5am to begin studying before I needed to walk the dog and walk to work, but I was running myself into the ground. I had low days from a patch of a few months where I had to alter my epilepsy medication and it had a bad side effect, honestly I felt like a child at school with every excuse under the sun, but I just had no idea how to squeeze this all in without it having an effect on my health. I’d literally start getting somewhere then something work related would absorb all my mental power, I’d get ill, or I’d have to go away so it would be placed on the back burner. After this going round in circles I quite honestly hadn’t got a clue what to do, until it dawned on me last week.

This course has been the only course I’ve ever wanted to do. I did my degree and masters at university, but I am a fitness blogger, and I am an active triathlete, I want to be a personal trainer one day and I want to teach fitness classes. I didn’t know later in my life I’d adore being fit and talking about fitness, so I’m now 33 and wanting to learn this area of interest. I need to get this course done. But how was I going to do that? I couldn’t leave me job as it gave me an income to keep a roof over my head, and after last time of nearly running me and my husband into debt from lack of freelance work, I couldn’t see a way past it.

Last week I mentally went back and forth with myself about how to juggle everything. Luckily triathlon season is done until next year and as I can’t run right now, so this is possibly the best time for me to get my head down and study. This is great obviously, but it isn’t enough as I find coming home from work at 6pm to then go and study, looking at a screen when I’ve done that all day, extremely testing. So I took a brave step and spoke to be managers about the possibility of me taking a pay cut and taking one day out a week so I can do my course. Brave to ask I know, but it was either that, find a different job or someone else come up with a bright idea I hadn’t already exhausted.

To my surprise they said yes, so as of this Friday, I am officially back on track. I have a full Friday to do my studying, concentrate just on my fitness course and get my ICS Learn Personal Trainer qualification done! Just fully focusing on the course. I’m giving myself from 8.30am up until 3.30pm to get things sorted the ICS course, then from 3.30pm I can do a video for youtube and then organise my blog until 5pm if I get enough done. This is ideal because I then have enough time to do everything, nothing in my life gets neglected, I just need to be really strict with my time management across the board. The beauty of a home study is the fact you can work out how to make it work for you, it has taken some time I know, but I have finally figured out with the ICS Learn support.

So, there is my big news. Here is to the new chapter of my fitness Fridays! I can finally give you all full updates of how I get on. By this time next year I’ll hopefully be updating you, on how well it’s been going since qualifying for my Personal Training qualification with ICS Learn!