As usual, this morning I’ve lived up to my personal mantra of ‘why say in 100 words what you can say in 1000’ and this post kind of ballooned. To make it easier on all of us, I’ve decided to break it up into a couple of parts. Next instalment coming soon…
First up, let’s clarify what it means to be a ‘full time teacher’. I actually think it’s a bit of a misnomer. It makes it sound like you’d be teaching classes all day every day. If you’re a new or aspiring teacher, doing that may feel like this…
For anyone who has actually taught anything more than a handful of classes a week on a regular drumbeat, the idea of only teaching day in, day out probably makes you feel more like…
What most teachers actually mean when they say they want to ‘teach full time’ is that they don’t want to be tied to regular employment - and when it comes to work, they aspire to only be doing yoga-stuff every day
I’ve made a fair number of quips over on Instagram about how I don’t think being a full time teacher is viable/possible/sustainable. They’re part sarcasm - part truth.
There’s more to unpack than I have time to write about this morning, but before I get to the ‘if you were gonna make it work, what would it look like’ bit, here are some really bloody important things to consider before you even think about quitting your day job…
know what ‘full time’ means to you. 9-5? every day? a few hours a day? how much can you/do you want to work
have a handle on what money you actually need to earn to live comfortably…this is different for everyone
teaching for another studio is a (milder) form of employment. you’re still at the mercy of their business requirements and you have limited control of earning potential. this doesn’t mean don’t do it, but aiming for just doing a fuck ton of studio classes isn’t the solution
have a taste of actually teaching a lot. learn. ask questions. shadow those doing it. don’t just assume you know what it’ll be like…you won’t
it’s not binary. you can teach 80% of the time and still pick up regular hours in another job
get an awareness of your risk tolerance. teaching is inherently unpredictable; do you mentally need a certain amount of job security and stability to be comfortable?
there’s no gold star award for being a full time teacher. it’s not the top of the ‘aspirational teacher’ tree that we should all be aiming for
do a fuck ton of work on yourself to identify your limits and your tolerances - body and mind
ONLY teaching is huge. like, really huge. I couldn’t and wouldn’t want to do it because my brain and body need a more professional variety
I don’t teach lots of hours a week….too much makes me stale. this isn’t uncommon; it’s hard to bring your best self to your students by the time you’re in double digit teaching hours that week
I know a lot of yoga folk and very, very, very few of them are all in on only yoga; it’s an exception, not a norm
So. You’ve mentally told your boss to stick their job, you’ve got a weeks worth of teaching outfits lined up in your wardrobe and you’re poised to go ALL IN. What do you need to make a go of it?
I’ll get to that in my next post…