Friday with Heidi: Virtual Reality…

Anyone else thinking that time has sped up so quickly this week?

My word, I don’t suppose I am alone either in saying that I have never known a week like the last 7 days. 

The announcement on Monday has been the starting gun for a revolution in FastTrack Fit Camp’s business that, if you’d asked me to go away and plan to do it, I would never have done it. 

Funny how when you have no choice you just get stuff done. 

In fact we managed to transfer the outside group fitness sessions to a virtual online community and timetable within 14 hours of deciding it was something we may need to do in the event of a lockdown. 

On Monday afternoon I asked our Facebook community if they’d like to try a virtual Fit Camp session so I could see how the technology worked. 

On Tuesday morning at 7am we had 32 keen campers all ready to try out the new ‘stay-home’ workout. Since then we’ve run 5 more camps to keep our clients physically and emotionally healthy in this 3 week window and also to keep them in contact with their regular Fit Camp buddies. 

As of Thursday afternoon we now have a fully integrated membership system and direct link to all virtual sessions in place. I pretty chuffed with what we’ve done in the time. 

It’s been one firefighting issue after another, but I think we’ve come through it to a point where we now have 14 Virtually There camps available across the week.

A small and growing social calendar starting with a Book Group and a virtual coffee meeting this morning so everyone can catch up. 

And a plan for other local experts to come and talk to the online group as a way to bring people together during this time of isolation. 

It’s certainly got my brain firing and it’s also taught me some great lessons in a very short space of time. You won’t be surprised to hear that I am going to share them with you!

1. These are unprecedented times (already an overused phrase!) and no one knows how to cope with the size of it. Remember that, no one knows best how to deal with it. Do the best you can, with the information you have in that moment. 
2. Do the best you can in that moment. If I’ve had to be reminded of one thing this week it’s this. You can only make decisions based on the person you are right now. It or you may change tomorrow. So if in doubt, any doubt, make sure all decisions are announced 24 hours after making them. Stuff is changing so quickly that what you’ve decided may no longer be relevant 24 hours later. 
3. Wait 24 hours. Several times this week I’ve clunked through a solution with technology or contacting clients only to find that if I’d slept on it it would either no longer be an issue or it’s been rectified already. 
4. Sleep on it. Look after yourself. All last week and to Wednesday this week I’d been doing nightly Facebook Live videos to the Facebook community to update them on the changes and what we were doing to support them. When you see yourself on video you can nitpick the crap out of yourself, but I looked tired and flat. I’d forgotten my primary rules that I remind you of. Put yourself first – and I hadn’t. I gave myself a talking to on Wednesday, made a list of things I had to do each day for me and started back on track on Thursday. I can’t help anyone if I don’t sleep or eat or get outside. They’ve all been put back in. 
5. Everyone has an opinion. Some like to share more than others. Their opinion is generally shared because it’s not the same as yours. It doesn’t make either right or wrong. It’s a different view. And if I’ve learned one thing over the last 2 years or so – we have got to do this life thing for us. No one else really gives much of a fig — they’re thinking about their stuff too. Let them have an opinion, wait 24 hours before replying, if necessary, sleep on it to give yourself time and space and then decide if it suits your life plan or not. 

Now I know I can be accused of being a silver-lining kind of a girl.

But you know what? It’s a good place to be.

I keep asking myself what’s the good out of this? What am I gaining? Learning? Benefiting from? When I can nail that I feel satisfied that the challenge was worth it. 

How can you get involved?

I know we have several of you who have moved away and miss us. You tell me and it’s lovely. Well now you can join us again! My daughter joined in from Manchester on Wednesday and it was marvellous! If you are in Edinburgh or Somerset, Germany, Manchester or Bath, please drop us a line if you want to get back on track with Fit Camp.

If you want to do something whilst we’re in this phase, then join me every Sunday at 9am for our Sunday Wake Up! session but online. It’s still 9am, it’s still open to all, but whilst we’re in this time of restricted movement it’s on us! All you need to do is click this link and join in before, or on the day…what more could you ask?!

We may not be right up close and personal for a few weeks, but my goal is to take the group fitness feeling into our virtual reality too. 

Have a great weekend. 

See you on the other side of a screen soon.