Your Power to Choose
Your power to choose your future is your right. Every minute of the day every exercise physiologist should be in the state of mind to choose his or her future. Is it the exercise specialist’s path or is it the professional organization of exercise physiologists, the American Society of Exercise Physiologist? The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that failing to choose the right path is a function of not knowing you are in charge.
For those of us who work towards change in exercise physiology, it should be comforting to know that it is possible to be in charge. One can only imagine how difficult it must be for those on the outside of ASEP (i.e., those who can’t imagine something other than what they have been doing for decades). Hopefully, it is just a matter of time before it becomes clear to them that they need their own professional organization. That moment will be by choice a very special one. Then, their future in exercise physiology will be defined and guided by them.
The outcome of this thinking will help to define the professional experiences the exercise physiologists will come to understand, and how their work will be interpreted in terms of surviving financially as professionals in the healthcare market. With each of these considerations, it will increasingly become your choice to create and/or sustain the work towards the professionalism of exercise physiology.
Each of us has been granted the power to choose. We possess the power to choose what to believe or not to believe. If you choose to believe that you have no control over the future of exercise physiology, your outcomes will continue to manifest exactly as they have, based on that belief. On the other hand, if you believe you have the power to choose what your future will be, then you are part of a profession that you helped to create. Enjoy it. Understand that you have the power to change. Choose wisely.