Your ideal client is one who values massage, your work, your time and show that respect by being on time, paying you what you charge and referring others to your practice.

In oder for others to value you - you must value yourself first and the way to show how much you value yourself is in how you take care of yourself. Taking care of yourself is much more than just taking care of your physical needs. It is taking care of all of your needs - financial, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs. A massage therapist or other person in the helping professions does that best by setting boundaries that support who you are. Part of the process of creating boundaries though requires that you have an awareness of yourself and always be challenging yourself to see yourself in new ways. Often what we think and feel and do is not truly representative of who we are.

Taking responsibility for your self and the choices you make and realizing that you are responsible for the outcome of your choices will help you in understanding yourself better. Blaming others for your issues and challenges may make you feel better up front, but taking the time to take a good look at yourself when challenges arise in your business can help you in learning to set boundaries for yourself.

How much you value yourself is reflected in your actions. If you are working at a spa that does not pay you well or provide the benefits you need but yet you continue to stay there, you are continuing to show that you do not value yourself. You may want to defend yourself for staying in such a place with things like having to support your family and it may seem easier to not change jobs or it may even seem like you really don’t have a choice. The thing is that you do have a choice - but it may be a very difficult choice. Honoring yourself and making the hard choice to follow what you dream of and need may lead to you ending up on the street like the guy in the movie “The Pursuit Of Happyness” but doing what hard always pays off down the line. Your family will respect you more if you make the hard choice and it teaches kids how to respect themselves.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 1st, 2007 at 8:14 pm and is filed under Changing Your Beliefs, Money issues, The Code of the Caretaker, The Wealthy Massage Therapist. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.