The Chamber COVID Culture
Adapting to the COVID Culture, by Chad.
Time for a little bit of a blog. I thought seeing as we are now back on that sweet sweet tasting home soil, I’d go against the current grain of video blogs, and write again. Less people may bother to read what I write, but writing makes me happy and I seem to be able to articulate ( cheers google ) a message far better this way anyhow. The theme of the last 3 months has been very much digitised, is it the way of the future? Perhaps. I feel that writing matches the theme of this blog though as I’m sure you will feel as you read, if you read.
I have sat on this and thought about it for a week as it deserves far more than to be crammed into a tight “first week back” schedule. The time had to be right. I have written a fair bit of dribble over the past for sure, this though, this goes up with my yearly Chamber birthday speech in regards to how much it means to me, as this is all about YOU and the difference you have all made as members of The Chamber.
When it all started …
On Monday March 23rd 2020, the unfathomable happened. The place many of us call our “happy place” and have for a very long time was forced to shut up shop and in a hurry due to the Covid-19 outbreak. We, along with the rest of the world, were forced into being fleet of foot in a business sense and attempt to quickly settle into a new way of “going to the gym” if we were to stay head above water and actually have a gym to go back to. The original forecast according to the media was that this was going to be gym life as we know it all the way up until September, at the earliest. As you would imagine, this sent the mind into a spiral trying to predict what effect this would have on the future of The Chamber. The fear that the past 11 years spent in the trenches, building up to what we have now was all about to come crashing down was hard to ignore and seemed to be an inevitable reality.
What proceeded to take place as the weeks went on though was magical, and that magic was provided by you, The Chamber members.
In a time that had the potential to be a doomsday scenario as I know it has been for many other gyms turned out to be the time that the Chamber culture and the people who are so deeply bought into The Chamber culture made their biggest stand, held onto our values and stood as tall as they ever have as a group to support.
Community is everything.
If there ever was a time to be a proud Chamberian, now is it.
You should all be so proud that each of you played such a huge role in helping us navigate through a once in a lifetime event that has wreaked havoc on life as we know it. Are we out of the woods? That’s a big question as now more than ever we have no idea of how to best predict the future, nor do we have any legitimate trends to forecast off. What I do know though, is that you have given us the greatest opportunity to shine our light stronger than it ever has previously. That’s pretty impressive and an impact made that not many humans can say they have made, nor will make in their time on earth. You have been the difference.
Upon my own reflection of this time, the sense of pride and appreciation I have felt for The Chamber and our members has been repeatedly on the forefront of my mind. What we have is clearly bigger than fitness, and what we have is something that can’t be explained, imitated, substituted only experienced by those special enough. The bigger picture has been unveiled. The “experts” say that the future of the industry is online, to a degree, I see validity in this and it would be ignorant to dismiss some of the attributes that come with online. These experts though have never been to our gym though and I’m sure if they did, the predictions would be just a little more balanced. We were put on this earth to connect with purpose and indulge in community with quality human interaction, this is The Chamber to a tee and something we have done as good as anyone for the past decade.
In closing, my final thought has been this …
If I ever have a down day, my mind gets distracted by what I see, I start over comparing, if I have self doubt and struggle with alignment and the future of The Chamber, which I will. I will always revert back to this particular time as this time has given me the most honest feedback I have had in business in the past 11 years. This is the metric that keeps me believing in myself and the vision.
I am incredibly grateful for what I have and for who I get to do this with, thank you Chamber!
