M02.17 The Road To Niches Part I

What you would love to study next? Maybe you came to Alexander Technique already knowing a discipline – musicians being the obvious example. Maybe you have something you don't imagine as a "movement discipline" or "activity plan" such as working in an office for 20 years – but that could still work as a niche. I've been encouraging several of my students to blog and identify a market of discouraged salary workers looking for more meaning in their life… Brian was a stressed out Tokyo stock broker who came to me for lessons in 2004 – and the last thing he wanted was an activity lesson at his workstation! So I understand if you don't consider your past experience a source for future niching. In that case, you may be stumped to find a niche = find a position to leverage your skills into a well paying career. So think like this: can you think of a new hobby that excites you? If I go there, I think tennis, skiing, saxophone or piano. Of course, I don't need a niche, I need a holiday – but that's my problem, not yours. I know that some of you are still wondering about this, so this is another way to think. Learn more. It is a wonderful way to deepen your understanding of the work. In the pyramid that describes the BodyChance training shown below… ...notice for Stage Two, within the pyramid itself, it says "Master's Project." Funnily enough, no student has ever asked me about that: the Master's Project is non-existent in the school itself right now, despite appearing in my graphic above. My vision of the BodyChance training has been rolling out of my head from around 2008, and it is still on it's way out! However, it exists in my head and it is there for precisely that same reason I am advocating to you – if you have no adjunct "activity plan" niche to speak of, then consider "adopting" one. What would you love to learn? My point in wanting to include it in BodyChance's Teacher Education is to offer my students the opportunity to assess the depth of their own understanding of Alexander's Discoveries, by applying this knowledge in the acquisition of a new skill. You could do the same.