The Right Thing Is Not Always the Easiest Thing to Do

This time two years ago, I made a big decision in my life: to give up teaching regular group fitness classes. To some, this might not sound like a big deal, but for me it was a huge decision.

Teaching group fitness classes wasn’t just a hobby. It was my career and became part of my identity. I spent more time at gyms — engaging with participants who soon became my friends, and creating or learning choreography — than I did doing almost anything else in my life.

Teaching was a way of being for me. It was a way of connecting with others through a shared goal of becoming fitter, healthier, and happier. It was a space where I found community, love, and support.

It was more than a job.
It was more than a career.

People who met me through group fitness — whether participants, gym members, or colleagues — often thought that teaching fitness was all I did. It was only when they got to know me better that they discovered I had a whole other career trajectory ahead of me: psychotherapy. But they weren’t entirely wrong — group fitness was a significant part of my life.

I never really saw myself as someone “having a career”. Sure, I knew I would do work that I liked, but I didn’t foresee anything becoming a career. Looking back, though, it’s interesting to realise that doing one line of work for 12 years most definitely makes it a career. It was something I truly loved and will always hold dear to my heart.

Choosing the “Right” Thing for This Season of Life

So why did I choose to leave?

The title of this blog refers to doing the “right” thing — but I don’t mean the morally right thing. I’m talking about the thing that is most aligned with who you are now. That thing isn’t always the same choice you would have made a year earlier or might make a year later. Now is now.

Making the right decision for where you are right now is hard — at least, it has been for me.

That’s what I needed to do: make the right decision for me, in that season of my life. And that decision was to stop teaching group fitness classes.

I think we often get caught up in planning for the future, thinking:

“When this happens, then I can do that, which means I need to make this choice now.”

Or we get caught up in the past, wishing we had made a different decision and trying to repair it through choices we make today.

Rarely do we pause, take stock of where we are right now, and make the next best decision from that place.

This is something I’ve been practising over the years. I have a tendency to want to control my life and where it goes. Planning ahead gives me a sense of control — although it’s often a false one. Many of my past decisions were based on a future I believed I could shape perfectly.

Of course, things rarely unfolded exactly as I planned.

Learning to Surrender Control

Part of learning to focus on the present and make the next best decision has involved surrendering to and trusting in God. If I truly believe that He always has my best interests at heart, and that whatever He allows me to experience is for my ultimate good, then surely I can trust Him with my future?

I can.

But believing it and living it are two very different things.

When I took stock of where I was two years ago, I noticed that my heart wasn’t in group fitness anymore. I was growing deeper in my relationship with the Lord, and I began to experience aspects of gym and fitness culture as contradictory to what I know and believe.

That’s not to say there isn’t goodness in that world — there absolutely is. But I was often exposed to a surface-level focus on body image and diet culture, punishing workout regimes, and sexualised dance movements that objectified our beautiful bodies rather than reverencing them.

It simply didn’t sit well with me anymore.

Because I was making a conscious effort to place God first in my life, I felt called to make a decision that aligned with my faith. And so, I made the difficult decision to step away from teaching group fitness classes at the gyms.

At the time, I had no intention of teaching fitness — or even dance — again. I truly believed this chapter had closed. After all, I had a good run. I had been blessed to teach dance since I was 14 years old and group fitness since I was 21.

I met incredible people who became dear friends. I grew enormously as both a person and a teacher.

I left with deep gratitude for all those years had given me, and with hope and trust in a future I could not yet see.

The Unexpected Gift

One of the most beautiful things about surrendering to God and making decisions aligned with who you are in the present moment is this:

You open yourself to grace.

Nine months after officially leaving group fitness, I met the owner of Dance on Fire, a Christian dance school. I didn’t even know such a place existed — but there it was.

And after our very first meeting, she asked if I would like to teach at the school the following year.

Unbeknownst to my conscious mind, this was exactly what I had been longing for: a place where my love of dance, movement, and fitness could fully align with my love for God.

And He placed it before me on a silver platter 🥹

How loved did I feel by God in that moment?

So loved.
So deeply loved.

He sees me. He truly sees me — my heart, my desires, my needs — and He answered. Not in any way I had expected or imagined, but He answered.

I didn’t demand it. I didn’t even foresee it. I simply tried to follow where He was leading.

This isn’t to say that if you want something, He will automatically give it to you. What came first — and what mattered most — was surrendering to Him, to His will for my life, and trusting that what He desires for me is ultimately good.

Trusting the Gap

Two years ago, the next best decision for my life was to leave group fitness. I didn’t rush to replace it. I allowed the gap to remain and instead focused on where I sensed God directing my attention: my psychotherapy practice and wellbeing workshops.

In trusting Him, I became open to receiving His grace — a gift that I may never have been able to receive had I clung tightly to my previous path.

A Gentle Reminder

So this is my reminder to you:

Doing the “right” thing — the thing most aligned with who you are — can feel incredibly hard. It often requires trust, surrender, and a willingness to release control.

That can be especially challenging for those of us who like certainty.

But I promise you this:

When you take that leap of faith, you open yourself to receiving what is truly meant for you — something that offers a glimpse of the eternal happiness and love we are all created for.

Live according to your values, your beliefs, and your convictions. These are what we are truly referring to when we say, “follow your heart”.

Emotions are transient. They rise and fall like waves crashing on the shore.

But your values — your beliefs, your deepest truths — are more like the rock beneath those waves.

Steady.
Grounding.
Enduring.

So follow your heart — the deepest part of who you are, who God created you to be — and you may find yourself living a life more authentic, more connected, and more peaceful than you ever imagined.