Transitions are always a bit crazy. Nothing transforms easily. However it is desired, reorienting one’s mind around the future vs. the past is a matter of “caring and making the most of change” and just surviving. The difference between the two is huge, especially in terms of the need for change. ASEP is all about getting rid of the dust of the past and moving into the 21st century. It is different from ACSM and all other generic organizations that work to keep the membership base up and, of course, the bottom line — money! Those who oversee such organizations aren’t really interested in the psychological agenda of a discipline becoming a profession.
Failing to let go of the past is exactly why exercise physiologists are easy targets for existing organizations. So, with that knowledge, it is imperative that they stand up and move through the transition of a research discipline to a healthcare profession with not only feelings of comfort but knowing that it is the “right thing to do.”
Alfred North Whitehead, an American philosopher, said: “We think in generalities, but we live in detail.” I agree, except the ASEP leadership would say “We live in response to an agenda defined by either a personal goal or an organizational vision.” In short, it is time, if not pastime, to exit from sports medicine so that exercise physiologists can “become” who they were meant to be from the beginning.
Why not HOLD on to ASEP…why not rise to the occasion and state before the world that YOU are an EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGIST. After all, what they want you to do is to stand silent. Don’t do it. Get outside of the “in between-ness” of ACSM and ASEP and discover the new world of exercise physiology within ASEP.
