I had a brief time (about as brief as working for the outdoor adventure project so brief, but substantial enough to get a lot out of it both work and and non work related) working in the Justice Sector. The work I am genuinely interested and committed to relates to social justice and outcomes. I don't think you need to actually work in "Justice" to work towards the desired social justice outcomes. It was though an interesting time, and I'm glad that I had the experience of working with people whose normal job is to "hold the offender to account". I like that phrase. It seems an odd phrase or metaphor to use for yourself. I guess though I consider certain habits (or to use the correct "medical" term - addictions) as some sort of offence. Why would you offend against yourself? I still can't answer this question, even though I can from an academic or public health perspective. All I can say it is part of my history, and I attribute it to the fact that I wasn't living in harmony with myself. What I do know is I have addictive tendencies. I can allow these to addictions to destruct my quality of life, or I can choose positive addictions that have a positive influence. I prefer to phrase positive addictions as "passions"! I could elaborate on what I have just written but I wont because I want this blog to be about moving forward and positive things. I guess I've put it in black and white text the addiction thing, because I am confident now I will no longer let it hold me back. It's been a black box thing. A dark shadow I've carried within. I couldn't completely move on with my goals, until I was completely honest with myself about this shadow, and until I could honestly say I am free of them. I believe that I can now. It's taken a little longer than I thought it would to be able to honestly say these things no longer govern my life, but I can now. I've embedded this important fact in my blog in this post, but I wont be referring to it again. So, MRA (moving right along) another phrase I learnt in the Justice job....
What I do know is that exercise is like this magic formula or prescription for me. It makes me happy, it energises me, it gets me "high" naturally, and it keeps me focused. I've always known that. For whatever reason I haven't explored it fully in terms of keeping well and in harmony. I'm doing that now. Day by day. RPM session by RPM session, and building back in other exercise like weights and road work now.
There was a turning point last year in terms of my "conversion" to RPM. An email was circulated at work from an unknown colleague from another floor, and another 'department' from the one I was working in. It was like a RFP for RPM classes - seeking expressions of interest. It was a long email, and had a good sales pitch I guess. I can't remember all the lines, but one of the lines was something like: if you could sit on a bike then you could do RPM. I guess it triggered this thing for me, that in the past I have actually enjoyed sitting on a bike and some good bike rides. To put it crudely: quite skilled at sitting on my arse. Some of my colleagues expressed interest. I'm not sure why I wasn't deterred by the prospect of wearing lycra in front of my colleagues. I wasn't. I just thought "whatever", I'll sign up for this. It helped that one of my team members also signed up - although we ended going to different classes, and I ended up going to classes with my project leader at the time.
Despite the fact that I've been a Les Mills member for years, there had until that email, been no way I was going to go in the RPM room if it necessitated wearing lyrca. I also guess in my head I thought I couldn't do RPM because I wasn't fit enough (or "cool" enough) to be seen in the RPM room (in my world view, I'm still not fit enough or cool enough, but these are no longer factors that concerns me. The important thing for me is it is about my where I am in my own "journey" - to quote Lance Armstrong "it's not about the bike").
Expressions of interest closed when I was going to be away for some site visits. I remember taking this phone call from the unknown colleague at that time about how I could enrol for the the classes given I was going to be away. I remember putting the phone down and saying something to my team colleague like "omg, just having that conversation has made me feel tired - still, no going back now"!
That was the start of the RPM journey - an introduction to RPM from someone used to holding offenders to account, and finally beginning to get back on track holding myself to account for what matters.
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