“What do you do for a living?”—an easy conversation starter at most social gatherings and like most people, I get asked this question quite often. Until a few months back, it was a pretty easy response: “I’m a corporate lawyer”.
But that answer was only relevant a few months ago; until I decided to give up my high paying corporate job for a dream I’ve had for years—a dream to see a fitter and happier community of people and to work with different athletes in our country.
Fitness has been a part of my life for the past 20 years. I was nine years old when my father took me to my first cricket camp, and the first time I entered a gym, I was a clueless 13 year old. I was desperate to improve my cricket and fitness, to me, was a necessity.
Slowly, it became an obsession. My day wasn’t, and till today isn’t complete till I’ve finished my workout. Fitness means different things to different people. To me, it is the ability and confidence to do things you never thought your body could do.
It’s my favourite way to unplug from the rest of the world and give my mind and body an opportunity to recharge for what life’s going to throw at me next. For me, exercise equals happiness and that is exactly what I want people to understand and experience. It’s pretty simple as far as I’m concerned, look after your body and it will look after you when you get older.
Being a lawyer for 12 years, life was pretty stressful. The last few years, in particular, were a struggle. While I loved what I did, I just didn’t agree with the system and culture law firms have in place.
I was working seven day weeks and barely got time to do anything else. I guess that’s when I burnt out and realised I was done. It didn’t give me the joy it had given me in the past and I felt it was time to move on. There had to be more to life than constantly staring at my computer or Blackberry or responding to calls and emails.
Speaking of calls and emails, my Blackberry and I shared this strange love-hate relationship. I hated it and it loved making me feel that way. That constant flicking of the red light on the screen reminded me of the unread emails that had hit my inbox overnight while I was asleep and the first thing I did when I woke up was go through each one of them with this sense of helplessness.
Living the high paying corporate life for all these years made me realise what people were doing to their bodies. Lack of time was a pretty simple excuse for being unhealthy. Despite long working hours, I somehow managed to find the time to keep myself fit. I found different ways to stay healthy and that’s what I’d like to share with the corporate world. You don’t always need to spend hours in a gym to get fit and stay healthy.
Today, however, life is different. I don’t hate my phone anymore and I don’t wake up to 100 unread emails. I wake up to messages from people looking for a solution to improve their daily life. Replying to the messages and trying to help people improve their health is quite the rewarding experience.
An ideal day for me would mean an hour or so in the gym training myself for my own mental peace and well-being. As for the rest of my day, I’m quite the workaholic. I don’t like sitting idle for too long so I spend a good part of my day working with people and helping them as much as I possibly can and the remaining time is for my wife and son.
I have a dream and I’m now going to spend all my time trying to achieve that dream, one day at a time.
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