HYPERBOLE AND HYPERTROPHY: WORDS MATTER

Another one of my rants about language and the avenue of passivity that trainees take to absolve themselves of responsibility, but now comes the bonus of me applying all of the knowledge I gained from a psych 101 course I took in undergrad a decade+ ago: you’re in for a treat.  But thankfully, we’re on equal footing here, because from my observation everyone else took the same course and got a C, because people are so quick to jump to diagnosing themselves with severe psychological disorders when it comes to their own foibles.  And before I go any further, I want to clarify that I intend no malice toward those legitimately afflicted with actual mental health disorders, because I’ve been around enough folks that suffer from such maladies to understand just how debilitating it can be.  But it’s BECAUSE of this that I take so much offense to those who are quick to grant themselves these same afflictions.  In our race to be as hyperbolic as possible in our language, we’ve worked to absolve ourselves of any and all responsibility and accountability for our own actions.  Once again, we’ve removed our own agency and thrown ourselves at the mercy of our environment.  Man, screw that: you are STILL in control.

I mean, in most c

What am I getting at here?  Again, people make a habit of employing such egregiously hyperbolic language in their EVERYDAY dialogue that they’ve engendered a habit of removing their own personal responsibility from the actions they perform.  Look at any trainee discussing their shortcomings in their training and it becomes abundantly apparent.  “I’m addicted to sweets.”  Ok, really, let’s discuss what “addiction” means.  Your addiction means that you lack the ability to function without partaking in the substance you are addicted to.  It means your brain and body will start shutting down unless you have the substance you are addicted to.  In some cases, addiction are so strong the subject will die if they go without their substance for too long.  And you’ve decided you’re going to use that language…about candy?  Rather than say “I really like eating candy”, you jumped straight to “addiction”, and in doing so, you’re saying that you eating sweets is totally outside your control.  You simply lack the ability to NOT eat sweets.  You are a SUFFERER, you are afflicted, YOU are the misfortunate one…because you just plain can’t stop eating sweets.  Ok, seriously?  No, quit using that word.  Own up to your shortcomings.  “I like eating sweets more than I like being in shape.”

“I don’t know if I should bulk or cut: stupid body dysmorphia!”  Ok, again, are you serious here?  You’re trying to explain away your inability to make a decision by claiming it’s because of a severe psychological disorder to distorts your perception of your body?  No, what’s happening here is you lack the ability to make short term sacrifices for long term growth.  This is such an easy question to answer: if you want to be bigger, gain weight, if you want to be smaller, lose weight.  When you have to post a shirtless photo of yourself online and ask strangers to dictate your lifepath because of your “body dysmorphia”, you are once again just saying “I don’t want to make decisions and control my fate: won’t someone ELSE please do it for me?”  And you make use of hyperbolic language to excuse yourself from your inability to act.

It's also worth noting that it's NOT body dysmorphia when you look bad and you think you look bad...

And these are just 2 immediately obvious examples out there where people use language to absolve themselves of the responsibility of being a functioning human.  Where else have you seen this?  People that HAVE to eat or train a certain way because of “their OCD.”  No, you DON’T suffer from a debilitating disorder that limits your ability to function in normal society: you just don’t like to change.  People that “can’t stop eating”?  Ok, so you’re saying you suffer from binge eating disordering: go seek immediate psychological treatment.  Oh wait, MAYBE you just refuse to exercise self-control instead.  Maybe instead of “can’t”, the word you REALLY were looking for is “won’t”.  I get it: we live in a hyperbolic world.  It’s the only way people can get attention anymore.  No one cares for the mundane, everything gets sensationalized, HOWEVER, you need to recognize what you’re doing to yourself here.

Folks, if you’re going to employ hyperbole, use it to your ADVANTAGE: not to cripple yourself.  Creative a narrative in your mind where you are indestructible.  When you discuss your dietary compliance, explain how it’s no problem at all, even IF you experience cravings.  When talking about your training, discuss PRs as though their inevitable, not wishful thinking.  Let yourself be super humanly strong, bulletproof to injury, a machine when it comes to nutrition.  You want to remove yourself from the equation?  Fine, but do it POSITIVELY.  Construct a narrative where SUCCESS is inevitable, NOT failure.  Be hyperbolic for your benefit.

Imagine for a second how much you would succeed if you were Arnie and ALSO, underneath that, a robot

I get it; we exist in a self-deprecating society, where people enjoy bragging about their failures and shortcomings.  It’s trendy to commiserate with everyone else about how you can’t succeed because the deck is stacked against you on a genetic level.  But you know what: wish for failure and you’ll get it.  Will people think you’re bragging and full of yourself if you’re hyperbolic in a positive sense?  Sure, but guess what: you’ll be worth BRAGGING about.  You create a self-fulfilling prophecy of success based off the language you employ when discussing yourself.  This is the very basics of the notion of “the power of positive thinking”.  And yeah, you’ll have a different narrative than others, but that’s because you want different RESULTS than others.

Or maybe you don’t, and maybe you’ll leave it up to someone else to decide what you want.