ON SNOWFLAKES

(Apologies for the late post: I am in the middle of moving and internet sucks)

I’m a big fan of language, which, as a statement, I realize is like saying “I’m a big fan of air”, but continue to humor me.  Specifically, I like observing the shifts and changes in language, along with the weaponization of it.  Terms that were once completely acceptable and positive can, in the course of simply a few years, turn derisive and unwelcome.  “Snowflake” is such a term now, as it was once used as a positive way of expressing the uniqueness and individuality of a person and is now mired in sardonic rhetoric and used to demean the recipient of it.  And I just have to say: that is REALLY stupid.  Why would you deride someone for being unique?  Why would someone chastise someone for NOT falling in with the majority?  What is up with people that take pride in being exactly like everyone else?  Snowflake is DEFINITELY a compliment, and if you receive it derisively, wear it with pride, because having a stupid person consider you to not be their peer is a high accolade.

In fairness, in a passing glance, I thought this was Nietzsche...

But where am I going with this as it relates to training?  Once again, “snowflake” is used to demean people who won’t train and eat like everyone else.  “You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake”, as people love to quote Tyler Durden from Fight Club, completely missing the mark of the message in the first place, but still, the popular reply whenever someone wants a critique on their own training or nutritional approach.  “Just do what everyone else is doing”, “You don’t need to make your own training plan”, etc etc.  We’ve all seen the canned responses and replies, we’ve seen people get verbally eviscerated, we’ve seen the hopeful bright-eyed trainee’s light go out as they decide to just do what everyone else is doing.

But that is the problem with such an approach: if you ask the majority what you should do, you’ll get the reply to do what the majority does.  AND, if you’re inclined to ask the majority what to do, you’re denying your “snowflake-ness”.  If you truly, honestly, in your heart-of-hearts believe that you really are a unique snowflake, you do NOT need anyone’s advice, permission, consent or guidance.  If you ARE unique, then you will simply do what you do AND  you will succeed BECAUSE you are unique.  That is the whole point of being that snowflake: you’re different.  The rules that apply to everyone else don’t apply to you.

Maybe...maybe some rules should still apply

And yes, not everyone is going to be a unique snowflake, but hell, SOMEONE will be, so why not let it be you?  The odds dictate that, at some point, it’s got to be someone.  It’s no different than winning the lottery or getting struck by lightning or your other low-odds situations: it’s not likely, but it’s possible.  And with the power of positive thinking, you may just well make it a self-fulfilling prophecy that it IS you.  Or hell, maybe it is the case that ALL snowflakes simply ARE those people that will themselves into being exactly what it is that they want to be, irrespective of how everyone else is succeeding.  Or maybe it’s even the case that what makes someone a snowflake IS that they possess the ability TO will themselves into what it is that they want to be.  But in all of those situations, it stands to reason that, if you decide it will be you, you have a chance that it WILL be you: all you simply need to do is make that decision.

In turn, upon making this decision, you need no other approval but your own.  In fact, approval would be antithesis to the whole endeavor.  If the majority of other people agree with what you’re doing, it’s not going to be what works for you.  You ARE that snowflake: you are different.  Your needs aren’t the same, nor do you respond the same, nor do you get the same results.  You must be different, you must train different, you must act different, and, in turn, you will get the results other people won’t get when they try to do what you do.  And that’s ok.  They’re normal: you aren’t.

And doubly in turn, when you find those training methods that appeal to you and everyone else says they’re bunk, that’s a great sign that you should try them.  There have been fellow snowflakes and lunatics in training: feel free to learn from them and ape their style.  What you’ll most likely find is that all they had in common was the right mindset.  They decided, before they even tried it, that how they were going to train was GOING to work, and then they executed it and made it happen.  You see this with the lunatics that did HIT, Heavy Duty, Deep Water, Super Squats, Dogg Crapp, Blood and Guts, and all the other hardcore sounding names that everyone likes to chide and say they’re scientifically impossible and unsound and yet they just keep working on the people that do them.  And whenever some normal person pays them lip service and sleepwalks through a program and then goes on to show how they don’t work, this just further reinforces the point: it doesn’t work for normal people.  But I’m sure it works for a snowflake like you.

You can’t have it halfway though.  If you truly think that you are a snowflake with special needs, this means you can’t go seeking out the approval of other people.  It’s not going to work.  They’re going to direct you toward what works for everyone, because that makes sense, because the odds are you’re just like everyone else.  But if you’re playing the odds here and deciding that you AREN’T, you get to make your own decisions, make your own mistakes, learn your own lessons and achieve your own victories.  If you want to take lessons from others, only take the ones you want and decide that they are the ones that are going to work for YOU, and then disregard the ones you don’t want.  Decide to mold and shape your reality the way you want it to be.  That is the luxury you get for being unique.