WE GOT TO WHERE WE ARE BY DOING WHAT WE’VE BEEN DOING

We humans are a delightfully flawed species, which, if you’re the religious type, you may refer to as “original sin”, or if you’re the philosopher type you may simply think of Nietzsche’s “Human: all too human”, the latter individual also claiming that God is dead showing the unification of two contrasting schools of thought arriving at the same conclusion.  But already I’ve digressed before I’ve started: one of the fun ways we are flawed is how often we seek familiarity as a form of comfort.  This is, most likely, an evolutionary trait that served us QUITE well in an era where we were running from sabretooth tigers and trying to remember which mushrooms we could eat vs which ones killed us dead, but in the modern age this comfort seeking behavior is ultimately one of the many causes of our downfalls.  And even those that believe that they have saved themselves by engaging in the process of physical transformation manage to fall for this trap, for, quite often, these individuals constantly seek the comfort of familiarity WITHIN their process of physical transformation.  But herein we realize the error of that way, for physical transformation IS a process OF transformation, and in order to transform, we must BECOME something different than what we are…whereas we got to where we are by doing what we’ve been doing!

Chewing bubblegum and kicking ass got him this far...let's see what he does without the gum!

 

This STATEMENT seems obvious, but consider how many trainees turn a complete blind eye to it.  Let’s establish a very simple baseline premise: one does NOT engage in physical transformation IF one is satisfied with their current selves.  That seems agreeable, no?  Outside of some sort of situation wherein one engages in physical transformation purely as a lark (exercising Sartre’s “radical freedom”), the vast majority of trainees MUST have some sort of catalyst to drive them.  Perhaps they watched a movie with a training montage and got inspired, perhaps they put on a swimsuit, looked in the mirror and had an “oh sh-t” moment, perhaps they decided they wanted to compete in a physical event and realized they were WOEFULLY underprepared for it, but whatever the case, those seeking to transform are NOT satisfied with what they currently are.  Well how did we get to where we are?  We got there by doing what we’ve been doing!  All decisions and actions up until this point have resulted in THIS outcome.  We understand the equation put in front of us: X+Y=Z.  So now, we look to change either the X or the Y (or both) to arrive at a new answer!

 

We intellectually understand this…but emotionally, we’re a wreck!  Our stupid lizard brains WANT familiarity: it wants things to be the way they’ve ALWAYS been.  But doing what we’ve been doing has gotten us right where are right now…UNSATISFIED!  We need to remember that as we embark on this adventure.  We’re going to have eat differently, we’re going to have to sleep differently, we’re going to have to train differently (or at all, for that matter), we’re going to have to LIVE differently.  None of this even assures that we are going to IMPROVE, but it DOES ensure that we’re going to CHANGE.  So far, we are EXPERTS at being what we are: to become something else, we will need to become amateurs once again.

Although sometimes those previous expertise are STILL pretty useful

 

…Do I hear “noobie gains?”  You bet!  We’re going to experience that rapid change that occurs when you transition from doing a thing you’re good at to doing a thing you’re bad at.  “White belt mentality”: it’s outstanding!  You never move faster than when you start from nothing, as you have nowhere to go BUT up!  THAT, alone, is your insurance policy through this period.  SO many folks are SO afraid to try something new, but what could you possibly have to lose?  You have to face the fear of the unfamiliar, but remember: you didn’t choose to pursue transformation because you were SATSIFIED with what you are: you wanted to be different.  Well here are the keys to that kingdom!  Embrace the weird, the alien, the different: do what you HAVEN’T been doing to get to somewhere else.

 

But this isn’t just about the stat of the journey: those that are in the PROCESS of transformation absolutely need this lesson as well.  BECAUSE we experience that rapid growth the first time we change direction, it’s quite easy to fall victim of the trap of infatuation: we soon become zealots of our new way, because we KNOW it produces the results we seek, and we fall in love…and refuse to change!  THIS is the way that produced the results!  This is the NEW way!  …but, eventually, we find ourselves STILL unsatisfied, STILL seeking transformation, in which case…what do we do?

No

 

We stop doing what we’ve been doing!  The principle STILL applies.  We have to recognize when we’ve wound up in yet another rut: when we’ve EXHAUSTED the new way and must, instead, move on to ANOTHER new way in order to, once again, NOT be where we are.

 

Anyone that has followed me has recognized this exact pattern unfolding.  This very blog started with me espousing what a fan I was of abbreviated training, only to immediately take a HARD pivot into stupidly high volume work, and here I am back to abbreviated training with some recent runs of Super Squats and Mass Made Simple, with all sorts of wild journeys in the middle.  I employed abbreviated training through my second powerlifting meet, was unsatisfied with having failed a 502lb squat AGAIN, and ended up going in a completely different direction and trying 5/3/1, which allowed me to finally get my 502lb squat AND a 601lb deadlift in a meet…all before I completely switched gears and started competing in strongman.  Oh, and that powerlifting phase came AFTER I hung up my gloves after 12 years of martial arts training/focus.  All of these approaches worked…until they didn’t, and then it was time to do something else.

This is what PTSD looks like

 

And, of course, I’ve annoyed so many of you with my nutrition, but once again, I’ve broken out the etch-a-sketch on that SO many times and just completely obliterated all my previous approaches.  I’ve gone from a Gallon of milk a day with copious amounts of PBJs to a paleo style approach to dirty keto to low fat/low carb (THAT was really stupid) to shakes only to carnivore, and in every instance, it was the same situation: I was unsatisfied with what I WAS, so I needed to do something different than what had gotten me there.  And EACH and every time I did that: it worked!  And that’s the feedback loop we need: the re-assurance that, each time we stop doing what we’ve been doing, we WILL get to somewhere else.  Through the repetition of the experiment, we receive consistent confirmation that these changes WILL produce results, and we develop the habits and skills of a being CAPABLE of change, which, in turn, allows us to continue onward in a process of consistent transformation.  A stagnant being never changes, but a being that transforms gets there THROUGH change.

 

Make yourself a being of consistent change.  Find your current paradigms and smash them all to pieces.  Slaughter all of your sacred cows, disavow all your gods, blaspheme and forsake, so that YOU can become something other than what you are.