For some
reason, I’ve always been a fan of the “Faustian Deal”, which, for those
unaware, is a reference to the character of Faust, who sold his soul to the
devil in exchange for knowledge and power.
The idea of simply having power without consequence was always too
boring to me: I really enjoyed the notion of power “but at what cost?” In turn, Dungeons and Dragons afforded me an
avenue to really geek out of this with the notion of “cursed gear”, which were
items your character could employ but, once wielded, could not be removed, and
typically featured some sort of consequence to balance out whatever blessing
they bestowed upon you. There was
powerful armor that reduced your charisma because it had a foul odor associated
with it, shields that would deflect swords but attract arrows, a spear that
damaged you AS it damaged the enemy (referred to as “the back biter”), etc
etc. But one of the most classic
examples of this was the “Cursed Sword of Berserking”, which, of course, I
loved, because it was a stupidly powerful two-handed sword that forced your
character into a berserk state upon the start of battle, wherein he would
simply attempt to murder whoever was closest to him and move on from
there. Yes: this INCLUDED those that
were friendly members of your party: berserkers don’t discriminate. And while many would discover such a sword
and quickly discard it, or try to find some sucker to pawn it off too, I was a
much bigger fan of keeping that sword in my inventory and employing it when the
benefits of the blade outweighed the consequence of the curse. A lesson, of course, for us to understand and
employ outward, in that EVERY “curse” we endure carries with it a blessing: we
must simply learn how to leverage and employ it in the correct context.
Some even manage to leverage it for some quick cash
What
ultimately inspired this post was my own personal reflections on growing up as
a fat kid. At that time, being fat
absolutely felt like a curse: I was the constant target of bullies, as I was,
quite literally, a big target. I was
slow, unathletic (which, in a point of irony, I was denied access to the
pop-warner football program because I was TOO heavy…a program I was hoping
would help get me in shape), awkward, and of course didn’t care for how I
looked. However, that fat kid background
has been quite the blessing during these later years in my continued quest for
physical transformation. Primarily,
during my most recent shift to “protein sparing intermittent feasting”, I’ve
learned that my ability to eat MASSIVE quantities of food in a single sitting
is an absolute boon, as I have zero issues with sitting down at a single meal
and getting in enough food with enough vital protein and fat in it to be able
to successfully gain weight. I think of
all the dudes that are out there eating 6 to 7 times a day and STILL struggling
to be able to put on weight because they simply don’t have the capacity to get
all the food in, and I realize that these fat kid tendencies are really coming
through for me…and moreso in another way too.
I’ve already
BEEN fat, which means, unlike SO many trainees out there these days: I’m not
afraid of it happening. It honestly
saddens me how many dudes I see that are struggling with this absolute FEAR of
adding an ounce of fat to their bodies in their quest to gain muscle, such to
the point that they are tragically undereating and wasting all of their
training time and energy because they simply won’t eat enough food to actually
get anything out of the process. They
prize their current appearance over their future, unable to focus on the long
term objective due to a focus on near term issues. For me, looking peeled is a novelty: not a
norm. Even though I’ve been “fit” for 25
years now, having started the process at age 14, meaning I spent MORE time
being fit than unfit, in my mind I’m still a “fat kid” and, in turn, when my
abs go away while I’m in the quest to gain muscle, it causes no psychological
disturbance: I’m simply “returning to normal”.
And, additionally, I have all the assurance in the world that I KNOW how
to lose fat, because I’ve done it so many times. The fear of the unknown tends to be the
biggest obstacle for these trainees to overcome: they’ve never gotten fat in
the first place, so they don’t realize how simple it is to become “unfat”. They’ve built up the process so much in their
head, made it so mythologically impossible, when, in reality, people do it
EVERY day. The curse of my childhood is
truly a blessing.
Little did I realize I was in training my whole childhood...
But this
wasn’t meant to be simply a celebration of growing up fat: those on the
opposite end of the spectrum have a curse that is a blessing as well. The “hardgainer” (which, despite how often
the internet wants to say it’s not really a thing, I believe it’s really a
thing, and I can go into that in the comments if people are interested) has the
curse of having to eat SO much in order to gain weight…but ALSO has the very
same blessing. Think about how
non-nuanced your nutrition can become when you decide to embrace Stalin’s
philosophy that “quantity has a quality all its own”. While other dudes have to calculate macros
and calories and perfectly craft their nutrition to achieve their goals, you’re
putting away the J M Blakely special of pizzas drenched in olive oil and speed
eating oreos. You have absolutely ZERO
fear of “accidentally getting fat”, because not only is it practically
impossible for you to gain weight, but you KNOW that, IF you were to somehow
finally put on fat, all you have to do is NOT eat like a death row inmate at
their last meal in order to strip the fat right back off again. Whereas my cursed blessing was to not care
about getting fat, yours is to not WORRY about it.
Injuries are
a classic cursed blessing. Were it not
for injuries, I never would have discovered ROM progression, or DoggCrapp, or
Tactical Barbell, or so many other cools tips and tricks, nor would I have been
able to justify many of the super fun gym toys now in my possession which
afford me a wide variety of options in training. What about a bad training cycle? Picking “the wrong program?” The cursed blessing of KNOWLEDGE. Of EXPERIENCE! We learned something: we learned what DOESN’T
work. You scoff, but isn’t that SO much
better than those dudes who just run Starting Strength for 6 straight years,
constantly resetting to the same lifts before building back up and regressing
all over again because they’re too afraid to try something new? Often, we need to take a few steps back so we
can take a giant leap forward.
Being a little lighter might also help
These are
all swords of berserking. The curse is
only a curse when the situation is wrong, but in the right situation, under the
right context, the blessing is worth the curse.
Look at all the curses inflicted upon you and discover the blessing
contained within them.
