I tell my wife all the time that I don’t want to be a phony. Oh sure, I can be a failure and I totally expect I will have my set backs. However, pretending to be what everybody around me wants me to be is a bit much. I can’t even lie good. My wife sees through my every effort to mislead her….even when I’m trying to hide a Birthday gift or another sort of surprise. She sniffs it out before I can execute. This is another example of being a miserable failure. It’s interesting that as we observe our groups of friends and associates we seem to find our place and we behave accordingly. But, in my world I have trouble staying in my expected lane. I love to banter. I love to utter stupid quips that may land me in the “penalty box.” I fall into this routine when I can’t take conformity/normalcy anymore.
Now, how does this apply to bodybuilding?!! Actually, it fits nicely. Try to imagine that you have wanted something as a bodybuilder but many if not all your colleagues have established in their minds just how successful you should be. Without even being direct, you begin to feel the “GLASS CEILING” rolling into place over you. It says, “you are good at bodybuilding but you cannot go beyond” the “GLASS CEILING” that we have so carefully put into place so you will know where your success must end. Afterall, we who are “NORMAL” have decreed that you will not exceed us who will not work this hard to win, and who also cannot tolerate a super winner in our midst. Our decree which is marked by the “GLASS CEILING” is immutable and unmoving as it relates to you.
This is something we all face. When we perceive that we are being defined by others who are “NORMAL” it is here that we return home. We return to the person that we are. We fall in love with ourselves and we push on to greatness as defined by us alone. the “GLASS CEILING” is broken and ‘NORMALCY” is left in our rear view mirrors.
I always want to be on the cutting edge that I alone establish. Let the judges tell me otherwise and nobody else. I admonish all of us muscle heads to “SET OUR FACES LIKE FLINT TOWARD THE STAGE” and never look back. Failing is my business but pretending to be something else and being pressed into other peoples conformity is a personal “SIN!” As it says in the Bible, “avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.”
Bottom Line: We have the privilege of deciding who we are and how far we are willing to go based on goals and effort. Go win! the “GLASS CEILING” that is set in place by others is irrelevant.
Six Pack and Senior 