“To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.” – Elbert Hubbard

Back in my younger days (pretty much my entire 20s, if I’m honest), I was obsessed with being liked by everyone.

If somebody criticised me, I would feel the need to prove them wrong, and make them agree with me.

If somebody disliked me, I would obsess over it for days and try to figure out what I did wrong, and how to make them like me.

It took a long, long time for the penny to drop – pretty much anything worthwhile that you want to achieve in life comes with the side effect that you’ll piss a few people off.

Love and hate really are 2 sides of the same coin – if you want to be loved by some, you have to accept that you’ll also be hated by others – usually for the exact same reasons.

Even in running this website, I have to accept the few emails that come my way from guys that either disagree with me, or simply just don’t like my style.

What’s this got to do with working out?

Well, when you try and get bigger, you’ll find that it’s not all plain sailing:

• People will think you are weird for wanting to gain weight when the rest of the world is trying to lose weight
• People will give you advice on the right way to work out (hence implying that your way is wrong)
• Anytime you have the slightest cold, cough or sniffle, people will gleefully jump on the opportunity to tell you that “it’s because of those ‘weird protein drinks’ you keep taking”
• In the same breath as sipping on an extra large Starbucks latte, people will tell you how unhealthy it is to down a load of weight gainer shakes and eat 6 meals a day
• Family members will question you on your finances and how you can afford to buy weight gainer powder
• People will start telling you that you’ve become obsessed with the gym/your body
• People will imlpy that you have deep seated emotional insecurities because you want to have a muscular, honed physique
• People will gossip about if you’re secretly taking steroids (people used to ask me if I was on steroids when I was heavily bulking)

You’ll find that this happens anytime you try to escape being a medoicre person.

You’ll get a shitload of people who disapprove of what you’re doing – and when you say ‘thanks, but no thanks’ to their advice, they tend to get pissed off (especially if they happen to be related to you).

So in the end it boils down to a simple choice – either piss a few naysayers off, or be a totally average human being.

Which do you prefer?

Filed under: Random by Richard Fletcher
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