Like it or not, you are judged every minute of every day starting with when you are born. Depending on which religion you believe in, you can be judged when you are dead as well. Stop saying “Don’t Judge Me!”, it only makes people judge you even more harshly. Your teachers judge you. Your sunday school teacher judges you. Your boss judges you. Not only that, they judge you by THEIR criteria, not yours. Every day of your life is an interview, both at work and in social situations. When a job opens up at work that would be a promotion, nine times out of ten, before you even have the formal interview for the job their minds are made up – you have interviewed for it every day since you started work there. People rely on those they know and trust, often from within their social circles. When you are out drinking beer with your buddies, like it or not, they are judging you and sizing up your character. When your dream job opens up for you at their company, will they recommend you for it? Their reputation is on the line if you dont workout. If they know you call in sick when you are not really sick, they will think twice about recommending your for a job that requires a reliable person. Everyone judges you.
Public figures are always judged, it comes with the territory. A politician running on the platform of family values who is caught in an extramarital affair will be judged harshly, and rightly so. An obese author of a diet book will be harshly judged, and rightly so.
Fair or not, people always judge you by THEIR criteria, not yours. Its just the way it is. If you just won the Boston Marathon and head to the beach the next day, somebody is going to think/say, “Gee you should workout, you are all skin and bones“. The way to handle it is not by making excuses but simply to explain how you are achieving YOUR goals. A bad answer for the Boston Marathon winner would be, “Ya, I’m a hard gainer“. A good answer would be, “I’m a professional long distance runner and adding muscle weight would slow me down”.
If you are obese, when someone makes some negative comment like “have some self control!“, the wrong thing to reply with is an excuse like “I have thyroid problems“. A better answer is “I am a football player/Sumo wrestler and being heavy improves my performance“. Another good answer is that you are quite happy being obese because in your circle of friends, being obese is a positive rather than a negative thing. If you are obese and don’t want to be, then do something about it rather than making excuses.
My website and videos philosophy has always been about using bodybuilding to improve your health, performance, and to make you feel better but many don’t seem to get that and judge me based upon appearance alone. “Eeeeu, Scooby’s abs looks weird.” or more commonly “Scooby’s legs are too small“. People judge me by their criteria, thats fine, but its not my criteria – these are my goals. My response is “Form follows function and I do endurance cardio events. I am quite comfortable with my 54 year old physique.”
We are all judged every day of our lives, get comfortable with it. Some people act differently in different situations which can make the judging even more complicated, especially when different groups in your life end up intermingling – it’s much easier to be yourself 24/7. Let people judge away, if you are comfortable in your own skin, it will not bother you.
