Learning to Think in Shades of Gray (absolutes are rare)

It is well documented that our thoughts, emotions, and past experiences influence our decisions.  Everything from formal education to parental influence and social/cultural exposures helps create our biases, behaviors, and judgments.  We use all this information to help guide our decisions; however, could outside opinions risk our ability to stand by our own moral compass?  Could the loudest voice in the room crack our foundational thoughts?  Or are we able to keep an open mind, weigh each argument, and critically evaluate a logical outcome?  

As a career professional, entrepreneur, mentor, and parent I fear we are losing the art to critically think while keeping an open mind.  Often, the loudest voice in the room demands the most attention and suffocates the quieter, more rational, voice.  The loud voice takes a position on a topic and thoroughly defends the position regardless of the foundation it’s based on, even if we have facts that prove the position is irrelevant.  When this happens, we move towards binary thinking: my idea is good while your idea is bad, or this idea is right, and your idea is wrong. 

We see this in the diet industry all the time.  You have different camps saying their “diet” is the best for health and weight loss.  Documentaries like The Game Changers, Forks over Knives, and Cowspiricy support a vegan lifestyle as the BEST diet, and eating meat is the WORST thing we can do.  Yet there’s the KETO camp and Atkin’s supporters who say the EXACT opposite.  Each believes their way is the BEST way and everything else is WRONG.  Whatever happened to living in shades of gray?  They made millions at the box-office talking about 50 different shades of gray.  Don’t you think it’s worth investigating the facts from BOTH to come up with your own ideas?

The fitness industry is no different.   There are several loud voices especially since the advent of social media.  These voices look different from each other.  Some are ripped, lifting 1000-pound barbells, or bent over a bench displaying their bodacious butts.  Then there’s educated, experienced fitness professionals who may look unassuming or even sport a potbelly but are published in major medical journals.   Young fitness professionals, who are more easily influenced and have limited knowledge, may find it difficult to form their own beliefs.    

Here are some common arguments we see in the fitness industry:

· High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is better than steady-state cardio.

·       Deadlifts are bad for your back.

·       Squats are better than hip thrusts for shaping your butt.

·       Deep Squats are better than ¼ Squats.

·       Fasted cardio is best for fat loss.

·       No pain, no gain.

I confess I bought into a “style of training” or a “guru’s opinion” earlier in my career.  Their ideas influenced how I trained and wrote programs for a long time for myself and my clients.  However, as I grew professionally, I started to question these ideas and researched the claims.  I learned why one voice argued for HIIT training and why others promoted steady-state cardio.  I read muscle EMG studies to determine how various exercises directly affect muscles and movements.  What I realized is nothing is “black or white.”  Each exercise or method has a place, depending on who your client is.  This is not a one size fits all and learning how to drown out the loud voices has allowed me to look at each client as an individual and decide what’s best for them, not for me. 

Gaining an appreciation for seeing the world as “gray” instead of “black” and “white” is the key to evolving as a professional IMHO.  It indicates you are able to take many factors into consideration, to put aside your bias (based on personal experience), and critically evaluate the possible outcomes of the decisions you could make in any situation.  Being able to navigate the gray area is the quintessential step to moving from being an amateur to being a professional in any career.  It indicates you have a thorough grasp of the foundational principles required by your profession and allows you the flexibility to start thinking in terms of “what if”.    

From writing an exercise program in which you have to select exercises that best fit clients, to coaching clients through those exercises, adapting on the spot to make them more productive, requires an ability to be both open-minded and to think critically. 

If I had to guess, the thing that most frustrates my staff is my “it depends” answer to most of their questions.  Simultaneously, one of my greatest rewards as a mentor is when their questions to turn into solutions, because they realize they’re rarely going to get the definitive answer they’re seeking.