Steroids might make you feel invincible -- as the old wives tale go on and on about, but bodybuilding in general creates in each ahtlete a core value system that enables him/her to come to depend on no one -- but themselves. In the gym you're going to meet an assortment of characters, plastic people, snobs, premadonnas, genuine people, cranky jerks, basically the run of the mill. If you're lucky, you'll have a spotter that you can talk to, if you're really lucky you might have a work-out partner. But in the end, you're all by yourself - just like when you're born - just like when you breathe your last breath in this life.
You don't need anyone -- that's false wishy washy nonsense that your other half is out there somewhere looking for you. Do I believe in love? Sure. Everyone would like to have a wife, some kids, a house, but you don't need it like you need protein, carbs, good fats, oxygen, and a place to lift. Yeah, you need to push that iron more than walk down the aisle, but kids still are the best! Have 'em if you're financially and emotionally sound -- otherwise you'll have 'em and we (as a society) will pick up the bill and hopefully show them the ropes before they go out and become wards of the state.
At the expense of sounding like an Animal or Universal Nutrition ad, it's all very true, you're all alone in this life, except for a select few minor exceptions. So what am I saying in this whole, life sucks conundrum?
Your day should begin and end with YOU and bodybuilding affords the athlete the mental acuity to pull that off. When you lift, try to hone in on the words of the Blonde Bomber, Tom Platz, in Arnold: The Reconstruction, but go further than that. Imagine yourself all alone in the gym, have the muscle you're working on your mind, go to a place where no one can hurt you, where you are showing off the absolute best physique, a place where you're popular and loved, take the same passion you would for fantasizing about one last slow-dance with your high school sweetheart - the song playing, that look in her eyes, her soft touch, the optimism you clinged onto that true love really did exist and that it really did stand the test of time - every guy out there knows exactly what I mean -- take that love (or nostalgia for what never may have been to begin with) and give it to yourself -- make yourself your one true love -- and get yourself in the end :) lol
Narcissism -- it's what's for dinner -- and for lunch, breakfast, and midnight snack. Everyone, including yours truly, can go for a long walk on a short pier. It's all about YOU and THEN everyone else. :)
[The only exception to this rule: your kids and your parents (in all candor, they should probably come before you) - and THEN, literally, everyone else comes a distant second].
