Embracing Diversity and Difference
This post is a reminder for myself, and for you, to always remember and embrace your own unique strengths.
I recently finished my school semester and started taking my workouts more seriously, exercising more frequently and diversifying my muscle groups and exercise types. It was then that I realised how I was weak in flexibility and upper body strength, but made up for it in leg strength and cardio. And when going to the gym, I noticed the stark differences between the agile boxers practicing their moves in an empty corner, the massive powerlifters sending earthquakes throughout the gym, and the zen yogis contorting their bodies in a separate room.
While everyone clearly seemed very different, one thing they all shared was the fact that they would all be considered athletes, strong in their own respects. This is something that was very heavily discussed several years ago too, when New York-based photographer Howard Schatz shared a gorgeous photoset of top athletes and their very different body shapes, depending on their sport and background (as pictured below). Everyone pictured was considered at peak fitness in their own field, even as some had no muscle definition, and others would even be classified as unhealthy and overweight to untrained eyes.
Everyone pictured is fit, strong, but also imperfect. The sprinter is small and agile, but she can never do a slam dunk or set jumping records. The shot put athlete is incredibly strong, but she will never be able to run a 10-minute mile in her current state. The ballet dancer is looked down upon by some in the sporting world — she doesn’t run fast, she doesn’t lift heavy, but her core strength and flexibility is second to none.
All these revelations came at a really timely moment for me. The school term was rough, and I had gained 4kg from the stress and sedentary nature of Zoom university. I couldn’t run as fast as I hoped, and my lifts were nothing compared to before. But what I did manage to do during the school term was lots of quick HIIT workouts and morning stretching, so I found myself finding a new talent in skipping, and improving greatly in yoga (which, contrary to popular belief, is extremely tiring too!). I had become strong in a different way, and I should be celebrating it instead of berating myself for losing conventional definitions of strength and athleticism.
Or even if all forms of fitness were taking a hit, as with many busy office workers, we can also think of things as getting stronger in other aspects of our lives. Diversity in talents and strengths don’t just exist in the sporting sphere, but in all aspects of our lives. Some people have honed their people skills to become effective facilitators and toastmasters, others have read every book in their library and became incredibly knowledgeable. Or others may have watched every Netflix series available and have become pop culture connoisseurs. Some of this knowledge is valued less than others (looking at you pop culture), but they all require time to hone, and should all be acknowledged and valued for that. Shedding away the capitalist veneer that clouds our vision, we begin to see that not all skills need to be financially remunerated to be considered worthy or admirable — and we should not have to shape our world view and sense of self-worth around this arbitrary value system too.
Instead, we should be chasing our passions, honing our talents, doing what we enjoy. In doing so, we specialise in what we love most. Work becomes play, and life becomes so much more worth living. Of course, we still need to be able to feed and clothe ourselves, and that is the eternal capitalist struggle we find ourselves in — torn between passion and survival. Not everyone will be able to achieve both; too many external factors come into play, factors that are out of our control. We cannot choose what kind of family we are born in, our neighbourhoods, our job landscape… We can only make do with what we have.
But necessity and constraint are the mother of invention. There’s no need to give up and become jaded with the world. We can improvise, find cheaper and more flexible ways to do what we love and earn our income at the same time. Work in the day, become a streamer at night. Be a freelancer, set up passive income sources. There are always ways to squeeze our passions into the hustle and bustle of the grind. So always remember your worth, your dreams, and how everything is valid — your strengths, your weaknesses, everything.
In the long run, if everyone can embrace diversity and difference, perhaps we won’t have to deal with these constraints and balancing acts anymore. When everyone, including our systems and institutions, slowly comes to acknowledge alternative pathways and value all types of work and activities equally, perhaps things could be very different. This, of course, is a highly idealistic view, and such a utopia remains far out of our reach. But it is these conversations, these pauses to reflect and tell yourself “I am worthy” — these are what create those incremental changes, those little ripples that can eventually spread to oceans.
In summary, be kinder to yourself, be kinder to others, and do your part in making this world a more open-minded place, that acknowledges diversity, difference and intersectionality; that provides greater equality of opportunity and reward; that allow us to finally pursue our dreams freely without fear.
