Balance

Geschatte leestijd: 3 minuten “Balanstrutjes”. Unable or unwilling to make choices for one or only a few objectives. Why this negative association with seeking balance?

“Balanstrutjes”

Recently, Elske Doets, businesswoman of the year 2017, appeared on De Wereld Draait Door. The reason was the discussion about a mandatory quota for women in top positions. When asked about reasons why women don’t succeed in larger numbers in top positions “on their own strength,” several possible causes were mentioned. According to Elske Doets, one of them was the fact that many women simply cannot or do not want to make choices. If you aspire to a top position, you will have to make sacrifices. Women who are not willing to do so, she called “balanstrutjes” (balance bimbos). It’s no surprise that many reacted negatively to the inherently derogatory term “balanstrutjes.” The fact that you feel the need to combine the word balance with “bimbos” reveals a certain level of annoyance, irritation, and judgment.

Balanstrutjes and fitness

I sensed the same irritation recently in the words of one of my clients before a photoshoot. I had arranged to meet with three models for a shoot in a forest with long dresses. Near the forest, I had asked the owner of a stable if the ladies could change there. One of the models was a bikini fitness athlete. She received a compliment on her figure from the stable owner followed by the statement that she would also like to have such a figure. The model later reacted to me with words like, “People often say they want a certain figure but are not willing to do the necessary work for it.” In that, I recognized the same irritation as in Elske Doets’ words. Eight-time Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman expressed similar feelings with the famous words: “Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but nobody wants to lift these heavy ass weights!”

Ich bin ein balanstrutje

I’m also a balanstrutje. I know dedication to a certain objective, but I simply have too much interest in too many different things. Family, photography, writing, entrepreneurship, training. There is nothing I devote my full attention to. That also applies to fitness/bodybuilding. If I train four to five times a week, I’m fine with that. In the kitchen, this translates only to preparing a shake after the workout; otherwise, I eat what I want. Yes, I would like to look like the bodybuilders who stepped on stage at the Mr. Olympia last week. However, when I started serious strength training 20 years ago, I already knew that I was not willing to make the necessary choices for this. Especially regarding nutrition (eating much more than my appetite dictates) and the use of ‘pharmaceutical aids’. To really have the body of a bodybuilder (instead of that of a muscular beach boy), more is needed than lucky genes and a few hours of training per week. As the well-known bodybuilder Kai Greene explained: “You need obsession to succeed.”

“A choice”

Does this mean that I’m not allowed to say that I would like to look like a top bodybuilder? Or should I immediately follow this with the words “but I’m not willing to make the necessary choices for this”? No, because there is also a sore point: The assumption that it’s merely a choice. “I could have looked like you too if I made that choice.” “I could have had a top position too if I attached less value to my social life.” The point is that you only know if you would achieve such goals if you actually tried. Many, if not most, don’t achieve them. It’s New Year’s Eve again soon, and then ‘choices’ are also made on a mass scale that are not followed through. If you say that you have chosen balance, you seem to assume that you yourself are also capable of achieving what another has achieved with full dedication. This actually does a disservice to that full dedication; “Everyone could do it.”

Nothing wrong with “balanstrutjes”

When the word “balanstrutjes” is used, one does not have to think negatively about the choice for balance itself. Elske Doets and my model at the time will also understand that not everyone wants or can fully dedicate themselves to one thing. The derogatory term “balanstrutjes” is mainly a reaction to the lack of appreciation for the efforts of those who do have that full dedication. So there’s nothing wrong with balanstrutjes, nor with the word itself.