How to Overcome Resistance and Get Stuff Done

Every major achievement starts with the first step.

But most of the times, that one step is the hardest to take. Why? Shouldn’t it be the easiest?

It’s not that we don’t know what we should be working on or we lack the abilities to get things done.

But for some reason, we resist taking that first step.

I’ve been inspired by Seth Godin’s daily notes and have been wanting to do something similar where I write and publish a piece every day.

Guess what? I’ve been resisting it for a very long time.

I don’t think it’s because I don’t know how to use the keyboard and I don’t think it’s because I never wrote anything before.

It turns out I’ve been resisting it because I was not clear on why I wanted to write every day.

I always thought it was great practice to improve my writing but history proved to me that was never a good enough reason to start.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized it’s not just about getting better at writing.

So I dug deeper in my thoughts and aspirations.

I realized discipline and self-respect are stronger reasons for having a daily writing practice.

It’s like starting your day by making your bed.

If I write every day at 9 am, I will build a new habit that can have a positive effect on everything else I do on a daily basis.

Now THAT inspired me to take action.

I didn’t even know what to write about or where to publish it. I just knew I needed to start and what you’re reading now is the result of taking that first step.

So how do you overcome resistance?

- Start with a small and achievable goal.

- Have a clear vision of what the outcome looks like.

- Make sure you know the “why” behind what you’re going to do.

It’s almost impossible to overcome resistance if you don’t know why you’re doing what you’re doing.

You need to be crystal clear on how that’s going to impact your life in a positive way.

As human beings, we’re great at coming up with excuses to procrastinate. It’s a constant fight sometimes to get something done even if we have a deadline.

To take action though, we need to feel inspired.

And to feel inspired, we need to know how exactly every step we take can help us get closer to a better version of ourselves.

If you haven’t found the reason for what you’ve been wanting to do, don’t settle and keep looking deeper.

A good framework you can use is “The 5 WHY” (get my guide in the bottom).

Start asking yourself why you want to do something. And every time you come up with an answer, then ask another question starting with why.

Continue this 5 times and you should be able to find the truth.

I hope you find your true reason and get inspired enough to take that first step on whatever it is that you’ve been putting off for a long time.

Now let’s overcome that inner resistance together and get something done.

If you do end up taking action, I’d love to hear what steps you’ve taken and the WHY behind it.

I wrote this piece as part of a 90-day challenge I took on to get better at this type of writing. To learn more about me you can visit my website here.