Conquering Resistance: Your True Enemy

The universe is, for the most part, against you. It doesn’t want you to survive, it just wants to test you, challenge you, play with you. You have to make the decision to fight back, no one else can make it for you. What is this force constantly fighting us called? Resistance. But how do you beat such a force that’s sly, cunning, and hidden? Well it start with just getting up, and taking hit after hit day after day, without giving up. Don’t feel like working? To bad, you must because it’s all about calling upon the muses and putting in the work if you want to achieve anything meaningful.

This idea of resistance is best described in Steven Presfeild’s book the War of Art. He talks about how the true key to productivity and getting shit done is to consistently overcome the force and enemy he calls, resistance. The only way to do this is to work towards your goals day after day. He mainly uses the examples of writers, describing how the only way to finish a book is to set time to work on it EVERY DAY, and to stick to it no matter the circumstance, or what your reptilian brain is pulling you towards like watching netflix, or eating that piece of cake. He mentions how resistance will pop up in in your head with sayings like, “I can always start my new diet tomorrow… but for now, let’s have one last slice of pizza,” or “We want to go back to bed; we want to get up and party. We feel unloved and unlovable. We’re disgusted. We hate our lives. We hate ourselves.” His response is that you mustn’t give into this voice in your head telling you to put off the work that NEEDS to be done. Let me emphasize the NEEDS again, because this is the work you need to do, it’s the work that is going to leave you feeling satisfied and fulfilled.

There are also external forms of resistance that often come into play from family and friends in the form of good intentions. They’ll say things like “I know this is what you want to do, but be realistic,” or “how are you going to make money?” These people truly have your best intentions at heart, but the fact of the matter is that they don’t really know what’s good for you. They are really just relaying a message that was told to them in childhood or early adolescence, a model of thinking that they have ingrained in their subconscious as a belief system that, if they are really with themselves, isn’t particularly working for them. Don’t resent them for it, just politely say, “you’re probably right, I may fail, but i’m going to give it a shot anyway.”

The only way to overcome resistance is through strategy. If strategies are not implemented, then your chances of being productive diminish tremendously. Just saying you’re going to stop checking facebook every day starting tomorrow won’t cut it. Instead you need to set a schedule something like this:

Only check facebook:

Week 1

1 hour, 4 times a day.

Week 2

1 hour, 3 times a day

Week 3

1 hour, 2 times a day

Week 4

1 hour 2 times a day 5 days a week

Week 5

1 hour 2 times a day 3 days a week

Tracking your results will help, install a program like rescue time so you don’t have to consciously think about doing it, but you will have to remember to check the results. Another good thing to do that will really force you to not check facebook would be to set up a website blocker that doesn’t allow you to check certain websites during specific periods of time during the day.

To stick to this, set up an account on www.stickk.com to set a few stakes. This will make sure you overcome resistance and follow your strategy, because without a doubt, resistance WILL pop it’s little head up. Stickk is a great platform because it allows you to select and accountability partner meaning that they make sure if you don’t complete your task by a certain date, then it sends X amount of dollars to either an anti-charity of your choice, or to a friend (maybe one you don’t like so much).

There’s really no one else you’re competing against in life but yourself. It’s a lot like the header image, the dog can now walk itself because it’s tail is a hand. It now has control over where it goes instead of someone else wielding the control. In order to achieve what you desire, you must overcome the voice in your head that constantly compels you to put something off and take the easy route. Overcoming this voice won’t happen overnight, it’s all about getting progressively better and learning how to say no to yourself, and sometimes others. It will take months, maybe even years of work and failure, but the key is to never completely submit. It’s okay to lose a few battles so that you can win the war.