Many a false step was made by standing still. (from a fortune cookie) I encounter so many people who say, “I wish I could do what you do.” And in my head, I am screaming, “Why not?” These are smart people with in demand skills. They are already working hard. They have spark and resilience and persistence. My inner voice says” “If I could pull this off, so can you.” When pressed about “why not”, the reasons vary but include some variation of deferring this move because of outside pressures like:
- I need more money in the bank.
- I just need to get my kids through college.
- I only need to work 10 more years and then I can retire and do what I love.
- There is just too much going on in my life right now.
- I’m going to get one more certification, go to one more class, learn one more thing..…
Some of these reasons are legit. If you are living paycheck to paycheck, your first order is to get your finances in order. If you are within a short grasp of a pension (perhaps 1 year, but not 10 years), take the longer view. If your life is in chaos, it’s best to get a few things in order. Yet far too often, when we are failing to make progress in a goal we’ve set or a vision we are bringing to life, we often blame others. In my experience, most often the enemy is within. It is our own fear that causes us to freeze. It is Resistance to what might be, what we might create, how we might dare to do something big and meaningful. This blog is inspired by a book written by Steven Pressfield entitled The War of Art: Break through the Blocks and Win your Inner Creative Battles. I pull out my tattered volume anytime I am attempting something big that scares me. When I find myself stalling, rationalizing, and stuck, reading The War of Art kicks my butt and gets me moving. Without this book, my own book would never have been written, published and on Amazon today. Before you say “But I am not an artist.” – let me clarify that Pressfield defines creativity and the accompanying resistance to creating to include entrepreneurs and creating a business, community minded folks that want to solve a problem, business people that want to create a loyal customer base, a dynamite culture or a new way to do their work. It may be an individual that wants to create more health in their life or redecorate their house. Or it may be what we traditionally think of as creative – those of us who want to draw, paint, sculpt, write or design.
Overcoming Your Own Resistance
So, assuming that each and every one of us has some inner urge to create something, what does wisdom does Pressfield share? Ahhh…way too much in such a short book to share in a blog. So I’ll provide some headlines and a few quotes pulled from the book. Resistance arises with anything you do that requires sacrifice today for a better future and comes from:
Any act that defers immediate gratification in favor of long term growth, health or integrity. Or, expressed another way, any act that derives from our higher nature instead of our lower. Any of these will elicit Resistance.
Resistance takes many shapes, yet is invisible, totally within. We blame others, we procrastinate, we have many reasons to yield to its power. Here are Pressfield’s words on procrastination – which trips up just about everyone:
Procrastination is the most common manifestation of Resistance because it is the easiest to rationalize. We don’t tell ourselves, “I’m never going to write my symphony.” Instead we say, “I am going to write my symphony; I am just going to start tomorrow.”
The greater the Resistance, the more important the work.
Resistance is directly proportional to love. If you’re feeling massive Resistance, the good news is, it means there is tremendous love in there too. If you didn’t love the project that is terrifying you, you wouldn’t feel anything. The opposite of love isn’t hate; it is indifference. The more Resistance you experience, the more important your unmanifested art/project/enterprise is to you – and the more gratification you will feel when you finally do it.
Rationalization is an insidious form of Rationalization
Rationalization is Resistance’s spin doctor. It’s Resistance’s way of hiding the Big Stick behind its back. Instead of showing us our fear (which might shame us and impel us to do our work), Resistance presents us with a series of plausible, rational justifications for why we should not do our work.
Resistance can be Beaten
If Resistance couldn’t be beaten, there would be no Fifth symphony, no Romeo and Juliet, no Golden Gate Bridge. Defeating Resistance is like giving birth. It seems absolutely impossible until you remember that women have been pulling it off successfully, with support and without, for fifty million years.
How can you beat Resistance? In my experience, Resistance fades when these things happen:
- I take action. Even little steps. Moving forward a bit every single day until momentum begins to build. I trust that I don’t have to have the entire plan pulled together. I know that the first steps are exploratory. But I deeply know the importance of those first steps, that beget other steps, and mark a sincere desire to create this thing.
- I live in “how to” instead of “why not”. I focus on what I do have and not where I am void. I focus on why this is important to me, those around me and the greater world. I envision. I acknowledge the barriers and then either remove them or find a way around them. I spend my energy moving forward rather than looking back or spinning in all the reasons I should not begin.
- I announce my intentions to the world. There is no greater accountability step than in saying what you want to do out loud to those who will support you, encourage you and check on your progress. And the wonderful thing is, that once you do, help materializes, often from unexpected places.
- I seek help from those that have gone before. Even a big “do it yourself-er” like myself has learned that the path is shorter, the travails less troublesome and the journey more joyful with a teacher or coach by your side.
And so, if you are wanting to create or grow an independent consulting practice, ask yourself: Are my reasons for not moving forward real or Resistance?
- What can my first step be?
A big hint: Begin by watching the LEAP Launch Series. You can find information about what you should be doing before the launch, as you launch, with your first engagement, and throughout your business.
