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10 Ways to Overcome Resistance

No Smoking

Inertia means that a body remains motionless until a force acts upon it. The larger the object, the more difficult it is to move it. So it is with life.
The longer you have been stuck in your ways – doing the same things year in, year out, without questioning what you are doing, why you are doing it, and whether you wish to continue doing it – the harder it will be to get you moving.
But, as you fight to overcome lethargy and doubt, lazy procrastination and fear, draw spirit from knowing that once something builds up a good momentum it’s hellish hard to stop it.
Here are 10 ways to begin overcoming the resistance that is holding you back from doing what you want to be doing with your life:

1. Write a list of the reasons why you want to do what you want to do. Write a list of the reasons why you are not actually getting on and doing it. Seeing the facts in black and white helps concentrate the mind towards the things that really are important.

2. Imagine you are old and looking back on your life. What do you want to have achieved?

3. Don’t worry about failure. Or rather, do not let its prospect prevent you from beginning. If you do not even start then you certainly will not succeed!

4. Be assured that the first step is the hardest. Committing, then actually Beginning, are the most daunting parts of any project.

5. Focus on the positives of what you want to do and why you want to do it rather than losing sleep about what may conceivably go wrong.

6. Stop listening to your own excuses. It is time to be honest, brutally honest with yourself. No more excuses!

7. Time is a-marching my friend. Have a look at the Death Clock to see how long you have left alive. If that doesn’t jolt you perhaps you are already dead?

8. Simplify, simplify, simplify! We need to accept that we cannot achieve all that we would like to do. Rather than sinking in the mire of despond as you contemplate ars longa, vita brevis concentrate instead on what is the most important thing for you to accomplish. Now get on with that.

9. Go for a run / walk / ride. Blow away the cobwebs, empty your lungs, clear your brain, come home hungry for action!

10. Stop reading this website, stop mucking about, and just get started. NOW!
As it says in The War of Art, “There’s a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t, and the secret is this: It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write.”

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Comments

  1. The death clock is the best kick up the bum that I’ve seen for a long time. Terrifying that moving from ‘normal’ to ‘optimist’ made a difference of 20 years (I have no doubt that it’s hugely scientific). Nevertheless… having a positive outlook is undoubtedly very important.

    Reply
  2. Great Post : ) Living up to your clarion call to action maxim.

    Just a thought on comittment thats been sloshing around my crown for the last few months on the bike.

    “The hardest part was letting go not taking part” Coldplay

    Its true, for me, starting an 18month circumnavigation was’t too tough. But letting go of certain thoughts and practices, attachments and illusions was.

    Often the act of beginning isn’t the real obsticle, how many new convictions and resolutions have we left fallow after briefly enthusiastically turning over a new leaf then loosing interest or ardour?

    Actions are nothing without a change in outlook.And that is, despitethe easy rhetoric of positivity and actively seizing the diem, bloody difficult.

    Letting go of whats holding you back often takes time and can be terrifying.

    Reply
  3. Good points. As you summed up–just get started and keep moving forward.

    Reply
  4. Dear Al

    I saw this and thought of you:

    http://ow.ly/16t0sw

    Regards

    Matt (the bloke in SPDs at the Do Lectures)

    Reply

 
 

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