Why Resistance Is A Dream Killer

It’s that time of the year again, when the weather is getting warmer, the sun is shining, the birds are singing and your summer clothes aren’t fitting like they used to.

After trying on some of my dresses this week I have wondered why no one sent me the ‘summer bodies are made in winter’ memo. But that’s not a new thing. The same thought enters my mind at this time, every, single, year. I look down at my see-through legs, and think why did I not start running a few months ago? Those legs would look a lot different right now if I did.

I’ve been a runner in my mind for a while now, and have wanted to physically start running for a long time. Like for decades.

But still haven’t got around to it.

Yes I could blame the recent cold and stormy weather. I’ve also been very busy with my work, so I haven’t had any spare time. Let’s blame that. I also take my kids to their sport and music practice most days after school, so let’s blame them. I could also blame the fact that I don’t have a running buddy.

Come to think of it I did break my ankle a couple of years ago, and that got in the way of running back then. I also have a memory of getting a stitch in my stomach every time I competed in cross-country back in high school. The memory of that is to blame as well.

I put my back out on Monday, so that’s why I’m not running this week.

Whatever is to blame for my conscious decision to not run, it’s never really because of those external reasons I tell myself.

Author, Steven Pressfield, would call this internal stopper, ‘resistance’. We all have it, and it gets in the way of anything that would make our personal self and our life a whole lot better. In fact, it is such a dream killer that he has written a book or two about it, describing resistance as “… a repelling force. It’s negative. Its aim is to shove us away, distract us, prevent us from doing our work.”

Resistance makes you procrastinate. It makes you instantly gratify. It makes you play safe and stay in your comfort zone.

It keeps it easy.

But it stops you doing what you really want to do. It stops you from being who you want to be.

It’s not only when I think about running that resistance shoves its nose in. It comes knocking whenever I want to make change that is of the highest good, and it does it to everyone.

It’s making you stay on the couch instead of going out in the sunshine. It’s making you stay in your miserable job rather than start the new business. It’s making you stay in a loveless relationship, instead of leaving. It’s stopping you from writing the book you always knew you had in you. It’s stopping you from getting help when you know you need it.

So next time you get excited over a thought of doing something life-changing that you truly would love to do, notice resistance creeping in.

Notice how it speaks to you, how it makes you feel and what you do after listening to it. Notice how it wants you not to progress in life and how it drags you back to a limited, safer reality. It will also take away that addictive endorphin rush, that whoosh of energy, that pit-in-your-stomach excitement, and replace it with fear.

Don’t listen to it.

Push through the idle chatter, and just do it anyway. Then see what happens. Let the positive change and the feeling associated with it speak for itself.

Listening to resistance your whole life leaves you with regret. Like serious see-through, un-toned legs regret.

Just get your sneakers on.