The Resistance

"The resistance will help you find the thing you most need to do because it is the thing the resistance most wants to stop."  Seth Godin - Linchpin page 131. 

I have been reading the aforementioned book by Seth Godin and it is really making me mad at myself.  I am upset because I give into the resistance all the time.  

I suppose this started growing up.  I quickly learned that in order to get good grades I needed to learn how to color inside the lines, fill in scantron tests, and write essays that appeased my teacher's worldview.  Complying, fitting-in, and obeying all came easy to me, so I never saw a "C" until I took a college-level Trig course.   

Getting good grades, the A's in particular, got me plenty of "'atta boys," and there is nothing wrong with this.  But always following the rules fed the lizard brain (what Seth calls "the resistance") inside me, whose main function is to avoid risk and danger at all cost.  For example, I avoided writing the confrontational paper in my political science class and instead wrote something I didn't believe in to appease the professor and get the grade.  THAT is letting the resistance win.  I don't even remember what the paper was about now, thus demonstrating how little I learned from "playing by the rules." 

I am not advocating for rebellion.  Sure I did my share socially at the start of college, but that was actually giving into the resistance (“you had better do this so you fit in").  I am advocating for standing out and being YOU.  Be original, not because it is on some silly bumper sticker, but because this is your one and only life. 

This lecture is actually directed at me.  

Here are a few areas where I am going to stop giving into the resistance: 

- I am going to have difficult conversations with co-workers, friends, and loved ones.  Not lecturing or demeaning…just lovingly enter discussions on important topics, even if I anticipate disagreement.  The resistance tells me to avoid at all costs, but every time I do I am a lousy leader, friend, husband, or father. Why not enter into conversations and learn?  

- I am going to stop using money as an excuse for expanding our proprietary product line.  That is resistance talk. 

- I am going to keep writing a blog and develop an email subscriber list by the end of Q3.  More on this later.  The resistance says I am too busy, no one reads my blog, and my writing sucks.  I am going to tell the resistance to shove it. 

These are only a few examples.  It will be extremely easy for me to pass on the conversation, pass on the next idea for our product line, and quit writing because I am "too busy."  I aim to fight the resistance nonetheless.  This is my only chance to do so. 

Will you join me? 

Comments

[Karl]

You did good to "play by the rules" and deliver what maybe not in the least was of interest to you. Because you got a paper. A paper which entitles you to get a job... (a job application is not considered according to what you know - only what you have documents for).
This is a general problem in the world of business where the responsible manager got his job because of a degree, in maybe History, while he might be responsible for keeping 100 people busy with work - in a Waste Treatment Plant.
I was a rebel and I chose to Work and teach myself - this seemed to work - (now of course with the Internet, much better than any school could teach - where people are allowed to learn what they want and need - at exactly the moment they need it - and not what they decided teach them - maybe 20 years ago when they made the plan for the courses or subjects. They teach only what they know, they can not let students get smarter than they are, how could they keep their job for the next 20 years othewise?) -
But when you are getting older and you want to advance, the system is teaching the lesson ! Follow the rules, because otherwise you will be left behind we ( the system) will always catch up with you.....

Now when you change your way towards everybody around you I think this is a great solution.
Just don't burn your Papers -you will need them - even when it only is to show your children, that they must get them too....
After they are free and can do what they feel right, not what the System forces them to do.