"The more important a call to action is to our soul's evolution, the more Resistance we will feel about answering it.. But to yield to Resistance deforms our spirit. It stunts us and makes us less than we are and were born to be."
Steven Pressfield, Author
In this week’s article we’re going to lift the lid on what may well be the number one thing that stops people creating the life, results and experiences they desire… resistance.
Many years ago, I read an excellent book by the author Steven Pressfield called “The War of Art”, about the internal struggle that so many writers and other artists face when it comes to creating what they want to create. I could see how it mapped directly across to the challenge of creating a business, a coaching practice or any other venture. Put simply, resistance is a name for the feeling of “stuckness” that often comes up for people when they want to create something new or venture into the unknown.
When I first started speaking to groups, I used to experience this feeling of resistance in the days before the talk. Thoughts would come up such as “What business have I got talking to these people” and other insecurities about my worth, value and message. But somewhere inside there was a quieter voice saying “Pay no attention to the insecurities – just keep moving forward”, and I would get up and do the talk. I vividly remember one particular event where I was besieged by self-doubt and feelings of unworthiness in the hours before the session. I got up and did the talk anyway – I loved it and so did my audience. I was completely present and in the moment with the group, feeling inspired and sharing something I knew to be true and valuable with them. Now I realise what was happening:
The feeling of resistance isn’t letting you know about your future; it’s letting you know you have resistant thinking.
The feeling of resistance doesn’t know about…
– Your future
– Your past
– Your capabilities
– Your relationship status
– Your worth and value
– Your likelihood of failure or success
– Other people’s opinions of you
– Your bank balance
Your feelings are always and only telling you about the principle of Thought taking form in the moment. In this respect, your feelings are 100% accurate:
The feeling of resistance is a 100% accurate signal that you have resistant thinking in the moment.
When I first reveal this to people, they sometimes ask “So what can I do to change my thinking?” but it turns out that’s not necessary. You see, the problem isn’t that you sometimes get a feeling of resistance alerting you to Thought in the moment; the issue is that you sometimes believe the feeling is coming from something other than Thought in the moment. The mistaken belief that we’re feeling something other than Thought in the moment is what I call the outside-in illusion, and it creates massive amounts of “contaminated thinking”.
You don’t need to do anything about it; you just need to see it for what it is; an illusion. The moment you insightfully realise that the feeling of resistance is alerting you to thought in the moment, and NOT alerting you to whatever you’re thinking about, you’re free. Here’s an analogy from my book, The Little Book of Clarity(©Jamie Smart, 2015) published by John Wiley and Sons Ltd:
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Highway mirage Sometimes, when you’re driving on a hot day, you see a mirage on the road ahead; an optical illusion that looks like a pool of water. The first time you see one, it’s a little strange, but you quickly learn that there’s no pool of water in the road. It’s just a mirage – an illusion – so you don’t need to take any evasive action. Like the flat earth, the geo-centric universe, and the miasma theory of disease, contaminated thinking has no grounding in reality. Instead, it’s grounded in the mistaken belief that we can feel some- thing other than THOUGHT in the moment. But that belief is 100% false; it doesn’t work that way.
And, like a mirage, contaminated thinking is just an illusion, |
So here’s a question you might like to reflect on…
What’s the next thing you would do if you suddenly realised those feelings are reflecting Thought in the moment, and have nothing to do with the thing you’ve been thinking about until now?
This is the key to overcoming resistance; to see it for the mirage that it is. And just as you don’t slam on the breaks when you see a highway mirage, you don’t need to slam on the breaks when you run into resistance. In fact, the thing I discovered on that day I stood up in front of the group was the same thing Steven Pressfield is pointing to in his quote at the top of this article; at least in my case, that feeling of resistance often turns up most reliably when I’m about to do something that’s absolutely on my path. Who knows – maybe that’s the same for you too!
To your increasing clarity,
Big love
Jamie
PS I'm about to launch the Clarity Trainer Training Programme – it’s for people who have already done a 3P facilitator / coach programme and now want to get this out into the world. If that's you and you'd like to have the info, just send me an email to jsmart@jamiesmart.com and change the subject line to Trainer Info Please. Best, Jamie