3 ways to reduce resistance in reaching your goals
Today my topic is resistance, and I am going to give you 3 ways that you can reduce resistance when you are working to reach your goals. Resistance is the stuff that counters your efforts toward a goal. How much resistance you are facing really does have a strong effect on how quickly you are moving forward – just like walking through water creates more resistance than walking through air.
These counteracting forces of resistance can be internal or external. Today our focus is on reducing internal resistance because those are the ones more under your control. However, each of the three I discuss also has an external component – if the people around you are doing these things too, it will affect the external resistance component. So, you essentially will have 6 ways to reduce resistance if you consider those around you as well as yourself. If you find others or encourage those around you – home, work, friends – to do these things too, you will reduce resistance even more.
#1 – Clean out your schedule/prioritize. Make sure you look at your schedule and that it reflects your priorities. Clean them out of things that aren’t in alignment with or supporting your goals. I deliberately started with this one because we want to first ensure the way we are spending our life is in alignment with our priorities and are our deliberate choices. If you find that there’s something you are doing that feels like it’s a total 180 from where you are wanting to go in life, it’s time to look at whether you can eliminate that activity. A lot of us oversubscribe ourselves. I personally would love to get more involved in my local community efforts, but I’ve realized that spending my time there is not in alignment with the goals I am focusing on today and would create too much resistance against the goals I want to reach. It will likely be something I add in down the road when my goals shift. So think about this for yourself and remember that the way you spend your time is a choice. For example, we don’t “have to go to work.” We might choose to go to work to support us and our families financially, but we don’t have to go. When you clean out your schedule, remember that everything is your choice and look at it from the perspective of what something is giving you when you are making those decisions. Even though you might choose to spend your time somewhere that’s not directly in alignment with your goals, it supports your goal in a different way.
#2 – Eliminate complaining. This is a big one! We can tend to go with the flow around us and sometimes that includes complaining. If you want to be more effective with your goals, you need to take this habit out of your life. Ask yourself whether the people who engage in complaining are actually reaching the goals they have. It’s the people who are willing to look at life differently who reach different goals. Complaining is an easy way to create resistance because it generates negativity, which lowers your energy output. At the very least, move from complaints to observations: “I hate this weather” versus “It’s colder outside than I wish it was.” This applies to both your internal dialogue as well as the things you say out loud! Start changing your language through changing your perspective, and vice versa. They feed on each other. Realize there are other ways to approach what’s going on around you without decreasing your resistance.
#3 – Accept the moment. Do what you can to set up a life in alignment with your goals, but there will always be things that don’t unfold as planned or we just need to do anyway. When this is the case, accepting the moment will significantly break down resistance. Whether you have a cold or you are someplace you might not want to be but you aren’t going to leave it – it’s time to accept it. If possible – the extra credit step – cultivate enthusiasm for what you are doing, or at least gratitude. I used to hate errands, especially going to the bank to deposit a check. When I started realizing the role of resistance, I changed my perspective – “I’m so happy I have this money to deposit into my bank account!” You want to start creating momentum toward the joyful things about life, not dragging yourself toward the resistance.
I hope these three ideas help you free up areas of resistance in your life. The bottom line is that the more you reduce resistance, the more effect your efforts have!