Steven Pressfield talks about the resistance in his book “The War of Art.”
The resistance is anything that stops you from doing your work. Interestingly, almost all of the resistance is internal.
When we set off on health/training/exercise journeys, there are a few big ones that limit your ability to show up, to do the work. Here are some big ones that a lot of people miss:
- You choose to use your phone too much before, during and after training. It becomes a distraction and takes away from you doing the work. It distracts your training, your food or recovery strategy, or stops you from training all together when you download your work emails right when you wake up.
- You exercise/train too much or with too much intensity. Inadvertantly, you are selling yourself short, as you over-extend your efforts. Doing more than is effective is actually self-limiting and is a form of resistance.
- You exercise on an empty stomach. I don’t talk much about nutrition. But, fasting is potentially the easiest way to signal to your body that you are in a stressed state. Choosing to train in a fasted state is a catalyst to this and increases the stress response. An addiction to the stress response (cortisol) is common. It is also resistance, as it is limiting your capacity to do the work properly.
- You don’t stick to the program. You decide the program isn’t working, but really you haven’t reached the “inflection point” (see yesterday’s post). This “chopping and changing” is resistance.
- You only do what you are good at and shy away from what you are bad at. This is very, very, very common. It is also resistance, as you are simply not doing the work
- You try to do things that are too advanced relative to where you are at. By not staying in your lane, you are limiting yourself. You are in the medium lane, but try to jump across to the fast lane too soon. In the end, your technique goes out the window in an effort to keep up and so do your results. This is resistance.
- You don’t try to do anything that seems beyond you. This is the inverse of the above. You play it safe forever, remain comfortable. By avoiding the “gap” which is bound to be uncomfortable, you are giving in to resistance.
Knowing about these common ways that resistance can catch us unaware, we can set some strategies in place and enjoy the fruits of the long game.
