Claiming Back Your Energy, Understanding Your Resistance
By Hershey Wier, MBA
http://www.HersheyWier.com
This article is an excerpt from the ebook (and future hardcover) Dream... Invite Peace & Clarity Into Your Life. Dream... is first of a three-part course series designed to help you discover and attract your career & life goals.
This article may be reproduced in electronic format as long as it is left in tact, with author's name, contact information and url included.
In the full ebook version of Dream... you receive 20 lessons spaced over the course of four weeks. These lessons, when applied as directed, can release you from ways and thoughts that are no longer working for you, and guide you onto a new, fulfilling life path.
...
RESISTANCE
Yes, CAPS, because it is a biggie. We all have it. Why? Because we're human. Resistance is built into us to protect us. To keep us from trying things that will make us look foolish, or worse, that will harm or kill us. Ever walk to the edge of a cliff and get a shot of adrenaline shooting through you saying "DANGER! DANGER! STOP!" That's resistance.
Do you know what is more important to me than making sure my house is decluttered and spic and span? Making my professional deadlines. Getting my work done and done well. One of the reasons is that when I was a child, my homework was my only responsibility. When I came home from school (particularly in my grade school days), I had to sit inside the house with my mom, I had to get my homework done. No ifs, ands, or buts. I couldn't go outside and play, even though my friends did, and their homework could wait until after dinner. Not for me. I had to get that homework done, and get this - I even did this on many Saturday mornings. My mom was alongside with me, and, actually, it was kind of fun. But, it was definitely a must-do before anything else
could be done.
So, what value do you think I grew up with? Cleanliness is next to godliness? Wrong.
Now, when I've got a choice in my adult life, to spend time working on professional deadlines or do a domestic chore - guess what I gravitate toward, and guess what I ignore. Ding, ding, ding... I don't even have to tell you the answer.
The underlying force behind it? Resistance. Resistance because a voice is telling me that if I don't work on that deadline it won't get done. And, if I don't get it done, it will lead to a string of consequences that I'll be eternally sorry for, and maybe even lead to my destruction. Okay, well, a little bit of an exaggeration - or is it?
Resistance is put in our bodies to protect us from danger. It's the survival instinct that our ancestors' ancestors had from way back. I don't fight it. I work with it. If that resistance to getting my housework done is meant to protect me, then I listen to it. I'm an animal with instincts, and something in my mechanism is telling me that I will survive best when my deadlines are met. What to do with the housework? Put it lower on the totem pole of priorities, because my protective animal instinct says so.
I honestly feel that I cannot do it any other way. My wiring doesn't allow it. So then, we're back to working on those "problem areas," the things that don't get done - house clutter, for example - working at them with baby steps and the techniques I'm sharing with you in this course.
Notice that from the point of view of my animal instinct - which is focused on survival - I don't have a problem. That instinct, put there to protect me, doesn't see a problem with ignoring the housework. That animal instinct - that resistance - is determined to make sure I survive - and - it dictates that above all, my professional deadlines must be met. The rest - "Who cares!" - the voice of resistance says. Meeting my professional deadlines also happens to be something I love to do and gravitate toward. There is no fighting it. It's in my genes, my wiring.
Same for many of you who have job responsibilities or care-giving responsibilities. Your resistance gets you to focus on your "survival" concerns first, ignoring the others or leaving them for later.
For those of you planning to read Create...