Success in any endeavor can be hindered by a contrary force that manifests within yourself as a voice that tells you that you can’t, don’t have, shouldn’t or don’t know. This voice can take different forms, such as distraction, hunger, headache, sleepiness or any other excuse that prevents you from moving towards your goal. These excuses can be used as a way to avoid the necessary change or action. It is important to be aware of this voice and learn to control it to achieve your goals and objectives.
The voice of resistance is an internal force that stands in the way of realizing your ideas, even when you know what you should do. This problem is very common and can undermine confidence in yourself and your abilities, often as a result of broken promises.
It is an internal struggle that many people experience to a greater or lesser extent and can manifest as the feeling of not being prepared or good enough. Recognizing and facing this voice is essential to overcome obstacles and move towards achieving your goals.
How to overcome internal resistance in personal development?
To overcome internal resistance, it is necessary to understand its deep-seated nature. At a biological level, resistance can be related to the principle of homeostasis, which is the complex network of mechanisms that maintains stable the parameters necessary for our survival, such as pH, body temperature and blood pressure, among others.
As the organism is essentially conservative, if one way of operating has worked to keep you alive, your mind resists change. Therefore, internal resistance becomes a powerful force that prevents you from moving forward towards your goals.
Resistance to change is a natural and necessary biological mechanism for survival, but it can become an obstacle when it prevents us from moving forward with new projects or healthy habits. Although this resistance is essential for maintaining the body’s homeostasis, it can limit our developmental potential when new opportunities present themselves.
Let’s imagine that you have decided to create a blog about healthy eating with the goal of educating others and improving their lives. However, internal resistance can appear in the form of negative thoughts, such as the belief that your blog will not be viable due to the large number of competitors that exist in the market, and therefore, it is not worth the effort. These thoughts can make you doubt your abilities and limit your creativity and motivation to carry out your project.
The voice of resistance can also manifest itself by suggesting that, although your idea is very good, it may not be the right time to implement it. He will tell you that you should prepare more or wait for better conditions to emerge to take the final leap. This form of resistance can make you postpone your project indefinitely, preventing you from taking action and achieving your goals.
It is essential to be prepared to carry out an idea; however, It is common for the voice of resistance to be disguised behind the argument of not being sufficiently prepared, which leads to postponing taking action indefinitely. To discern whether it is resistance or lack of preparation, a general rule can be applied: if you are holding yourself back, then it is resistance. If, on the other hand, you lack preparation, you can continue advancing as necessary, but you do not stop moving towards your goal.
Remember that you can’t get rid of resistance. You can only move forward despite it, without holding back on what you have set out to do.
Strategies to deal with internal resistance
Here I present a list of strategies that can help you move forward despite internal resistance. Although they are not all possible, they are a selection of the most effective ones that I have learned:
1. Set deadlines
Set a deadline for the completion of the project or for some of its parts, for example, “send email with my proposal to Juan before Wednesday.” This way, any preparation that is necessary will be done within the established times and then you must continue moving forward. If you stop, then the voice of resistance will have triumphed
2. Remember that “the best is the enemy of the good”
Perfectionism can be counterproductive, as it can lead you to procrastinate and not take action, which is worse than producing something that is not perfect. Instead of seeking absolute perfection, focus on creating the best product possible within the time and resources available.
It is important that you respect the deadlines that you have established and avoid falling into the trap of thinking that you can always improve what you have already created Remember that with experience you will improve the quality of what you produce.
3. Reward yourself
In psychology, the idea that any behavior that receives a pleasant consequence is more likely to be repeated is known as the “reinforcement principle.” Therefore, it is important that you give yourself recognition or a reward every time you make progress on your project. This will program your motivational system to want more and resist less. It doesn’t have to be something exaggerated, sometimes just telling yourself “good job” is enough. You can also take a break and spend time doing something you enjoy after a work session.
4. Separate your identity from the “voice” of the resistance
A fundamental aspect of dealing with the “voice of resistance” within you is to separate your identity from this voice. You are not this voice, it is not your thought, but It is a kind of automatic program that is running on your operating system
This way, you can learn to distance yourself from thoughts of resistance and recognize them for what they are. You can say to yourself “here is my resistance speaking again.” “Now I realize I’m having thoughts of resistance.”
The phrase is not as important as the act of taking some distance from your thoughts and recognizing that it is something that does not define who you are and what you are capable of. This way, resistance can have less influence on your behavior and what you decide to do.
5. Start by forming micro-habits
As the size of the change you want to make increases, the resistance you feel also increases. Therefore, if you start with small-scale changes, it will be easier to move forward.
Micro-habits are habits that require very little time and effort, allowing you to do them daily consistently and with less chance of resistance stopping you. These habits are designed to help you progress toward a larger goal by breaking it down into small, manageable steps. For example, if your goal is to exercise regularly, you could start with a micro-habit of doing just one push-up each morning. If it’s a reading habit, you can start with one page each day, etc.
6. Think in terms of the 80/20 principle
The 80/20 principle, also known as Pareto’s Law, says that 80% of the results come from 20% of the causes. This means that a minority of the efforts we make in any activity, such as working on a project or improving our health, produce the majority of results. Find the key actions that can produce the greatest impact on what you want to do, and focus your energies on those few.
7. Focus on the task and not the result
If you focus solely on the result you want to achieve, you are likely to perceive it as something much bigger and more threatening than it really is. Instead, you can focus on a specific action that brings you closer to your goal, without worrying as much about the final result
For example, if you’re working on your healthy eating blog, instead of focusing on writing a set number of posts, you could set a goal of spending 40 minutes a day working on it, no matter how much progress you make in that time frame. By focusing on the task itself, rather than the outcome, you can reduce internal resistance and approach the work with more calm and confidence.
Conclusion
In conclusion, internal resistance is a force that we all have against us, and it can take different forms, hindering our path towards our goals. To overcome it, it is essential to understand its nature and accept that we cannot eliminate it completely, but rather move forward despite it and, in some cases, even take advantage of it to our advantage. I hope these strategies help you unblock yourself and discover what works best for you.
