Resistance training is designed to use muscular contraction in order to build strength, anaerobic endurance, and increase the size of muscles and bone density. Resistance training has positive affects on both our body and our brain. I believe resistance training is required both for successful athletes and business people. The resistance training in business is not done in the gym, but is done in the battlefield of our mind. You don't need to purchase any special equipment for this type of resistance training. The resistance starts when you decide to take action on your life's calling.
If it's important to you, you will find a way. If not, you will find an excuse.
Stephen Pressfield writes about this resistance in his book The War of Art. Stephen wrote this book based on his experience in the business of writing books. For Stephen, learning to overcome the resistance helped him move from a amateur writer to a professional writer. Stephen says that an amateur needs a boss to tell them what they need to do and a professional is able to do their work without a boss. As an amateur he wrote for others. As a professional, he writes for himself.
Stephen believes that the resistance is internal, but we craft a story in our minds that makes us believe that the resistance is external. For example our minds may tell us the economy is bad, we have bad luck, or we need to do the laundry instead of the work we are called to do. The resistance has no power on its own, but we feed it by the power we give it with our fear or by investing in our addictions. Resistance is part of our unconscious mind that keeps us where we are or even pushes us back.
I regularly practice resistance training in my own business. For example, as a sales professional, I regularly call people I don't know in order to develop new relationships. I make these calls even though the odds are high that I could be rejected. As a sales leader, I force myself to have difficult conversations with my team. I would prefer to put off difficult conversations relating to performance management and hope the situation will fix itself. I take action quickly because the longer I wait the more time I will spend listening to the resistance. I read more than 50 business books every year even though I would rather just drink beer, scroll though Facebook, or listen to music. I write this blog as a way to push through my limitations with reading and writing.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.- The words of Jesus Christ from the Gospel of John
If you believe in the Devil, you recognize that he does want you to fail. I believe in the Devil, but many times I recognize the enemy is in me. All the Devil needs to do is to work with the evil thoughts that come naturally to my mind. I can choose death or life as it relates to my calling.
We don't often think that other successful people experience the resistance. In fact, the resistance tells us others are an overnight success. We tell ourselves that others have special talents or privileges we don’t have. Everybody that has been successful has pushed though the resistance. This includes people like Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs.
It's not that I am so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer-Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a terrible student and some of his teachers thought that he was retarded (special needs). Albert Einstein was such a terrible student that he almost decided to drop out of school and sell life insurance. In his early career, he had to do odd jobs to support himself. He had almost no success until he was able to get a job as a patent clerk. He struggled with mental illness, lost his family to divorce, and his life was at risk because he was a German Jew. So the next time you are tempted to remember Albert Einstein as the genius that developed the Theory of Relativity and the famous formula E=mc^2, you must also remember him as a person who fought through the resistance. Albert said, "God …gave me the stubbornness of a mule and nothing else; really …He also gave me a keen scent."
If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.-Steve Jobs
We tend to remember Steve Jobs for the incredible speech that launched the iPhone. Yes Steve jobs was incredibly successful, but he also failed many times and had to push through the resistance. For instance, Steve jobs was fired from Apple, the company he helped create. Steve created a company called Pixar and failed at creating the next great hardware company. Steve failed to find a market for the NeXT computer.
Below are 10 ways you can overcome the resistance in your business.
1. Know that resistance will come
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. - Winston Churchill
2. Take Massive Action
Innovation is rewarded, execution is worshipped-Danny Gilbert, Quicken Loans
3. Treat the resistance like a game
Don't try to suppress the lizard brain. Acknowledge the lizard brain and dance with it-Seth Godin
4. Write down your goals
Writing down your goals is the first step to move your calling out of the stage of a dream.
5. Break your goals up into small disciplines
The secret to getting ahead is getting started. The secret to getting started is breaking your complex and overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks and then starting on the first one-Mark Twain
6. Measure your actions over time, not your perception of success
The secret to success is doing the stuff other people won't do and doing it for a really long time. - John Jantsch
7. Develop Habits
Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines practiced every day-Jim Rohn
8. Eliminate Distractions
You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks-Winston Churchill
9. Tell others your goals and ask them to keep you accountable
Leadership is a function of results and relationships needed to sustain those results-Dr. Henry Cloud
10. Don’t Give Up
People don't fail, they give up.