Have a plan.
Take action.
Meet resistance.
Adjust.
Repeat.
Do this until you are successful.
Success is not a straight line.
Tag: resistance
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In Your Own Way
Define your goals and then make a plan to accomplish them.
Just know that, if your goals are worthy of achieving, this will not be easy.
There will be challenges and obstacles along the way.
Life will get in the way, but you will also get in your own way.
Do not underestimate your ability to distract yourself from the things that you claim matter the most to you.
Once you have established a goal or a set of goals you want to achieve, your internal resistance will begin to build.
You will begin finding excuses to not do the work necessary to achieve what you set out to accomplish.
Other, lesser goals will begin to entice you and pull you away from your primary purpose.
These distractions will come in many forms, some of which will feel extremely important, but deep down you will know that they are simply a means of avoiding the real work that will push you toward that which is most important to you.
The work that must be done to accomplish anything worthwhile is going to be difficult.
The difficulty of this work often pales in comparison, however, to the discipline required to avoid distractions and to stay on task.
You have already determined what your goals are.
Now get out of your own way.
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Committing To Resistance
Sometimes the thing we try but fail at is only one adjustment away from working.
If we quit before we discover what the necessary adjustment is, we may never know how close we were to succeeding.
As it turns out, resistance is a normal and necessary part of the growth process.
When we meet resistance, it is often quite difficult to determine if it is something we must move through, go around, or if we should turn around and start over.
We do not want to waste our time and effort trying to go in a direction that will take us nowhere.
Likewise, we do not want to give up before having a breakthrough or making real progress.
Resistance is a test.
It challenges us to decide for ourselves exactly how committed we are to the path we are on.
If we know where we want to go, but meet resistance along the way, we have to make a choice, but the choice may not be obvious.
Once we determine that we want to or must keep going, we will need to find a way to do so in the face of the obstacles we face.
This will require courage, resilience, and ingenuity, but most of all, it will require commitment.
Whether we have to adjust, pivot, or simply double-down on our efforts, if we do so half-heartedly, we are sure to fail and we might as well have just quit.
We must move with intention, focus, and conviction if we are going to succeed.
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Writing Our Hero’s Tale
We tell ourselves all sorts of stories about what we cannot do and why.
While some of this may be true, much of it is self-imposed by us through the narrative we have created in our minds about our own limitations.
These stories come from our experiences, but our experiences do not dictate our potential.
There is more to us than that which has happened to us.
We may not be able to change everything about who we are, but we do have a say in who we become.
We can change our minds and the best way to do so is through action.
The closer we get to that which we most want to change, the louder and more convincing our internal resistance will become.
We will have to face the darkest and most difficult parts of ourselves if we want to change and grow.
We will feel doubt, worry, and frustration with ourselves, with our circumstances, and with the obstacles we perceive in our path.
When we do, we can rest assured that we are headed in the right direction.
It is in these moments that our true characters are defined.
We can continue to believe the stories we have told ourselves about our limitations or we can choose to write a new story for ourselves, one wherein we are the brave hero we are capable of being.
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Changing Beliefs
Time and energy spent trying to change other people’s beliefs is often time and energy wasted.
Beliefs are very personal.
They run deep within our identities.
They inform who we are and how we see and interact with the world.
They are not easily changed.
This is especially true when our beliefs are met head on with resistance.
Resistance tends to make us double-down on our beliefs, to hold them tighter, and to defend them more fervently.
Our beliefs are what we use to protect ourselves against challenges and threats.
Challenges and threats to our beliefs in an attempt to get us to change them, therefore, almost always have the opposite effect.
They makes us cling to our beliefs more tightly.
Our beliefs only change when we are willing for them to do so.
This willingness is not usually brought about by debate, argument, or condemnation.
Willingness, the kind that is deep enough and real enough to make us change what we believe, often only comes about by way of great pain or great love.
We should keep this in mind when we find ourselves tempted to try to change another person’s beliefs.
Perhaps if we spent more time and energy showing the person or persons we wish to change more love, compassion, and understanding, they may come to see for themselves that there is a better way to live and a better way to believe.
Maybe they will come around on their own.
At least we can be certain that our time and energy will not be wasted.
Time and energy spent on love, compassion, and understanding is never wasted.
Meditations on God 