📄Resistance is futile!

It's all very nice and useful, to consider and rank the activities you could choose to engage in.

But there's a hidden saboteur you need to be aware of, and it's what Steven Pressfield calls Resistance - and it's a bear.

Problem is, the criteria we've looked at so far in this Effective Actions series, are all very logical and rational considerations. They make sense.

But the problem is that Resistance is the opposite - it's entirely irrational, it makes no sense, and it keeps you from doing the things that matter most, for absolutely no apparent reason. Except... there is a reason, and it's even logical.

See, the subconscious doesn't give a damn about reason or logic or sense and sensibility. All the subconscious cares about is for you to be not in danger, and for you to be moving towards well-being.

Hello, lizard-brain: effectively, the boss of us. Whatever's needed to keep you away from harm and moving towards well-being, the lizard-brain will do it's best to take care of it. And when you notice a sense of resistance or avoidance, it's your subconscious doing its best to protect you.

So, now that we've looked at the logical part, it's time to start assessing how much resistance you feel, thinking about each of the activities.

Because if an activity makes all kinds of sense and scores high in all the previous aspects... but you always procrastinate on it or you feel all kinds of 'not want' when thinking about doing the thing, you need to ask yourself:

If I engage witth this activity, what is it about that activity that makes your lizard-brain act up?

Would doing the action cause a dent in your well-being?

Would getting the outcome of the action cause adverse effects? For instance: if you do all those cold-calls, would that fill up your calendar with clients and ruin your pleasant, calm and well-organised life?

Or if you were to do the thing, and it wouldn't work, what precious dream of yours would die?

See, we tell ourselfves that action X is great because it's going to get us outcome XYZ, but that's not all there is to it. Along with the positive outcomes, you get secondary consequences, and some of those can be perceived by your subconscious as a threat to your well-being.

This is why that friend of yours has been "Wrapping up the final rewrite of my novel!" for the last 2 years, because if he would wrap it up, and send it to the publisher, and it would get rejected, then his dream of being a published author would die, and he would be shattered. And the subconscious sure ain't going to let that happen. And thus, endless rewrites.

So, take some time to reflect on resistance, and for each of your listed actions, ask yourself these questions:

On a scale of 1 to 5 how much are you resisting the action?

What could be a negative side-effect of this action? In what way could it negatively affect my well-being?

It's important to rank this, because that way you can de-prioritise the things you resist, and focus on things you don't feel resistance for. And then later you can talk to a therapist about why your subconscious keeps tripping you up.

Here's the Effective Actions ranker sheet, in case you haven't made a copy for yourself yet.