Seth Godin writes a lot about Resistance in LINCHPIN, but he refers to it as one’s “lizard brain” creating fear which prevents us from actualizing our aspirations.
Steven Pressfield first defined/articulated what Resistance is and how it acts as a self-sabotaging power in THE WAR OF ART. (We’ve talked a lot about this must-read book before on the Brand Autopsy blog in 2005 and 2008.)
This past Sunday at Gateway Church, Ted Beasley gave Pressfield’s concept of Resistance new light.
In the WAR OF ART, Pressfield writes. “Most of us live two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands resistance.”
In his Sunday message Ted Beasley quoted from Romans 7:18-20 ... “I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.”
[As a point of reference, Ted Beasley is a teacher at the very entrepreneurial-minded Acton School of Business and serves as an executive coach. He has business chops. He also has spiritual chops, having served as a full-time pastor in the past at Gateway.]
Ted outlined three ways Resistance gets in between our aspirations and actions.
First is Homeostasis, the unseen but always felt force that keeps us under the gravitational pull of not doing anything different.
Perfectionism is the second way Resistance resides within us. By setting our expectations so high that it demands perfect design and perfect delivery, we crater and quit at the moment we fail to be perfect.
The third way Resistance lives is through the Flesh. When self-gratification (ego, lust, revenge, or something else) rises within us, the self-sabotaging power of Resistance erects a barrier between our aspirations and actions.
Ted’s talk on Resistance is worth watching and learning from. Watch below or click here to view the video. Enjoy.
Thanks for the Gateway love.
Posted by: Vince | August 17, 2010 at 07:20 PM