7 Strategies to Overcome Internal Resistance

Success in any endeavor can be hindered by a contrary force that manifests within oneself 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 in order 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 to do. This problem is very common and can undermine confidence in oneself and one's abilities, often as a result of broken promises.

It's an internal struggle that many people experience to a greater or lesser extent and can manifest as a feeling of not being ready or good enough. Acknowledging and confronting this voice is essential to overcoming obstacles and moving towards achieving your goals.

How to overcome internal resistance in personal development?

To overcome internal resistance, it is necessary to understand its deeply rooted nature. At a biological level, resistance can be related to the principle of homeostasis, which is the complex network of mechanisms that keeps the parameters necessary for our survival stable, such as pH, body temperature and blood pressure, among others.

As the organism is essentially conservativeIf one way of trading has worked to keep you alive, your mind resists change. Therefore, internal resistance becomes a powerful force that prevents you from moving 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 development potential when new opportunities present themselves.

Let's imagine that you have decided to create a blog about healthy eating with the aim 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 is not It will be viable due to the large number of competitors that exist in the market, and therefore, it is not worth the effort. effort. These thoughts can make you doubt your capabilities and limit your creativity and motivation to carry out your project.

The voice of the resistance can also manifest suggesting to you that, although your idea is very good, perhaps it is not the right time to put it into action. It will tell you that you should prepare more or wait for better conditions to take the final leap. This form of resistance can cause you to put off 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 the resistance to disguise itself behind the argument of not being sufficiently prepared, which leads to indefinitely postponing the taking of action. To discern whether it is resistance or lack of preparation, a general rule of thumb can be applied: if you are holding back, then it is resistance. If, on the contrary, you lack preparation, you can continue advancing in what is necessary, but you do not stop advancing towards your goal.

Remember that you cannot get rid of resistance. You can only move forward in spite of it, without holding back on what you have set out to do.

• Related article: "Self-sabotage: causes, characteristics and types"

Strategies to deal with internal resistance

Here is 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 that I have learned:

1. Set deadlines

Set a deadline for the completion of the project or for any of its parts, for example, "send an email with my proposal to Juan before Wednesday." In 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.

• You may be interested in: "Time management: tips to take advantage of the hours of the day"

2. Remember that "the best is the enemy of the good"

Perfectionism can backfire as it can lead you to procrastinate and not take action, which is worse than producing something less than perfect. Instead of striving for absolute perfection, focus on creating the best possible product 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 an award 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 over the top, 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 when dealing with the "voice of resistance" that is 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 in your operating system.

In 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's my resistance talking again". "I now realize that I am having resistance thoughts."

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. In 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, so does the resistance you feel. 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 holding you back. These habits are designed to help you progress toward a bigger 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 the Pareto 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, like working on a project or improving our health, produces the most results. Find out which are the key actions that can have the greatest impact on what you want to do, and focus your energies on those few.

7. Focus on the task and not on the result

If you focus solely on the result you want to achieve, it is likely that you will 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 so much about the end result.

For example, if you're working on your healthy eating blog, instead of focusing on writing a certain number of articles, 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. time. By focusing on the task itself, rather than the outcome, you can reduce internal resistance and approach the job with more ease and confidence.

Conclusion

In conclusion, internal resistance is a force that we all have against us, and it can take different forms, getting in the way of our goals. To overcome it, it is essential to understand its nature and accept that we cannot completely eliminate it, but rather move forward despite it and, in some cases, even take advantage of it to our advantage. I hope these strategies help you unlock yourself and figure out what works best for you.