Have you ever been working toward a big dream or goal only to feel suddenly, inexplicably stalled?

This past Monday morning, I pulled out my calendar to give myself a visual overview of all the things I have planned for my business for the next few months. I had my coffee in hand and was looking forward to an exciting and productive morning of kicking booty and taking names. What more could I need?

Glancing over my calendar, and realizing just how much work I had ahead of me, I was suddenly overcome with a feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach. My excitement morphed into dejection, and all of the things I had been super pumped about just a few minutes prior now seemed lackluster and totally unattainable. I felt completely weighed down and totally unmotivated.

I’m pretty sure this is what they refer to in the self help world as resistance.

Yeah…

Has this ever happened to you?

Maybe you’ve been contemplating starting your own business, committing to a healthy lifestyle or writing your first book yet you keep putting it off or, every time you get started, something comes up to derail you from your goal. You blame it on outside circumstances, a lack of motivation, planetary alignments, your dogs… (I’m guilty of this one)

The good news is, if we can recognize resistance and know how to handle it, we can often stop it dead in it’s tracks.

How to Recognize + Overcome Resistance:

First of all, it’s important to understand why we feel resistance.

Resistance generally rears it’s ugly head when we’re working toward a goal that’s really important to us, or any time we’re challenging ourselves to step outside our comfort zone. Change is uncomfortable, and it’s scary. Putting ourselves out there is a big deal, and, if the dream is really important to us (as most dreams are), it can feel like our whole world will collapse if we don’t succeed.

When it comes down to it, pretty much all resistance stems from feelings of fear and self doubt. Recognizing this is an important step in figuring out what’s truly holding you back so that you can move past it.

What does resistance look like?

Resistance can show up in many different ways, but it often comes in the form of excuses or distractions, like suddenly realizing you’ve been surfing Facebook or Twitter for hours instead of working on your novel. (Oops). You may find yourself saying things like, “I really want to launch my business but I just don’t have enough time/money/resources/fill in the blank,” or “I wanted to eat healthy this week, but my friend’s cousin’s birthday dinner came up and derailed my plans.”

Sound familiar?

Earlier this week, I woke up early specifically to take advantage of some quiet time before work to do some writing for a business-related project. I sat around for about an hour (and, yes, perused Facebook), then because I wasn’t feeling inspired, I went back to bed. I wasn’t even tired!

You may be thinking to yourself, “Well, its true. I really didn’t have enough time to get to my goal this week,” and, while that argument may be valid to a point, I want you to consider this:

Can you think back to a time when you were extremely busy — I mean, ‘couldn’t possibly squeeze one more thing into your schedule’ crazy — but something super important came up? Maybe you had to come through for a friend or a loved one in a crunch or finish an unexpected project for work or school. Did you say, “I’m sorry, I simply don’t have the time?” I’m guessing you didn’t. My guess is you rearranged a few things, mustered up some inner ‘make it happen’ mojo and boogied your booty to get it done.

Am I right?

The bottom line is when we really want or need to, we can get things done. Sometimes we just have to decide to do what it takes.

Why is overcoming resistance so important?

When you conquer your resistance, you build equity in your personal accountability bank and you begin to trust that you can rely on yourself to make things happen. When you show up for you, not only do you start to realize you truly are capable of great things, but you make a statement to yourself that your dreams are important. And they are, aren’t they?

So, how do you overcome resistance?

The answer is actually quite simple (in one of those annoyingly obvious kind of ways): Make a decision to commit to yourself and your goals and just go for it.

By recognizing your resistance for what it really is (fear and self doubt in disguise) you can get clear on what’s really holding you back and become willing to step into the feelings of discomfort and go for your goals anyway.

I want you to take a minute to imagine this:

What if you could commit to accomplishing your goal no matter what external forces came up? What if you could commit to, not just accomplishing your goal, but hitting it out of the park?

What would that look like? How would it feel?

I want you to get super honest and ask yourself, “What’s really holding me from committing to my dream?”

Now, get out there and make it happen, lovely!

xoxo

Kristi

Where are you feeling resistance right now? How does resistance show up for you and how do you move past it?