One of the biggest struggles for entrepreneurs is interpreting “what it all means” in the times when we encounter resistance, and in the times we don’t. We make up all kinds of things that can make us crazy!
Resistance
When we encounter resistance to moving toward our goals:
- An apparent lack of funds
- A skeptical spouse
- Prospects who say no
- Scheduling challenges
- Gaps in understanding technology
These things can occur like impenetrable obstacles at times, and sometimes seem like a good reason to stay where we are. “It’s easier to just stay where I am than become the person I need to be to make this easy.” And yet on the other side of that resistance is an experience of pure freedom.
When It’s Easy
The funny part is that when we don’t encounter resistance… when things are just easy… we tend to create resistance! We’re so used to struggling that the easy road doesn’t tend to appeal to us. Many of us were raised with a similar belief to one of my intensive participants this weekend, “to struggle is virtuous.” So when making money feels easy, our subconscious brings forth the patterns to put it back in our comfort zone and make it harder than it needs to be!
A retreat participant this weekend recognized that she didn’t even consider the path of what she loved the most because doing it seemed too easy! Many entrepreneurs add in extra ‘stuff’ to their offerings with the thought of adding value. Often it’s really our subconscious trying to make our lives more difficult so we can create the comfort of struggle, keeping busy, etc.
So how do we know when to follow the path of least resistance and when to embrace the resistance as an opportunity to breakthrough to new freedom?
Many people have written on the subject. This is my take.
Identifying Resistance as a Breakthrough
Whenever we glimpse a bigger vision for ourselves and begin to move toward it, we will experience resistance. At the beginning of your entrepreneurial journey, the resistance will be larger. You’re dealing with all of the years of belief systems that are inconsistent with where you really want to go. If they weren’t, you would already be there. So as you move forward, you disrupt the status quo in your environment of family and friends, and you’ll get resistance from those around you.
And sometimes we create the resistance within ourselves and our personal circumstances so that we don’t have to move forward far enough for it to be seen by our family and friends. “I don’t have the money” is often a great excuse to avoid becoming bigger. We think it’s financial fear, but it’s really a handy reason not to disrupt the homeostasis of current life.
Because what we see possible is so much bigger than we know, and as we grow the people around us will be called to grow, or they will fall away. And that is some scary stuff. Yet time and again I see clients who move through that resistance and do what they need to do, even when it is hard, and the financial and personal rewards are astounding. The minute someone makes an irreversible commitment to their dreams, the Universe conspires to support them.
The Work Should Be Easy
While the moving through the resistance of being visible and powerful in business can be tough for people, the work you do in business should be easy.
You are perfectly designed to have ease in your vocation. There is no need to struggle to deliver your best work. If you lose yourself in your art, it’s your money-maker. If managing the energy of a room in a workshop is natural as breathing to you, do that. And don’t add in other stuff to make it feel more like work. The actual work you sell for money should be easy to deliver.
Running a business, upleveling your visibility and commitment, selling yourself at a higher rate, moving through that resistance; that is the challenge of being an entrepreneur. Don’t make the work itself hard too! If you don’t have a love affair with the work itself, change it.
Resistance Leads to Clarity
The times we experience the biggest resistance and move through it are the times of greatest clarity. We only know who we are in the face of resistance. Without resistance, nothing is differentiated. If we had no reaction to anything, we’d be pretty boring, we’d have nothing to say, no point of view, and no specific mission for who we want to serve.
Lucky for us, resistance abounds! And as entrepreneurs we can harness the clarity that comes with moving through it to make great money while making a difference!