I encounter tough resistance every single business day.  It’s never what you think.  It’s not resistance from the heavy demands of my customers or prospects.  it’s not the long days of travel or presenting in front of an audience.  It’s the battle going on inside my own head.  It always goes something like this; an inner monologue between Barry 1 and Barry 2:

 
Barry 1: Good morning, I can’t wait to write the article about “Is collective bargaining still good for the economy?”
 
Barry 2: Stop!  What do you know about collective bargaining?  You have never been part of a union.
 
Barry 1: That’s true.  But I have seen many unions effect on the economy as I have worked in business and the local school council.
 
Barry 2: That doesn’t make you an expert that someone will want to read.  Besides, it’s going to be hard to write and take a lot of research. Why not just surf Facebook or Twitter for awhile to get warmed up?
 
Barry 1: That sounds like fun, but will I accomplish any of today’s goals doing that?
 
Barry 2: Does that matter?  You’re prospecting by building relationships.  That’s a good thing.
 
Barry 1: But what about the fact that the article is due today?
 
Barry 2: Don’t worry, there is plenty of time.
 
So many times, we just need to get out of our own way.
 
How do we battle this resistance?
 
  1. Don’t pick a fight.  Don’t even enter the ring.  Set your next day’s critical success factors the night before and complete those before even starting anything else that day (including opening email and social media).  Remember that the world wide web can be a world wide waste of time! 
  2. Constantly reprioritize.  Rate the current task based on if it meets an immediate business objective.  If not, push it aside.
  3. Entertain questions and doubts infrequently.  It is necessary to question your actions.  But set aside time to do that and stop the daily ongoing dialogue like what is listed above.
  4. Wrong action beats right thinking every time.  Stop thinking and start doing.  Actions give the ability to get unstuck, learn what you can and then get another chance of success.
  5. All of this is hard to do on your own.  The inertia isn’t on your side.  Recently, when I have met fierce resistance, I pick up
    Steven Pressfield’s Do The Work…It gives me the kick in the butt that I nee    d.
 How do you overcome resistance?