THE RESISTANCE FULCRUM

Resistance is the fulcrum that defines much of what we accomplish in life. 

By facing pain and overcoming resistance we achieve our greatest accomplishments, by yielding to comfort to avoid resistance we suffer our greatest defeats.

On the path of life, we encounter many articles of resistance that impede our progress. Resistance can come in many forms, plans get thwarted, things break, conditions change, people disappoint you, markets evolve, competitors abound, customers leave, growth accelerates, time and money are strained. 

These resistance factors generally present themselves in the following categories:

• Individual

  • Physical - our body’s capabilities have meet their limitations. 

  • Mental - our intellectual faculties to gain knowledge and solve problems are at maximum strain.

  • Emotional - our inability to control or stabilize our emotions.

• Shared

  • Relational - the absence or negative state of connection with other people.

  • Resources - lacking items we require to transact our needs, wants, and desires.

Resistance will determine how far an entity can progress along its short-term objectives and will determine if the entity will reach its long-term goals. Every entity encounters resistance, and those that can persevere and overcome are more likely to achieve their goals and outperform their competitors. An entity can be an individual, partnership, family, organization, community, nation, and even a generation.

Consider the significant risks associated with resistance. When an entity yields to resistance, it has allowed the resistance to succeed. This means that the entity is less likely to achieve it’s goal, may choose a lesser goal, or potentially avoid progress altogether. Each time an entity yields to resistance, it is more likely to yield again, stymieing progress even further. Collaborators may even note that the entity is less dependable when the going gets tough. This creates weakness within the entity, impeding progress physically, psychologically, and relationally.

However, consider the significant benefits of resistance. As an entity perseveres and overcomes resistance, it grows stronger to resistance, and is more likely to approach resistance with confidence and assurance. The entity is more likely to become resourceful, creative, and willing to endure the challenge in order to achieve the victory. Collaborators will likely recognize that the entity displays commitment and dependability. Each successive triumph, whether small and tactical or large and strategic, will produce grit and a culture of success.

Pleasure and pain are the juxtaposing elements on either side of the beam resting on the fulcrum of resistance. Resistance is uncomfortable, and avoiding it for the sake of comfort is a destructive decision preventing long-term success. In fact, the decision to avoid pain for short-term pleasure or comfort may in fact lead to long-term pain when necessary outcomes and results are not achieved. When the entity chooses the pain of resistance, it hardens it’s resolve and positions the entity for long-term, delayed gratification - pleasure.

What if the resistance is a warning or message to not continue? In the words of Kenny Rogers, “You've got to know when to hold 'em,
know when to fold 'em.” That discernment must be weighed carefully against the pleasure and pain juxtaposition. Using sound, logical and intellectual judgement, based on the feedback of wise counsel, one can better determine if avoiding the resistance is a smart move, or simply avoiding the necessary pain inherent to any accomplishment worthy of it’s effort.

Not every entity will experience victory even when it stares down resistance, and not every entity that fails at facing resistance is a failure. As Theodore Roosevelt so famously said, "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena”.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. – President Theodore Roosevelt, “The Man in the Arena”

So go for it, face the resistance, and when you bend, get back and face it again.