Build Muscles to Overcome Resistance, Not The Other Way Around
In Steve Pressfield's The War of Art, he describes an internal force called Resistance, which actively sabotages any life-affirming work.
It shows up in every attempt to change: starting a diet, breaking a habit, overcoming an addiction, even starting a family. No area of growth is immune.
We all experience it. It took me ten years to start writing consistently.
Maybe for you, it was the fitness equipment collecting dust in the corner.
The gym membership you barely used.
The diet that lasted two weeks.
Resistance follows us from the very beginning of life- from refusing the spoonful of food our parents offered to struggling through a college essay.
Some people excel in their careers but resist caring for their health.
Deadlines and goals feel urgent. Sleep and rest do not.
Others are deeply devoted to caring for everyone around them, yet cannot extend that same care to themselves.
We all have our version of it.
So where has Resistance quietly taken over your life?
It might be hiding in plain sight; in your relationships, your work, your finances, your health, your sense of adventure, your creativity, your learning, your home, or your spirituality.
The muscle most people skip
Today’s society taught us to fight Resistance through structure.
To-do lists. Calorie trackers. Workout routines.
These tools have their place, but they rarely address the root cause.
They manage the surface while the deeper reason goes untouched.
The muscle you actually need is imagination.
The practice of asking: What would my life feel like if this were no longer in the way? What would it feel like to move through life pain-free and with confidence?
That question matters more than it seems, because the answer reveals something honest about why we stay stuck.
Some people hold onto pain because it makes them feel alive- a sensation in a life that otherwise feels numb.
Others chase achievement compulsively for the same reason- the accomplishment proves they exist, that they matter.
Both are understandable. And both, when examined closely, are protecting something underneath the surface.
Beneath the patterns, fear is .
The fear of abandonment.
The fear of judgment.
The fear that without the struggle, or the striving, there is nothing left worth seeing in ourselves.
Resistance is not an enemy to conquer. It is fear asking to be faced.
Build the imagination to see beyond it.
Build the honesty to name it.
Build the courage to move toward it anyway.
That is the muscle worth strengthening. Not avoidance.
Best Wishes,
Anthony
Beacon, New York