Getting Past Resistance to Action

The hardest part of making your dreams come true and reaching your career goals is acting on them. It’s easy to dream about things you want to have in your life or things you want to do but much harder to make them happen.

This is especially true when you find yourself *wanting* to act on your dreams. And though nothing is stopping you, for some reason, you’re still unable to move forward.

The name for this phenomenon is resistance. Breaking through it is crucial to reaching your goals.

Resistance is a common phenomenon. So common that most people experience it at some point in their careers. I can relate to this. My boss had just relayed that they had nominated me to move to another department to set up and manage a Help Desk. On the one hand, I was looking forward to the move. After all, I had been asking for some time for a new assignment and challenge. On the other hand, I was walking into the unknown. I was moving out of my comfort zone. I knew little about the other department. Yet, there was so much expectation upon me to perform.

Looking back now, I am glad I overcame the resistance and made the move. I got some of the greatest lessons in managing multi-generational issues in the workplace. I even wrote about my lessons here.

How to move past the resistance

1. To get past the resistance, you must first determine what’s causing it.

Resistance has many causes; anxiety and fear are the most common, but there are many other causes, such as

• Do you have conflicting goals?
• Are you trying to reach goals you want, or that other people want for you?
• Are you focusing on what you’ll lose instead of what you’ll gain?
• Are you procrastinating until the time is “right?” Or overwhelmed by all the work ahead of you?

Figuring out the root issue or issues (there could be more than one) will help you make a plan to deal with it.

2. Your post-resistance plan

If you have fear or anxiety about working on your career dreams, you’ll need to use specific methods to reduce them. A good example, a method I found helpful when facing my resistance challenge, was talking to someone outside the situation. This can be a friend, mentor or coach. Their external perspective will allow you to see things through the right lens.

The only ones you can’t easily fix are conflicting and false goals; they require a reevaluation of your dreams and setting new goals. While you reevaluate, you'll also need to explore if the struggles come from a value mismatch between what you want and the opportunity in front of you.

3. Work your plan.

Try different methods. Change up what you’re doing until you find something that works and helps you break through the wall. Once you break through the resistance, you’ll find working on your goals much easier.

?Final thoughts

The most important part of getting past resistance is to keep trying. If you work on it, you’ll find a way through. It might seem impossible, but it’s not. Very few things are impossible. Just don’t give up. That’s the only way to ensure you never get past the resistance.

?You can do this. You can get through the resistance and make it happen. Your career goals are waiting for you. You just have to get to them!