Overcoming Resistance

                   Pins and needles. That's exactly what I was feeling just a couple of weeks ago when we first launched Rooftop Leadership Mastery. I was really, really nervous about the launch of this. I've been out of the military for five years, I speak and train on leadership and trust all over the world. I feel like I'm very competent in it. I've helped a lot of people. We've seen millions of dollars in return on investment for donors, non-profits, and for-profits. I've seen people's lives change. 

                                    Why in the world would I feel this type of pins and needles effect? I was feeling this reluctance for something that I've been doing effectively in person for years. With this new program, I could reach more people and have a deeper impact. What was going on? If it weren't for my team - Wes, Jamie, Becka, and my wife Monty, I don't know that I would've even gone through with the launch.

                                    In fact, in the last five years since I've been out of the military, I've shot this content dozens of times. I've created digital content with the full intention of making it available as a program and I haven't done it. I've pulled it back every single time, knowing it will have a deeper, broader impact in the digital marketplace. Why? Why would I keep resisting?

                                    Resistance is your enemy. The enemy will put itself between you and the tracks you want to leave, the impact you want to make. I believe resistance is the greatest enemy you will ever face in achieving an impact bigger than yourself and playing a bigger game as a Rooftop Leader, as a parent, as a business owner.

                                    Resistance in its simplest form is self sabotage. The reluctance I felt to launch Rooftop Leadership Mastery, I'm just being real with you guys, that could've kicked my butt. It has before. But my teammates saw it and they helped me push through it. Resistance still shows up in my life everyday, but I now have a regimen that allows me to overcome it.

                                    Stephen Pressfield, my favorite author, or one of my favorite authors in the world, wrote the book War of Art. This book is a must have for Rooftop Leaders. If you work with me in any capacity, you need to get this book. In this book, Pressfield talks about what he went through in creating his own work. How difficult it was, even as an accomplished writer, to do it. 

                                    One of the most important things that you can do when you're dealing with an enemy is to name your enemy. If you don't name your enemy and you don't know your enemy, you can't overcome your enemy.  This enemy, this negative energy that shows up in our life when we're close to a goal, or when we're on our path to a goal, Pressfield named it 'resistance'.

                                    "Most of us have two lives. The life we live and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands resistance. Have you ever brought home a treadmill and let it gather dust in the attic? Ever quit a diet? A course of yoga? A meditation practice? Have you ever bailed out on a call to embark upon a spiritual practice? Dedicate yourself to a humanitarian endeavor? Commit your life to the service of others? Sound familiar? Have you ever wanted to be a mother, a doctor, an advocate for the weak and helpless? To run for office? Crusade for the planet? Late at night, have you experienced a vision of the person you might become? The work you could accomplish? The realized being you were meant to be? Are you a writer who doesn't write? A painter who doesn't paint? An entrepreneur who never starts a venture? Then you know what resistance is."

                                    Resistance is a powerful, negative force in every one of us. As tough as we think the outside world is on our dreams, nine times out of ten, it's the inner self sabotage that will cut our knees out. In fact, it's probably the culprit that has got you where you are in your life right now. My friend Daveed Martin, a fellow coach, would call himself 'the King of Second Place.' Every time he would get close to the finish line, guess what he would do? He'd find a way to take his own knees out and let resistance win.

                                    So we've named the enemy and we know it's going to show up. Now here's what we have to do.

                                    I want you to go back and I want you to reflect on the goals and the tracks that you've set for your life and on what your goals are for this year. Reacquaint yourself with them because like Zig Ziggler says, motivation doesn't last for a long period of time. That's why it's like bathing, we recommend it daily. So go back and reconnect to what you're going to achieve, what you're on the path for, what you're building. 

                                    Then, I want you to ask yourself how resistance has shown up in your life before and how it manifests. Maybe it's over-medicating, self-medicating. Maybe it's poor-pitiful-me trips. Maybe it's blaming it on others. Maybe it's just apathy. Maybe it's just sitting down and watching television too much to just drown it out. Maybe it's that Guppy Effect where you pick your phone up and you just get involved in Instagram and you forget about it. Whatever it is, how does resistance show up and cut your knees out to keep you from achieving on your goals?

                                    Then, the third thing that I want you to think about is, how do you build a regimen to overcome resistance? A couple things to remember. You've gotta fight resistance every day. The battle must be engaged anew every day. You'll win against resistance one day, the next day it's gonna show up again. 

                                    So what are your rituals that you do every morning when you wake up, throughout the day to keep you on task. To ensure that you sit down and do your work, as Steve Pressfield says. It's really that simple. It's your relationship to practice. The work that you do when no one is around that will determine the goals that you reach when people are looking and when the sun is shining. 

                                    Identify how you experience resistance so that you can build a regimen to overcome it. If you're trying to lose weight, what is the relationship to practice and work that you will do? If you're trying to launch a new product, what is the regimen that you will do to keep yourself on task? How will your team help you with that? Write it down. Follow it daily. Have your team hold you accountable.

                                    Reflect on your goals and tracks. How will resistance show up there? Get very specific and concrete. Build a regimen that will let you overcome it. I would love to see you in Rooftop Leadership Mastery on that path, learning how to do that. This is a movement to lead at a stronger level and overcoming resistance is key to it.