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I think the article does just set up a new pathology. Your read is much more benign. The article’s set up is actually quite harmful and disempowering. It ide
by zepto 5y ago
I think the article does just set up a new pathology. Your read is much more benign.
The article’s set up is actually quite harmful and disempowering. It identifies resistance as a bundle of fears and pain to be overcome in order to be able to ‘just do’ the thing you are trying to do.
Obviously sometimes fear and pain do exist, and acceptance and awareness of them makes it easier to move forward.
However most of the time I have found that the reason people find themselves ‘resisting’ things they want to do is that they lack some pragmatic knowledge of what the next step should be and how to incorporate the overall goal into whatever else they are doing. People who have learned that resistance means they need to let go of fear or pain can get caught in a loop of looking for emotional blocks where none exist, rather than just educating themselves on the problem.
‘You aren’t lazy, you just haven’t done the necessary prep and planning to make the thing you want to do feel straightforward’ might be just as useful advice.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- gala8y 5y ago> Your read is much more benign. I think I wanted to see more in this article. I think the idea of acknowledging this part of us and seeing it as a positive force is not conveyed clearly enough, but it's there. > ‘You aren’t lazy, you just haven’t done the necessary prep and planning to make the thing you want to do feel straightforward’ might be just as useful advice. Yes. This would be a subset of "it's too difficult (emotionally, organizationally, in terms of ability/skill) for me to do all this stuff the way I never did before" - emotions of discomfort arise (said 'Resistance') and boom, you are back to square one (edit: ...of not doing things).
- zepto 5y ago> and boom, you are back to square one. What do you mean by back to square one?
- zepto 5y ago>> ‘You aren’t lazy, you just haven’t done the necessary prep and planning to make the thing you want to do feel straightforward’ might be just as useful advice. > Yes. This would be a subset of "it's too difficult I don’t see how this follows. Recognizing that you haven’t done the prep means it’s not too difficult if you do the prep. If instead of doing the prep you go introspecting for fears and pain you will fail because you aren’t doing the next step, and that will in turn undermine your self belief and reinforce the idea that you need to do more introspection to overcome your resistance. A lot of cults fuck people up with isomorphs of this idea.
- gala8y 5y ago> Recognizing that you haven’t done the prep means it’s not too difficult if you do the prep. I simply say - every part of endeavor may be bringing you down. Your emotions (fears - of failure, of success, what not), your incompetence (including inability to do necessary preparation you mentioned), and so on. Naturally, you have to address those different facets differently - handle the emotion with some introspection, learn to do the prep and planning (skill). Diving 'inside' will obviously not solve the lack of skill or lack of other resources - turning more and more inward would be absolutely wrong way, searching for fears and blowing them up.
- zepto 5y ago> Diving 'inside' will obviously not solve the lack of skill or lack of other resources - turning more and more inward would be absolutely wrong way, searching for fears and blowing them up. Agreed. This is the issue I am pointing to. Which is why teaching people to view themselves as ‘resistant’ is harmful. If you are afraid of something, you are afraid of something. If you are ignorant, you are ignorant. If you lack skills then you are unskilled, etc. There is no point in using the meaningless proxy concept of ‘resistance’, which raises the question “resistant to what?”. In each of these cases there is nothing being ‘resisted’.
- naasking 5y ago> The article’s set up is actually quite harmful and disempowering. It identifies resistance as a bundle of fears and pain to be overcome in order to be able to ‘just do’ the thing you are trying to do I didn't read that at all. The author is suggesting you acknowledge and face those feelings and what they may be trying to tell you about how you feel about your goals or work. Sometimes the fears are that your effort will be pointless and unrewarded. In that case, assuming those fears are well grounded, the author suggests rethinking your plans and not necessarily trying to overpower your resistance. That matches my experience in some cases, though obviously not all.