Resistance: Why you can't make yourself take an ice cold shower
how igor ticks , emotional intelligenceStop. Take an ice cold shower right now. You didn’t, did you? Trust me, even if you tried, you wouldn’t. Before you turned on the water, you’d have this irrational fear of stepping in and you wouldn’t do it. The force that stops you is the resistance. The resistance is the personification of the force that stops you from doing the important. The resistance lies, telling us things are hard when they are not. The resistance adds suffering when there is minimal pain and that confuses us, stopping us from doing things which give us the most value, joy and positive identity. The resistance is the enemy of progress.
The seminal work on the resistance is Flinch.
The resistance is what stops us from doing the important things
Pain vs Suffering
At the extreme - Addiction
Magic Tricks for strangers
Magician is one of my treasured identities. Few things make me happier than doing magic, but the resistance battles me here constantly.
The hardest part of magic, the hardest part by a mile, the #1 thing that stops me from doing magic is asking someone if they want to see a magic trick. 9 out of 10 people say yes. For the 1 of 10 who say no, I’ve wasted less than 15s of their time (and mine).
But I always freeze before asking someone if they want to see a trick, sometimes the resistance talks me out of doing it quickly, sometimes it fights me for minutes, sometimes, maybe 10% of the time, I can fight through the resistance, and ask, and then perform my trick, for their enjoyment.
I’ve never regretted showing someone a magic trick, I’ve never regretted being told someone doesn’t want to do a magic trick, but I frequently regret not doing a magic trick.
At my very best, I applied a powerful antidote. I told myself I’d ask the first person I saw if they wanted to see a magic trick, I’d repeat this for each person I saw till I completed a magic trick. This worked well, but I still have a long way to go.
Skipping the diet or gym, or not doing the important thing
Procrastinating the string that’s stressing you at work
Not doing Amazon returns, or not doing the important thing
Fighting the resistance
The 3 lies of laziness
- Doing the unimportant is glorious Finally I have time to watch TV, so glad, I’ve been so deprived. (I’m not saying TV is bad, I’m saying it’s not important.)
- Doing the important is a burden Man taking the 1 minute to get up and taking out the garbage, what a burden. (I’m not saying taking out the garbage is important, I’m saying it’s not a burden.)
- The important isn’t valuable Is taking out the garbage, a sign of huge respect or my wife really unimportant? (I’m not saying taking out the garbage is important, I’m saying it’s valuable.)
If you don’t beat it back, it will get stronger
Every victory over the resistance will give you the strength for the next victory. Every loss will make it harder.
Jump in the lake day
To remind me the resistance is a huge enemy, I do a polar bear plunge every new year, I call it jump in the lake day.
Cold Exposure and Physiology - The science behind jump in the lake day
Pretty cool discussion of cold exposure and its brain chemistry defences using adrenaline and how deliberately fighting the adrenaline can build your fight against the resistance. Kind of the science behind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq6WHJzOkno
Positive Habits and Routine
Every day I wake up at 5am, it’s my first victory over the resistance, and it gives me strength to fight through the day.