Sometimes it seems like I resist almost everything.
Doing work, certainly. Going to my weekly Toastmasters meeting. Returning phone calls, exercising, taking the recycling down to the basement.
But it doesn't stop there, the stopping. Oh, no. On a given day, I can usually find myself resisting any or all of the following:
- brushing/flossing/Rotadent-ing my teeth
- at all
- going to sleep at a reasonable hour
- letting myself take a nap if I haven't
- having sex
- showering
- peeing
- answering the phone
- walking downstairs to pick up the Wall Street Journal
- actually reading the Wall Street Journal
- blogging
- doing my marketing "homework"
- finishing the last 1/100th of whatever project needs finishing
The odd thing is, with the exception of dental maintenance and phone-answering, I either don't mind or outright enjoy most of these activities. Hell, I even like talking on the phone when it's Dawud Miracle calling. And we have us some marathon sessions.
I learned a lot about resistance and procrastination during the Hypnotherapy Project I worked on earlier this year with my awesome friend and hypnotherapist, Greg Beckett. Partly responsible is The Resistor, my name for Steven Pressfield's characterization of the art-killing force that enlists procrastination in its fight against creative output (if you haven't yet, run out NOW and get The War of Art.)
But also responsible, I think, is a young lady who's been pushed beyond a reasonable expectation of endurance. Frankly, if I don't give her a break, and have a confab with the rest of the committee to get right with things, we're going to start having some serious shutdown issues.
So I'm working on a number of things to implement in the next four months, one of which is working less on stuff with a lower ROI and more on stuff that rings my bells. You see, I love working, as long as the work is fun. But this year was characterized by a little too much work that was just...work. It became clear that the plan was flawed when the plan basically got dumped by the side of the road like an unwashed, hitchhiking hippie somewheres south of March.
It's going to mean taking some gigundous risks. Maybe not to an outsider, but positively outrageous for me. But I'm committing to it. (Gulp.) Committing to not committing, except to what I really want to commit to. Which, right now, is not much of what I've been occupied by over the past several years. It will be interesting to see how this year's edition of Best Year Yet plays out.
Which leads me to the obvious question: did your 2007 go off the rails, or did it unfold with the exquisite combination of surety and serendipity that your mind-like-water self conjured up in December of 2006?
And what did you want? And how did you set about getting it for yourself?
And (here's hoping I don't regret this) did you use any special books/plans/tools to get yourself there?
Mastermind group? Plain old list? Goal-setting dominatrix wielding a Palm and a slim switch?
xxx c
Image by jashj via Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license.