Resistance Comes Second

One of the key aspects of Resistance (self-doubt, fear, procrastination, perfectionism, self-sabotage) is that it never arises alone.

That negative voice in our head only comes in response to (and reaction against) a DREAM, i.e. the book we want to write, the film we dream of making, the business we want to start.

Resistance comes second.

The Dream comes first.

Resistance’s aim is to stop our dream, to get us to quit, to keep us from becoming the artist or person we were born to be.

Here’s the visual I use to help me see this:

Imagine a tree in the middle of a sunny meadow.

The instant the tree appears, its shadow appears with it.

The tree is our dream.

The shadow is Resistance.

If there were no tree, there would be no shadow.

How does it help us to understand this? Because when we see that shadow, i.e. when we hear the voice of Resistance in our heads—telling us we’re not good enough, we’ll never be able to succeed in actualizing our dream, etc.—we can be certain that THERE’S A TREE THERE.

In other words, our DREAM.

If we’re experiencing Resistance, that’s a good sign. Painful as it may be … and as formidable an opponent as it is … we can take courage from its appearance.

If there were no tree, there would be no shadow.

If there were no dream, there would be no Resistance.

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