Resistance
The resistance that you fight physically in the gym and the resistance that you fight in life can only build a strong character." - Arnold Schwarzenegger
Today, I am reflecting on resistance. As an 81-year-old, I have started to give in to the path of least resistance. I have a personal trainer to help me push through that resistance. I encounter physical resistance during my exercises, but I know that it will build my muscles, not like Arnold, but better than my current state.
However, I also encounter mental resistance before I even get to the gym. I do not want to do it. It is 105 degrees outside, and the temptation of my big leather chair in my air-conditioned room with a TV and a refrigerator full of snacks is hard to resist. But I know that facing this mental resistance will build my character, just as the physical resistance builds my muscles.
Human nature seems to be programmed to follow the path of least resistance. Look at how often you see the word "easy" in advertisements. As a health coach trying to help people lose weight, I was always frustrated when we got past the talking and into the doing. My clients would get emotional when they started talking about why they wanted to lose weight. I remember one woman saying she wanted to be able to get down on the floor and play with her grandchildren and get back up again without help.
When we got to the action plan, so many would say, "I don't like..." I wanted to say (I never did), "That's the reason you're 100 pounds overweight. You've only done the things you like to do all your life."
Healthy people have formed the habit of doing things that unhealthy people do not like to do.
Nature also takes the path of least resistance, sometimes with spectacular results. A trickle of water started flowing from Lee's Ferry in Arizona millions of years ago, and it followed the path of least resistance for 1,450 miles to the Gulf of California in Mexico. On the way, it created the Grand Canyon, one of the most beautiful sights in nature. It carved a pathway and followed that pathway for millions of years.
We are carving pathways in our minds. They are called neural pathways. Every time I choose my comfortable leather chair and the television over the gym, I carve a neural pathway that becomes deeper every time I choose it. A neural pathway is simply a habit. As that pathway gets deeper, it becomes harder to escape. It is called a habit. The results are not as beautiful as the Grand Canyon unless you find an overweight, tired, and grumpy old man beautiful.
The only way to get out of that pathway is by facing resistance and believing that something better is on the other side of it.
That sounds easier than it is. The only way I have found in my 81 years is to want something more than I want what my habit is giving me. When I lost 55 pounds, I wanted that vision of my future self more than I wanted the unhealthy foods that I was eating.
It’s that simple . . . and it’s that hard.