I’m in the process of coaching one of my dearest friends to help her complete her novel. She is a highly accomplished writer and very disciplined so I don’t have to do much other than just check in with her on a weekly basis. And she is supporting me as well in my weight loss, meditation and spiritual stuff. In fact, before I forget, she said something really brilliant last week about why I might have upset people with my weight loss blogging to the point of having them unsubscribe from my list. She pointed out that I’m very compassionate in my writing in all areas except for my own body. I disparage my own body instead of love it. This doesn’t help things improve! I’m now taking note when I say something negative about my weight or body. I cancel those thoughts and refocus on the positive things about my body. I am profoundly grateful that my body was fertile enough at 41 that I could give birth to Sophia. What more can I ask for? This is not something I take for granted and yet it is something I don’t applaud my body for enough. I now see where I was going wrong on the weight loss front and extend my apologies to all those I may have offended or made feel bad about their own bodies. Time to be grateful for our health and our magnificent, amazing bodies!

That aside, for today’s topic on overcoming resistance, I thought I’d share a strategy that is working for my friend. She has a very specific goal of getting her first draft and 51,000 words done before she goes away on holiday. She has figured out that she needs to write 10 pages a day. Last week her daughter was very sick with the flu and she lost quite a bit of time looking after her. To compensate, she is now writing 11 pages a day so that she can still finish on time. This is the way a professional works. Stuff will happen to get in the way and then you need to compensate. Sometimes she stays up until 3:00 a.m. to get her pages done. Other times she has them done early and takes the rest of the day off. Regardless, she is focused on her commitment. Not once has she asked me for a reprieve or additional time. What a pro! And this is the key to overcoming resistance. Resistance cannot defeat her even when life throws her a curve ball.

What are you resisting? Create a plan and set a daily objective, however small it may seem. It may be that your daily objective is to write three pages in a journal every day. Great! Actually, that is a really powerful way to start writing – the way I got started in fact. Or, walk for ten minutes. It doesn’t matter, just stick with it and you’ll soon have resistance completely conquered.

Enjoy!
Talane

Copyright © 2010 by Talane LLC. All rights reserved.