Resistance is Signal

Allow me to use a personal anecdote to introduce a concept that’s highly relevant to business.

In 2025, I finally leveled up my gym workouts, from a chore delivering moderate results to an enjoyable activity that delivers excellent results. What changed wasn’t the workout routine, but the stance I took toward resistance.

For years, I treated emotional resistance as something to power through. And power through I did: I went to the gym, lifted weights, did “the inputs.” But I did them from a negative mental state, doubting my body, feeling defensive, and looking for reasons to stop. In that state, I would train barely outside my comfort zone and quit at the smallest inconvenience. The result was a lot of mental and physical effort for modest returns.

Then I tried a different approach: treat persistent resistance not as an obstacle, but as information. I started asking: What exactly am I resisting? Not “the gym” in general, but specific triggers of discomfort, such as that room, that exercise I thought might injure me, or that other exercise others seemed to “get” but which I seemed to be terrible at. I then addressed each objection individually. Most pieces of friction, I reduced. Every exercise I felt unsafe doing, I learned how to do safely. And every doubt about technique, I clarified. (Tools like ChatGPT were excellent partners for this, not as “motivation,” but as a way to quickly get clarity and options.)

Once I addressed all my doubts and mental objections one-by-one, the resistance melted. Not only did going to the gym become more enjoyable, but I could do most exercises from a mental state of confidence and eagerness rather than doubt, which is a prerequisite for doing them well enough and lifting heavy enough weights to get the desired rewards.

The point is that going to the gym is an activity, like many others, where you can technically produce its inputs in a negative mental state, but they won’t be good enough to bring satisfying results unless done with confidence. Therefore, chronic resistance is not something to dismiss or power through, but something to acknowledge, dissect, and address until resolved.ShareCopy

(There’s an exception, though: occasional resistance. If you feel like going to the gym most days, but don’t once or twice a month, you can power through that. But if the resistance is persistent, powering through it will mostly produce mediocre results.)

It turns out sports isn’t the only context where this principle applies. A lot of business works the same way.

Resistance at work

Many white-collar activities share the same property as the gym: you can get mediocre outcomes by going through the motions, but to get great results, you must do them from a mental state of openness, confidence, and willingness.