We all have things that we resist doing. (Cleaning the toilet comes to mind.) While it’s natural to want to avoid doing an unpleasant task, many times resistance inadvertently points the way to what we most want or need to do.
Think about something you would love to do or achieve. For me, one of those things is paying off our house. I can taste the freedom we’ll have when we don’t owe a single penny to anyone ever again.
But there was some resistance before we started taking the idea seriously. Resistance often masquerades as fear — sometimes some pretty unlikely fears. Mine went like this:
What if we pay off the house and something happens that isn’t covered by insurance and we lose both our house and the money? Then we’d have nothing!
Well, it could happen. But since the only things not covered by insurance are acts of God, war declared or undeclared, and maybe nuclear accidents, if any of those things happen we’ll have a lot bigger things to worry about.
So where is the resistance really coming from? Well it’s part of being human to want to stick with what you know, and most especially to want to stick with the normal way of doing things. Being different is often dangerous, either physically or socially.
I bet there are some of you (maybe even many of you) who think that paying off your house early is a bad idea.
(What about the tax advantages? What about investing the extra payment money instead? What about taking out all the equity and using that as leverage to buy rental properties? What about having a home equity line to draw on if things get really bad?)
And maybe it IS a bad idea — for you. But it’s not a bad idea for us, barring complete disaster.
And that’s what resistance gave me. It whispered, “Hello, pay attention, there’s something about that idea that bears closer examination” — underneath its screams of “Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!” and its moans of “Ugh that’s going to take a lot of work.”
Resistance inadvertently pointed the way to what we want and need to do.
So what are you resisting? What ideas do you have that are immediately followed by a “yes, but” in your head?
Posted in Emotions & Money on 02.22.10 with 2 comments.
“Resistance inadvertently pointed the way to what we want and need to do.”
That is so very true! An old pastor of mine once said, “Pay attention to your resistance. The answer lies within it.” Naturally, I told him to shut up and leave me alone.
Somehow I can picture you saying exactly that!