Understanding What Emotions Lead to Resistance
An attitude that suggests that if you keep working toward your goals without giving up, eventually the resistance (challenges, difficulties, and self-doubt) would give way to your tenacity. However, how would you beat resistance when it comes to including others and bringing them under one umbrella to come to a consensus decision?
Just pointing out the right direction won’t suffice to influence those around us to behave differently. They won’t change even after you arm them with more information or proof. It just serves to raise resistance, if anything. So how can you get past the opposition?
There are four kinds of friction one faces when one seeks to change anyone’s opinion on any matter at all.
Inertia
The strong urge to stick with what we already know despite its shortcomings. Due to inertia, you should always give individuals choices when trying to alter their behaviour.
Anybody can be persuaded to do anything as long as they think it was their idea. And preserving the other person’s freedom of choice is a simple way to accomplish that. Giving them options and letting them make their own decisions will inspire and motivate them. Everybody enjoys having a sense of control over their ideas, deeds, and life in general. Giving the other person a choice increases their sense of control over themselves, their decisions, and their environment. Allow them to choose to combat inertia.
Energy
The force required to bring about change, both actual and perceived.
Make your proposal simple for people to absorb and accept. Your idea is unlikely to ever take off if you make it too difficult (by making it convoluted, difficult, or smeared with too many options). Keep it incredibly easy so they won’t feel overwhelmed by the work and will look forward to doing it. Make it simple for the other person to comprehend, try, and eventually fully adopt your idea if you want to reduce opposition to it.
Emotion
The unforeseen bad feelings brought on by the shift itself. The reason why cake mix took 30 years to become popular is because of emotional friction.
Do you honestly believe that the price of a $26,000 Zegna coat is due to the fabric? Or is it the way we view the brand? Buyers may have any intellectual defence, but ultimately, it comes down to how they feel when they consider this coat. No matter how brilliant your idea is, it will not succeed if people do not relate to it on an emotional level. It applies to all of your plans, both inside and outside of your house.
Reactance
The inclination to oppose being altered.
Since most people simply don’t want to change, this is one of the most difficult frictions to overcome. There is a natural impulse that causes them to say no before they have even had the chance to try something new. Do you want to watch this action movie with a bad actor? No. Test out this dessert. No. If he is violent, end the relationship. No. When our emotional or subconscious mind immediately rejects something, we rationalise it and come up with ludicrous justifications.
Give the other person the chance, feeling, and conviction to say Yes before they say no. People tend to stick with their decisions, so if they immediately say “No,” a “Yes” may never follow.
Conclusion
All the advice in the world won’t ultimately matter as much as following this straightforward (and ageless) suggestion. Simply take a seat and begin. Feel Resistance when you try to do that? There is no other way to get through it than to simply begin. It won’t help to read more about Resistance. It won’t help to visit a Procrastinator’s Forum online. It won’t help to work on your to-do lists. The only action is helpful. The only way to get started is to do something.
To do anything, we must first and foremost overcome the aversion to working alone or with others to complete our tasks.
