Steven Pressfield calls it the resistance.
I call it the dragon.
It’s voice in our head and heart that tells us to be careful, to back off, go slow, to compromise or to settle. It can be writer’s block to a writer, a slump to an athlete or a plateau to a leader. It puts fear and jitters into every project or every major initiative because your team couldn’t stay on the same page long enough to get it pushed through or out the door on time.
As we get closer to a breakthrough, the dragon grows louder and stronger.
Testing your resolve and trying to get you to back off. Especially if we are getting closer to the goal, the life or the truth we really want.
Why can’t some companies (read that leaders) seem to keep up with the pace of change?
Because they settle. They compromise and have meetings, fear what the critics might say or feel they will get in trouble for coloring outside the lines. The dragon beats them down and beats them up.
Then…the dragon beats them.
The dragon will antagonize you every day. That’s why it must be slain daily. Your main mission every day is to kill the dragon, it whatever form or shape it assumes to block your progressive path to success.
Steven Pressfield writes in his book Do The Work, “We are foolish if we think we are the only ones struggling with resistance. Everybody who has a body experiences resistance.” He also says “Resistance is not out to get you personally. It doesn’t know who you are and it doesn’t care. Resistance is a force of nature.”
The dragon is there every day to shove us away, to distract us and to prevent us from doing our best work.
The dragon lives within us and the dragon must be killed every day.