I stood with my hands pressed together, knees bent. Sweating, I tried to hold it together, “Five more seconds!” as I tumbled onto the mat. “Is it really this hard?” I thought. The teacher put his hands on my waist and I felt myself resist, breath tight in my chest. He paused until I relaxed. In one motion he moved my hips and my tailbone popped under, chest lifted. Instant relief. “Oh! This is how it’s supposed to feel,” I said.
We don’t resist only on the mat. We resist everywhere.
At the office, in our marriage. With our kids. We resist especially when we know we might need to adjust. How do we resist?
- We don’t listen to our mentor when he tells us to sell our work. We’re artists. We’d rather create our art instead of sell it, thank you. But we still have no money or security.
- We get angry at our man because he doesn’t “get” us, instead of listening when he says he doesn’t like to feel blamed. Inside we know we need to change.
- We don’t listen to our body. It wants to slow down but we run 100 miles/hr in hot pursuit of our dreams. You’ll sleep when you’re dead! Inside you know you can’t continue this pace much longer.
Resisting is part of life. We do it because new ideas threaten our safe and comfortable habits. Changing how WE do things scares us. We like to do it our way; we’re not wired to enjoy it when we have to change. When the moment arrives, we don’t like it and fight it hard.
Adjustments are a necessary part of a good life. We need to see them for what they are: rocket propellers to get us closer to what we want. You can’t just beeline your way to a successful career or great love; you have to PacMan your way there, zig-zag in starts and stops.
If you’re open to them, tweaks will change your life. @ishitagupta (Click to Tweet!)
A few years ago, I was confused, stressed, making no money in my business. I knew I was capable of success, but I didn’t have any results to show for it. I felt like a fool claiming I ran a business. I circled around my business coach for a YEAR before I took her advice and stopped going solo. We talked twice before she said, “You know what you need to do, you’re just afraid to do it.” Cut to three months and one BIG tweak later: I tripled my income and made more money in one quarter than I had the entire previous year. All from one tweak she gave me that I wished I’d made earlier.
The hard part isn’t making the tweak; it’s not feeling bad that you need it in the first place. When you stop judging yourself for getting guidance, only then can you apply the tweak in your life. Once I got over the fact that I needed to adjust, I stopped actually failing and started getting real results.
Tweaks are the only way to get better and better.
When someone guides you at the exact right time you need it, it’s priceless – even if it doesn’t feel good. We don’t have to make our lives so hard. We don’t have to feel out of control in our business or feel incompetent. We can learn to tweak instead. To not resist. To accept the adjustments life throws our way and take guidance when it feels right. That’s how we see BIG results: small adjustments at the right time. Often, all we need is a little tweak to get us back on track. I may be the only Indian who’s done yoga wrong for twenty-five years. You don’t have to struggle that long.
xx Ishita
Ishita Gupta is an entrepreneur, speaker, and business breakthrough strategist. Building her business from zero to multiple six-figures in one year, Ishita helps entrepreneurs get the confidence they need to run their businesses like a Pro. Her programs help business owners lay foundations to make money, create systems to increase productivity, sell with confidence, and do high-impact marketing that gets results. Ishita speaks at conferences around the U.S. on entrepreneurship and leadership, including World Domination Summit, TEDx Detroit, Columbia University, and more. You can also follow Ishita on Twitter.
Image courtesy of DaMongMan.
