Treating Resistance As Opportunity

Mark opens his intro with the guys topic of choice for today- Resistance

Jim’s traveling and is in Mexico City.  He had some typical travel resistance issues and both guys ran with that and piled on

One caveat is Jim’s sound quality is diminished, but he can be heard just fine

Mark brings up the flywheel and the book Jim brought up, Steven Pressfield’s “The War Of Art”

Mark says he thinks resistance is mostly good with exception of dangerous things and that mitigating risk is a goo idea before just jumping up and pushing back on any and all resistance

Marks bring in his “pause” approach to regain objectivity and context before jumping in

Jim jumps in and refers back to the book and expands on it’s message - “The enemy of creativity is resistance”. Jim says that in his mind resistance is a sign of progress, but it’s hard to know when its progress or danger.

Jim then shares his travel story - Mexico City and the resistance from the line at the airpot to the hotel and then the Uber experience…3 different drivers and the wrong addresses. He asked himself if maybe these were signs that he should consider doing something else.  He made the best of it

Mark then tells his Fringe Festival stand-up experience. It wasn’t his vibe but he wanted to support his girlfriend. He shares that relationships bump up against resistance. Compromise and the “20 minute rule”

Jim asks Mark to talk more about “risk” and Mark shares his experience starting his own company.  He puts this in context. He brings up his “pause” technique and put’s in some additional context

Jim shares his opinion on pivoting in the face of resistance. Mark agrees and expands

Jim says timing is a big deal in life and how to tell if its the right time or not. Mark agrees

Jim speaks about decisions versus choices. What’s the difference?

Mark shares his interaction with his son about his meditation. About how he chose to react versus how he might have 10 years ago

Jim replays with his hotel noise experience and reaction. Don’t let it get into your head. And once again its about how you respond.  Jim turned it into a nice lunch and a few beers

Mark goes back to his stand-up experience from the day before and how he was able to turn it around with the help of his girlfriend and a 7 minute conversation - a new perspective

Both guys agree that resistance is everywhere, all the time and they talk a bit about the different types

Mark brings up the 5 key areas of life and the flywheel.  Resistance is in all 5 areas

Jim say traveling is an exercise in handling your response to resistance

The guys reflect on The US versus other countries. They differ a bit about this and that’s a bit interesting

Jim says it’s often challenging to find people to help with communication and how h appreciates people who can speak English as a second language

This leads to our current division and how that’s created different languages within our own language

Mark shares how appreciative people are of trying to the speak the native language of the country you’re in

Then he moves into his public speaking

They wrap it up. Jim’s going to Chicago before returning home