Got Resistance?

Mornings tend to expose a familiar pattern.

Nothing has technically gone wrong yet. The day has barely started. The tasks are known. The expectations are familiar. And still, taking action feels hard before anything has actually begun.

We usually explain this to ourselves in motivational terms. Not enough drive. Not enough discipline. Not enough clarity. Something must be missing that needs to be added.

I have a different explanation.

The friction that appears is not created by the work itself. And it is not created by the feelings that arise in response to the work.

It is created by resistance to those feelings.

Here is the mechanism.

An event is anticipated. A workload. A responsibility. A conversation that cannot be avoided. A feeling arises in response. Disinterest. Anxiety. Irritation. Reluctance.

These feelings signal that resistance is present.

The instinct is to eliminate them. To push past them. To wait for them to resolve before taking action. To talk yourself out of feeling this way.

This approach fails consistently. The feeling does not dissolve under pressure. The work does not become easier once the feeling is suppressed. And the internal fight with the feeling creates more friction than the feeling itself ever did.

It shows up as negotiation. "I'll start after coffee." "I need to be in the right headspace first." "I'll wait until I feel more motivated."

It shows up as preparation theater. Reorganizing the desk. Reviewing the plan one more time. Checking email before beginning.

It shows up as mental debate. Listing reasons the task matters. Rehearsing arguments for why you should care. Attempting to talk yourself into readiness.

All of this activity appears productive. None of it is resistance to the work. It is resistance to feeling uncomfortable: unmotivated, uncertain, or reluctant while working.

Directive 4 in Work Without Working dismantles this pattern with Acceptance of the feelings.

The shift is structural, not emotional. It doesn't require changing how you feel. It doesn't require convincing yourself the feeling is wrong. It requires a single distinction that separates the experience from your capacity to act.

When that distinction is made, the internal argument stops. And when the argument stops, the friction drops immediately.

This is not emotional regulation. It is not reframing. It is not cultivating a better internal state.

It is the withdrawal of resistance.

Feelings do not require approval, justification, or correction in order for action to happen. They simply need to be allowed without argument.

When that argument stops, the capacity for action returns naturally.

This is why so many productivity strategies fail even when they are well designed. They attempt to organize behavior while leaving the internal resistance intact. The result is more structure layered on top of an unresolved internal "no."

From the outside, it looks like the work simply isn’t happening or progressing. Internally, it is a stalemate created by emotional rejection.

Acceptance works differently.

It does not remove feelings. It removes the fight with them.

And when that fight ends, action becomes available again. Not forced. Not fueled. Just unblocked. No willpower needed.

If this sounds familiar, you are not broken. The pattern is structural. And it responds to structural changes.

The morning grind is rarely about workload or capability.

It is about the unexamined belief that certain internal experiences must be eliminated or resolved before progress is allowed. When that belief is removed, something subtle but decisive changes. The reliance on willpower disappears.

The system quiets.
Clarity returns.
And the next step becomes obvious.

Not because the feeling vanished.
But because there is no resistance to it.

Cheers to your frictionless life —
Alessandra