Resistance: Your Invisible Companion

For the last three weeks, I have been submerged in the strange ocean that is Twitter/X, specifically the part of it obsessed with productivity. I wanted to see what people were saying, what they cared about, and what they thought the solution was.

One guy I saw claimed he had tried forty-seven different task management systems. Forty-seven. He was not joking. He had screenshots. That is when I knew I was in the right place.

It has been revealing.

There are a few recognizable tribes out there.

First, the Tool Hunters. These are the ones who believe salvation lies in the next app, planner, or AI assistant. Their dream is that one perfect system will finally organize their chaos and transform their lives. They are sincere, diligent, and perpetually one download away from freedom.

Then there are the Hustlers, waving the old flag of no pain, no gain. These are the warriors of grind culture who believe fatigue is a badge of honor. They disappear for six months and re-emerge to declare themselves reborn. Their motto: If you are tired, push harder.

And finally, there is a small, quieter group, the ones who understand that internal friction always precedes external stagnation. They get that no matter how perfect your system, your planner, or your tech stack, nothing changes until your inner landscape changes.

That inner landscape is where resistance lives.

Most of the productivity world uses the word resistance in one narrow way: “I cannot get started on this project.” “I keep putting off those calls.” In other words, resistance equals procrastination.

But that is only the surface layer.

I define resistance much more broadly. Resistance is any negative affect attached to a task, event, or feeling.

Resistance is any inner no, a mental or emotional recoil from what is. It is the refusal to be with the fact of reality as it currently stands.

And it wears many disguises.

Anger. Frustration. Dread. Shame. Impatience. Overwhelm. Boredom. Contempt. Sadness. Resentment. Apathy. Irritability. Indignation. Fear. Unworthiness.

These are not random bad moods. They are all forms of resistance, each a flare signaling friction between what is and what you wish were.

This is why so much productivity advice fails. It tries to fix symptoms rather than the source. You can discipline your schedule, reorganize your workspace, or optimize your calendar, but if the emotional field underneath is full of unacknowledged resistance, your progress will always feel like dragging a boulder uphill.

Here is the paradox that nobody tells you. Resistance is not evil. It is not weakness. It is not even your enemy.

It is feedback. A mirror. A message from the part of you that has not yet made peace with the present moment.

So when you notice resistance, when that familiar pulse of dread, irritation, or overwhelm shows up, do not attack it. Do not moralize it. Spot it. Name it. Acknowledge it.

That recognition alone begins to loosen its grip.

Because once you can see resistance clearly, you can begin to move through it instead of being moved by it.

Next week, we will take this further, into how resistance shapes your behavior without you realizing it, and how to start neutralizing it in real time.

Until then, notice the little moments when you feel that mental or emotional no. That tightness. That recoil. That is resistance, and it is likely running your show.

Ta-ra,
Alessandra