RESISTANCE IS YOUR EDGE
When It Gets Hard, You Get Activated
3-Minute Read
Your mission doesn’t need less friction. It needs more of you.
A Maximite torpedo can be handled like a toy. You can pound it, roll it, even shoot it through the wall of an ordinary building, and nothing happens. No explosion. No release. No power.
But fire it from a cannon into a foot or more of steel plate armor, and it detonates.
That image matters right now, because founders keep trying to solve resistance like a problem, when it’s often the trigger for their next level.
Here’s my contrarian take on resistance: it’s not proof you’re failing. It’s the steel plate you need to access who you’re fully capable of being.
For this issue of The Grip, we’re not asking, “How do I avoid resistance?” but “What is resistance trying to activate in me?”
Stop resisting resistance. Put it to work.
Let’s dive in.
mastering resistance
Founders do a weird thing with resistance.
When it’s small, you ignore it. You tell yourself it’s fine. You keep “pushing through.” You stay nice. You tolerate the half-truth. You keep the wrong person because firing them feels brutal. You keep the bloated product because cutting it feels like admitting you were wrong. You keep the exhausting schedule because slowing down feels like falling behind.
That’s not leadership. That’s survival, and it keeps you toiling in mediocrity.
Then the steel-plate-resistance arrives.
A cash crunch. A lawsuit. A health diagnosis. A relational fallout. Or the existential crisis: you wake up and realize you built something successful that you don’t even enjoy leading.
Here’s the distinction that changes everything:
Resistance is not the enemy of your mission. Resistance is the door to the version of you your mission requires.
In his book, He Can Who Thinks He Can, Orison Marden says: your greatest strength stays latent until “a great responsibility, a critical emergency, or a supreme crisis in your life” calls it out.
In other words, the greatness in you requires great resistance to fully emerge. Whether the resistance makes or breaks you depends on what you make of it.
See resistance as danger, and you contract. You get controlling. You micromanage. You rush. You grasp for certainty. Your team feels it, and culture tightens. Innovation dries up. The company becomes reactive.
See resistance as fuel for activation, you expand. You get clear. You get decisive. You speak plainly. You create calm that lets other people think. That is when your reach and scale become antifragile.
You can use resistance either as an excuse to play small or as traction to play big. What if the resistance you’re facing right now is the intensity needed to draw out your greatest self?
You’re familiar with Post Traumatic Stress. Ever heard of Post Traumatic Growth? Not many have. It’s a thing, and it’s reserved for those who choose to see resistance as something to be leveraged rather than avoided.
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In 2008, Airbnb’s founders hit the steel plate. They were broke. The economy was collapsing. Investors weren’t rushing to fund “air mattresses in strangers’ homes.” They could have called it a limitation and folded.
Instead, they treated resistance like a forge. They made scrappy choices. They got resourceful. They refined the story, improved the product, and gained traction. The resistance did not stop the mission. It shaped them into leaders who could carry the mission.
Consider:
Your hardest customer churn wave can either make you defensive, or it can force you to finally build the retention engine you’ve been avoiding.
That conflict with your cofounder can either become silent resentment, or it can become the conversation that saves your integrity and your company.
“What if the resistance you’re facing right now is the intensity needed to draw out your greatest self?”
How To Leverage Resistance
Identify one example of resistance you’re facing at work or home right now. It’s the thing you’ve been viewing as a limitation or unfair or in your way. That’s your steel plate. Here’s the reframe:
Name the resistance.
Write it out: “The steel plate I’m hitting right now is ______.”Name your knee-jerk reaction to it.
Control, urgency, avoidance, perfectionism, people-pleasing, withdrawal, blame, victimhood, etc. That’s your default way of being. Remember, it’s not who you are, just how you’ve learned to operate.Choose who you will be, intentionally.
Write it out, “This resistance is calling me to be the leader who ______.”
Identify your new action.
Ask: “What next-level action is this resistance calling forth in me? (Hint, often it’s one you’ve been avoiding). Decide, commit, and move on it today.
Stop calling resistance a problem. Call it an advantage, and you will begin to see new avenues for leveraging it as your secret edge in life. Really.
Resistance is not a sign you’re off track. It’s often the cost of carrying something that matters.
You don’t need an easier mission. You need the version of you that can hold the mission with steadiness, clarity, and committed action.
Great resistance calls out the greatness in you. You don’t step into greatness in spite of resistance; you step into greatness because of it.
So this week, shift from, “How do I make it go away?” to, “What is it here to awaken in me?”
Resistance isn’t blocking you. It’s activating you to be the leader your mission requires.
Keep creating.
key takeaways
If it feels hard, that doesn’t mean you’re wrong. It often means you’re at the doorway to your next level.
Shift from "resistance means danger" to "resistance means opportunity."
Treating friction as a threat creates control and urgency. Treating it as a growth catalyst creates clarity and decisive action.
WORK 1:1 WITH BECKY
As a self-mastery coach, I help mission-driven founders accelerate desired results without sacrificing what matters. If that sounds like good news, REACH OUT to experience how 1:1 coaching can empower you to be the masterful leader your mission requires.
May you prosper in every way!
Becky & TPL Team
52 Maxims of Conscious Choosing To Create the Deeply Satisfying Life You Desire.