Take a Leap from the Rim of The Bucket

Have you ever decided to start a diet or spiritual practice? Maybe you wanted to sponsor a child in a far-off land, run for office, or campaign for world peace. Perhaps you wanted to get married and have a child, but the time was never right.  

Are you a writer who doesn't write, a painter that doesn't paint, or an entrepreneur who doesn't begin a venture?

Then you know what resistance is.

Steven Pressfield introduced the word, resistance in The War of Art. 

It means not doing the work you were meant to do.

It is human nature to ignore the first call. Didn't Neo in The Matrix deny that he was The One to save humankind?

Even the Oracle told him he was not.

But he did it anyway.

The Phenomenon of the Crabs in a Bucket:

If you place several crabs in a bucket and one tries to crawl out, the others will try to pull him back in. Fishermen know this and don't bother to place a lid on the crab bucket.

And what about us?

As humans, if one tries to crawl out of an everyday mediocre life or stands against the status quo or social norm, they are often discouraged. "You'll starve, trying to be an artist. "Get a real job."

We didn't come here to have a mediocre life.

Well, maybe some did. When Mr. Dispatcher asked our little soul what sort of life we wanted on earth, perhaps some said, "Oh, just the day-to-day job of surviving, eating, sleeping, working, reproducing, you know. Yep, that's it."

Not us.

In his book, Illusions, Richard Bach's little river creature was, like the others, holding fast to the rocks. One day, he looked up and had a realization, "The current knows where it is going. If I turn loose, I will be carried wild and free."

But the others holding on said, "Hold on. That current you so admire will dash you on the rocks."

But the little one did turn loose and was at first dashed against the rocks, but soon, the current lifted him.

And the ones downstream said, "Look, he flies. It's a miracle!"