3 Strategies To Help You Overcome Resistance

This video talks about developing the discipline needed to harness new skills (such as learning how to draw comics) and executing on large-scale, creative projects such as comic books, graphic novels, animations, video games, movies, music - and any other endeavor that requires a monumental amount of focus.
 

When we set out to begin a new creative project, no matter how much motivation we have in the beginning, inevitably we're always met with resistance. Resistance breeds procrastination, lack of motivation and distraction. It tricks us into believing our own, perfectly reasonable rationalizations as to why we should put things off till tomorrow, when we're less tired or more inspired. But that's never the way it ends up. No matter what kind of deal resistance strikes with you now, it'll be there again tomorrow to stab you in the back.
 

So then how do we beat resistance? How to we overcome procrastination? That's what this video is all about.
 

After moving studio and setting everything back up, coupled with the holiday season kicking in before Christmas in the new year, as well as travelling to see family - it's been difficult for myself to get back into the zone.
 

So I came up with 3 strategies to reprogram the distracted mind to become more disciplined - and discipline wins over motivation any day of the week. 
 

The first strategy we cover in this video is meditation. Doing a 30 minute meditation may seem like a lot, but the payoff is that it'll train your brain to laser focus on the task at hand without being wavered by environmental disturbances (such as noisy housemates/family members) and distracting thoughts. It'll also get you into the habit of focusing on one thing for an extended period of time, kicking the unproductive habit of spit-attention, and allowing you to actually make serious progress on your project.
 

Tip number two involves developing a daily workout routine. No one wants to hit the gym and wake up the next day in pain from torn muscles. But we know it's good for us both mentally and physically - and that's exactly why this step is so powerful. If you can exercise each day for about 30-40 mins, it'll condition your mind to get stuck right into your project regardless of how you feel about it. You might be tired, you might be unmotivated, but none of that will matter because you'll have developed discipline which trumps all of those things.
 

Finally in step three we talk about reading. Reading has many benefits of course - it stimulates our imagination and ability to mentally visualize scenarios (which is great if you're a comic artist), it's often times highly educational and insightful, plus you increase your vocabulary - but most importantly, reading requires you to sit down for at least half an hour and focus on that one activity without distraction. So here we have, yet another activity we can do to train our mind to be more attentive, focused and submerged in a singular task. 
 

Combined, all three of these activities, when practiced habitually on a daily basis will give your mind additional resilience against things such as resistance and procrastination that threaten to run your projects into the ground and ruin your ambitions. 
 

The ability to focus is becoming a rarer and a harder ability to develop. Why? Because the current era we live in is one abundant with information and entertainment - all of which satisfy our mind's addiction to instant gratification and it's hunger for ever more dopamine spikes.
 

Something which we just don't get when we're working on a project that requires an incredible amount of long term investment before we see a return. 
 

Our mind is addicted to input, but isn't yet evolved enough to properly process and absorb the sheer quantity available to us - as a result our attention span is wider but shallower, being shattered between multiple areas of focus at any one time. Essentially, most of us have attention deficit, unable to focus on a singular activity for even 5 minutes before our mind grows board and becomes ravenous for something more. 
 

I hope that with these few tips you'll be able to reverse the default state of the modern day mind to be more focused, present and attentive - and as a result see your projects through to the very end, whatever they may be.
 

Good luck! And thanks for watching.

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