Seth Godin on persistence and resistance for writers and others

Seth Godin is my favorite marketing guru. Gretchen Rubin interviewed him on her Happiness Project blog/Psychology Today column and he had some great observations about resistance and persistence. Here are a couple of excerpts (the full interview is here):

GR: You argue for people to change their way of thinking about the world, and that’s exciting -- but it can be hard for people to translate big ideas into practical actions. What are some concrete steps that would help people put these kinds of ideas into action in their everyday lives?

SG: "It's extremely difficult to "to do something big." I think setting out to do something small is easier and more likely to work.

Small as in human, transparent and connected. Small as in 'worth doing' but also 'worth failing at.'

You're asking me a specific question, and I think a specific answer is the worst thing I can hand you. We won't solve this problem with 9 ways to do this or 11 ways to do that. Instead, I think it begins with a fundamental set of assumptions.

Who are you leading? Where are you going? Does it matter?

Don't let the resistance get in the way of doing something that makes a difference. That little voice in the back of your head that says, "this will never work," or perhaps, "you'll fail and they'll laugh at you..." That voice must be ignored, or even better, do the opposite of whatever it says!

So, the first step is the hardest: you need to care enough about the outcome that you're willing to call out the resistance, to stand up and shout it down.

Once you've made that commitment, there are a hundred techniques that will work. Most of the successful ones have one thing in common: they inch along, below the lizard brain's radar. They don't involve huge jumps, instead they take small steps. You don't go and give a speech to 1,000 people. That's too scary, the resistance is too strong, the voice inside your head recoils in fear. Instead, you give a speech to three people, then six and then twelve. Over time, bit by bit, you continue to increase your footprint and bit by bit, become ever more remarkable.

As you point out, it’s hard to resist inertia and the status quo. Is there a mantra you repeat to yourself, or a quotation you call to mind, that helps remind you to think big and to think original?

"For me, the restlessness is now ingrained. That's the goal, to make it a habit. Yes, restlessness is the goal, not a tactic, but the point of the exercise. Once you can become restless enough to persistently challenge the status quo, you're on your way back to being the artistic genius you used to be.

I was lucky enough to discover Zig Ziglar's work when I most needed it, about twenty years ago. I bought 72 hours of his tapes and listened to each one at least 20 times. I'm talking about two or three hours a day of audio for years. I'm not saying you need Zig, or even tapes. I'm pointing out that the act of working on quieting the lizard brain, the effort to consistently and persistently push yourself to move forward... it's an effort, it's not a hobby."

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