Resistance is USEFUL

Hi, it’s Neil Cowmeadow here with episode 443 of The Tutor Podcast, the Monday morning shot of uncommon sense for anyone who wants start, grow and love their own tutoring, teaching and coaching business – the same way I love mine.  I’m here to share ideas that have helped me in my business journey as a teacher, entrepreneur, investor and mentor in  a no-nonsense, No BS kind of way... in the hope that it helps you have as much fun at work and in life as I do. And – of course - I’m listening: so if you have any ideas that you think might be worth exploring on the show – get in touch [email protected] or on X where I am @TutorPodcast, and maybe you can help me to learn something new, something better?  And I don’t have all the answers – nobody does - and if I rely on my own miniscule brain to solve all of my problems…. Well..... If you’re good with that, let’s crack on...  Ever watch one of those old sci-fi movies where the aliens nab some earthlings at raygun point, reminding the puny earthmen that Resistance is Futile….? Maybe you – like me - love those old black & white films – even if the special effects creak visibly and the aliens are obviously just some guy wearing a dustbin and some oven-gloves… Even the ultimate villain Darth Vader oozes that “resistance is futile” menace – though it amuses me to think of David Prowse’s high-pitched voice instead of James Earl Jones’ deep, menacing growl…  But what if Resistance was useful sometimes? What if we set about using Resistance to our advantage, rather than assuming it is always a negative – let’s spin it to a positive… how’s that grab you? In my experience, even knowing that Resistance is a variable is a surprise to some people. Grasping the idea of engineering Resistance to suit our own ends is frequently overlooked: a blindspot to some people. Resistance is the drag or slip that makes something hard or easy, depending on how we engineer it. If you look at any activity in your life you’re looking at a system of some kind: it’s a “do X, produce Y” kind of a deal. Somewhere within that system is a friction component: more friction reduces the efficiency of the system, less friction increases the efficiency of the system. Simply identifying that there is a system in operation is quite a surprise.  But once you've identified that there is, in fact, a system in operation, you can begin to tweak the components to reduce or increase the friction within the system.  For example if your system is to go to the gym to get healthier, what are the friction steps within the system of going to the gym and doing the training that make it hard to execute and let the system run freely? If your system is teaching guitar to make a good income, where are the friction steps that reduce the efficiency of the system and lower the output whilst jacking up the effort? In both those systems you want to reduce or eliminate the friction completely so the efficient system runs and produces better results for less effort. In our gym example it might be that you sleep in your gym kit and put your trainers in the bathroom door so that when you wake in the morning and go for a pee, you inadvertently step into your training shoes. Does that make sense? In our guitar teacher example you could reduce the friction by eliminating voids between students: booking everyone in back to back at a single location so you're not spending time in the car travelling. You're not sitting around between lessons twiddling your thumbs, doom scrolling, and generally feeling frustrated because that time isn't producing anything for you. Conversely if you're doing something that is producing undesirable results, how do you increase the friction within the system that's producing those results so that the likelihood of that system running efficiently is reduced. Or better still, eliminated completely. For example you have a tendency to raid the fridge late at night, usually just before bedtime. This isn't helping your health, your figure, or your self-esteem because you're constantly beating yourself up about being a late-night greedy pig. A radical solution to increase friction might be to use a U-lock, like you'd use on a push bike, to lock up the fridge and freezer doors at an appropriate time. Make sure to put the key somewhere inconvenient, where the effort of retrieving the key before you go and get it is sufficient to put you off. For me that might mean putting the key to that U-lock in the glove compartment of the car at my “no eating deadline”. Now, when I’m fancying a snack, I look out of the window and see the car parked out in the drive in the rain and cold. Believe me, when I've got my pajamas on, that's a lot less appealing! I remember an old colleague who had a tendency to buy loads of stupid stuff on her credit card. This was a major problem for her as she ran up tons of consumer debt and struggled to pay it down. I can't remember where she got the idea from but she wound up freezing her credit cards in her home freezer. They sat in a block of ice, forcing her to think things through whilst the cards thawed out before they could be used. That's a pretty cool idea if you’re prone to comfort-spend out of control or you've got bad impulse control. Friction engineering can be applied pretty much anywhere in your life, making the things you want easier and the things you don't want a lot harder. To me it makes so much sense to engineer your environment to do some of the heavy lifting for you. Not everybody agrees. Personally I'd sooner spend a bit of time engineering my life's systems, processes, and environment to reduce friction (so I can get more of what I want with less effort and to block my own inner moron by imposing friction at every step of the processes, systems, and environments that produce the outputs I don't want). I suggest you change one little thing for one little system or process in your life, just to see how you get on. Let it run for a while, then tweak it, adjust it, notice the difference. When you've got that nice and smooth and bedded in and you get more of what you want for less effort (or less of what you don't want for more effort), reapply the system to the next thing in your life you want to change for the better.  Work, business, diet and exercise, relationships… everything. Start with One Thing, today, and let me know how you get on. I'd love to hear from you. Drop me an email to [email protected] and  if you have any comments, questions or problems,  get in touch  - again it’s [email protected]    or on X where I am @The Tutor Podcast Let’s leave it there for today – I hope this show has got you thinking and has been some help to you and that you’ll join me next time on The Tutor Podcast for more No-BS tips and ideas of how to Start, Grow and Love YOUR Tutoring Business – just like I love mine. Till then, remember that your time is precious, your life is largely what you make it, so always make it good. Be excellent to yourselves - stay healthy, stay useful, remember that you’re always loved and you’re never alone. Have a Fabulous Day!