In this motivational talk, Donna Brown invites listeners to shift their relationship with resistance—the internal pushback that shows up in everyday tasks and larger life choices. She illustrates how resistance appears in mundane moments (getting out of bed, taking the kids to school) and in significant opportunities (public speaking, new projects). Brown explains that humans are evolutionarily wired to avoid change, making resistance a common, natural response. Rather than fighting it, she proposes welcoming resistance as a signal that something valuable lies beyond it. By treating resistance as a guide, we can uncover hidden opportunities. She offers practical steps: pause, take deep breaths, get fresh air, and directly ask the resistance, “What’s on the other side?” This dialogue helps identify the fear‑based barrier and move past it. Brown emphasizes that overcoming resistance requires repeated, conscious choices—choosing action over comfort each time it arises, such as committing to a 5 a.m. routine. The overall message is that by acknowledging and engaging with resistance, we can transform it into a catalyst for growth and achievement.
Chapters
I'm going to invite you to do something crazy. I'm going to invite you to welcome resistance. I'm Donna Brown, Business Designer, Mentor, and Speaker, and I would like to help you shift some of your feelings around resistance because we all have it so many times a day. When you don't want to get out of bed, when you don't want to get to take the kids to school, when you don't feel like doing your homework, when you don't want to take the garbage out, and we haven't even gotten to the serious stuff yet. The list is literally endless, and if you can sort of tune into those moments of resistance, some— there's some interesting things that you can find. Now, when we're there, I don't know if it's ever happened to you where you've seen an opportunity or signed up to do something exciting, and instead of going all into it, you start pulling back from that experience and kind of maybe not showing up. Or not doing the work or half-assing your speech on stage, or I hope not. But do you know what I'm saying? Like where you just start to pull back from something that you knew you wanted and you knew would be fantastic for you and for the people who could benefit from it. And that resistance is crazy bananas and it can make us do the weirdest stuff. And what's really there behind that resistance? For First of all, we're not wired to really like change that much. So those who do like change are actually the exception. And we have all kinds of specialists who make tons of money in the corporate world by helping people with change, companies change and effect change. When you come up something to that resistance of not wanting to take the action, there's maybe nothing holding you back. If you stop for a second, There's literally nothing actually holding you back other than that thought of I don't want to, or that feeling of I don't want to, of, uh, maybe I'll just watch Netflix instead. What if though you were to embrace resistance and rejoice every time resistance shows up in your life and say, oh my goodness, if this resistance is showing up like this in this crazy way, there must be something amazing on the other side. Amazingness, here I come. And just remember that that beating that beating your resistance and overcoming that resistance and going through it and past it and just not listening to it isn't easy, and you need to make the choice over and over and over again. Every time you choose not to get up at you know you decide to join the five a.m. club. Every time you decide. You know, you choose not to do that. What's on the other side of that? What is it that's so scary to you, even though you say you want it? And that's the deal, that's, that's the, the thing, right? That's the rub. We say we want those things, but there's a whole part of us that goes, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, much safer to stay where we are. So try this out the next time you come up against the resistance of something that you, you know you want, you actually know you want it, and you get to the point of Resistance where you start talking yourself out of even wanting it again, take a deep breath or 2 or 3, maybe get a breath of fresh air, stand outside, put your head out the window if you can't go for a walk, and just say, okay, hi resistance, what's going on here? What's on the other side of this that's so important that you're doing, you're going, you know, you're turning somersaults trying to keep me in the same place? And see what happens.
