You’re Not Lazy. You’re Just Stuck in the Warm-Up for the Warm-Up.

Why do I have to journal, meditate, and exercise—just to answer my damn emails? Welcome to resistance.

Hard Work Paradox

There’s a frustrating paradox that high performers don’t talk about enough.

You have good work to do. You want to do it. But somehow... you just can’t start.

So you check your email again. You scroll LinkedIn. You get up and pour a coffee you don’t even want. Resistance wins again.

Steven Pressfield called it out in Do the Work. He named it:

But here’s the thing he didn’t quite capture:

Sometimes, resistance isn’t one big wall.
It’s a pile of 1,000 pebbles.

The Resistance Spiral

Here’s how it happens:

You picture the task done. You channel Neville Goddard's philosophy of endpoint visualization and inspired action. That’s your mind’s first shortcut: “See it done = feel it done.” So you move on to the next thing. And then the next.

But then your brain reminds you—“Wait. That first thing? It’s not done.”
And actually, to finish that thing, you need to do three other things first.

Suddenly you're visualizing more unfinished work. Tasks nested inside tasks. Layers of subtasks.

The mental whiteboard gets crammed. And then it spins.
Everything feels equally important.
Everything feels incomplete.
You’re overwhelmed.
And so… you freeze.

And when you're frozen? You numb out.

You inhale distraction.
You scroll for 27 minutes.
You take a drink (maybe it’s a coffee, a maccha tea, maybe it’s something harder).
You escape the resistance—because resistance is painful.

You’re not lazy.
You’re not broken.
You’re just lost in the labyrinth of your own brain.

The Pre-Work Before the Work

Here’s what makes it worse:
To escape resistance, you have to do more work that isn’t the work.

You’ve got to meditate.
You’ve got to journal.
You’ve got to exercise.
You’ve got to eat better.
You’ve got to sleep.

You’re like:

It feels like too much.
It feels unrealistic.
A waste of time.
And it is. And it isn’t.

Because all that extra work?
It’s actually the real warm-up.

You don’t stretch after the game. You stretch before.
And you think about the warm-up before you warm up.
You don’t jump into deep work cold. You need to loosen the gears.

That’s not weakness. That’s wisdom.

That’s being a professional.

A pro knows: the work begins long before the keyboard clicks.

Build a System, Not a Sprint

This is why your systems matter more than your moods.

You need a launchpad that gets your brain and body moving before the resistance calcifies.

You want to beat resistance?
Stack the odds in your favour.

Move your body.
Drink water.
Journal for five minutes.
Make a plan.
Start the tiniest step.

One line.
One breath.
One email.

Do the pre-work.
Then warm-up for the warm-up.
Then do the warm-up.
Then do the thing.

And when you fall off the wagon (you will)?
Climb back on. That’s it.

Hope

The way through resistance isn’t magic—it’s movement. So start moving.

Because once you’ve done the pre-work, then the warm-up for the warm-up, then the warm-up itself, and finally the real work—it gets easier. Not because the work is easier, but because you’re in motion.

The next time, you’ll know the path. The friction is lower. The startup cost is less. And that system? That rhythm? That’s where your power lives. The first time is always the hardest. But once you’ve started, inertia becomes momentum. And momentum gets things done.

Let’s get over this inertia—and get back to work.

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Adam Kreek is on a mission to positively impact organizational cultures and leaders who make things happen.

Kreek is an Executive Business Coach who lives in Victoria, BC, near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and Seattle, Washington, USA, in the Pacific Northwest. He works with clients globally, often travelling to California in the San Francisco Bay Area, Atlanta, Georgia, Toronto, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec. He is an Olympic Gold Medalist, a storied adventurer and a father.

He authored the bestselling business book, The Responsibility Ethic: 12 Strategies Exceptional People Use to Do the Work and Make Success Happen. 

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