Perceived resistance and actual resistance are two very different things. One is a mental game that we can train ourselves out of, and the other typically involves a tangible struggle that requires physical discomfort to overcome. The former, as many of us are aware, can hold the same difficulty as the latter in our mind, at least until we decide to make a conscious effort to overcome it.
I hated mustard when I was younger. Not only did I think it made food taste worse, but there was hardly any nutritional benefit in eating it, leading me to wonder why people would consume so much of such a bizarre condiment. One day I told myself it was silly to dislike something simply because I hadn’t had a good experience of it, and decided to see what all the fuss was about. Resorting to eating raw tablespoons of it, and in time adding it to more and more foods, I acquired a taste for it, eventually integrating it as a staple in my diet.
The lesson to be taken from this isn’t new – “don’t knock it until you try it” – but it serves as a reminder that just because we think something is weird, gross, or lacking taste (literally or otherwise), it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t give it a try and see what sort of benefit could come from it.
We don’t know where the small critical shifts or big mental breakthroughs in life will come from, but expanding our openness to new experiences could prove to be just the thing; we’ll never know if we never try.