March 17, 2025 • 16 mins
Resilience isn't just a quality—it's a power that can be systematically developed through a counterintuitive approach. In this thought-provoking episode, join me Linton Bergsen host of the Self-Realized, Shatter Your Limits Podcast as I unpack the critical relationship between resistance and resilience, revealing how they work together to create transformative results in your life.
Drawing on the parallel of resistance training in physical fitness, you’ll explore how deliberately exposing yourself to challenges—at your own pace and comfort level—builds the mental and emotional muscle needed to withstand life's inevitable storms. This controlled approach to building resilience puts you firmly in the driver's seat of your personal growth journey, allowing you to progressively strengthen your capacity to overcome obstacles while honoring your current limitations.
The episode delves into three crucial domains— career choices, relationships, and spiritual beliefs— where resistance is not only inevitable, but also necessary for authentic living. Each area requires the courage to stand firm against external pressures and opinions that might pull you away from your true path. Yet standing firm (resistance) is only the first step—maintaining that stance over time despite ongoing opposition (resilience) is what ultimately delivers the results you seek. This three-part formula—Resistance + Resilience = Results—has proven effective throughout history, from social movements to individual journeys of self-realization.
Whether you're facing personal challenges, professional obstacles, or simply seeking to live more authentically, this episode offers practical wisdom for transforming resistance from something to avoid into your greatest ally for personal development and power. Subscribe now, and discover how becoming truly resilient can help you build not just a temporary sand barrier, but a concrete wall strong enough to protect what matters most in your life.
Let me know your thoughts on this episode. Text me your feedback! 🙂
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Linton Bergsen (00:01):
Welcome to the Self-Realized Podcast with
Linton Bergsen, where you willshatter your limits.
I am not much into theself-help industry as much as
I'm into the self-realizedindividual, which is you, what
matters most to you, how you getthere and the obstacles that
may be in your way.
If you would like to be part ofthis podcast and part of that
(00:22):
discussion, I welcome you herewith an open heart, open mind
and open arms.
So, without further ado, let'sget on with the podcast.
I appreciate you taking themost valuable assets that you
(00:48):
have your time and your energyto join me on today's episode
number 96 of the Self-Realized,Shatter Your Limits Podcast.
Discover the Power of Resilience.
A lot of times we don't thinkabout resilience as a power, and
is there in fact anything to bediscovered about this great
power of resilience?
(01:09):
I would strongly suggest to youthat there is, and one of the
most important things todiscover is how do you build
resilience, to know how to useit and its power in the first
place and that is what I'm goingto share with you within this
episode it's not only the powerof resilience, but how you build
(01:30):
resilience.
Resilience is built with itscounterpart.
I call them the two R'sResilience has to have
resistance.
Contemplate on this for amoment.
Do you indeed think it ispossible to have resilience
(01:52):
without resistance?
Now, that is an importantquestion to ponder, because if
you agree with me and you wantto discover the power of
resilience, you're going to haveto have a certain amount of
resistance that you've built upin your life to be resilient
(02:12):
against whatever it is thatyou're trying to overcome in any
type of adversity or setbacksin life.
The beauty about buildingresilience and working with
resistance to do so is that youcan build resilience as fast or
(02:35):
as slow as you like.
Let me give an example of howyou control how you build
resilience.
Let's say that you decide youwant to get healthier, you want
to get fitter, you want to getstronger and you're going to
work with a trainer.
You walk into the gym together.
(02:56):
You want to build some armstrength, you want to build some
muscle mass, and the trainerhands you some weights.
And it's called resistancetraining, because in order for
you to build strength and musclemass, you have to have
resistance.
Resistance is going to bebeneficial for you to build
(03:17):
strength and muscle mass.
The trainer hands you a certainweight.
You decide, starting out, thatweight is to heavy and you would
like to try something lighter.
So the trainer hands you alighter weight.
Now you feel comfortable withthat weight.
It has enough resistance tostart out with that you can
(03:39):
begin to build upon.
So you control the resistancethat you would like to have to
build the strength that you'removing towards.
But you have to have someresistance to build the strength
.
Now, once you begin to build thestrength through the resistance
in the gym, it has certainbenefits.
(04:02):
You are more resilient when yougo out in the world.
If you were to fall over, youwould have greater body strength
to help, number one, preventthe fall and, number two,
recover more quickly because youwere in better shape.
So you were more resilient bydoing the resistance training to
(04:24):
what could happen to you ineveryday life.
The same resilience is mentalas well as it is physical,
because the resistance trainingyou did in the gym required a
certain mental toughness for youto go through that and
hopefully keep it ongoing tobuild the muscle mass and the
(04:44):
body and get to the fitnesslevel that you would like.
The main thing to consider herewhen you're looking at building
the resistance, moving towardscreating greater resilience in
your life is that you controlhow much resistance is
(05:04):
comfortable for you, just as youwould in the gym with a trainer
.
It depends on how far you wantto go.
Some people don't like anyresistance at all, so they have
no resilience.
On an everyday basis, they goout into the world and they are
a lot more vulnerable thansomeone who is working out in
(05:25):
the gym to everyday functioninginjuries and mishaps.
It's just the way life works.
If you're not taking care ofyourself and you reach out for
something that's a little tooheavy, you may injure yourself.
But if you are in better shape,you may not Contemplate on
this for a moment.
Some people don't even likeother people resisting what it
(05:51):
is they would lik e to do .
They don't like other peopleresisting their opinions.
They want everything to gotheir way, have everyone go
along with them, and when peoplequestion them or don't like
what they have to say, they haveno resilience to counter that
(06:13):
and stand up and have ameaningful conversation about
what it is they're trying toeither get across, or why they
would like to do what they aregoing to do, or the reasons that
there may be somemisunderstanding.
They are not used to dealingwith resistance in any form,
(06:33):
especially if it were to come inthe form of a personal struggle
or adversity, because when youget involved in struggles and
adversity, you are not going tobe able to resist them to the
degree that they don't occur.
You're going to have to acceptthem, not resist them, and the
(06:56):
lessons they bring to your life.
Resilience requires you not toresist situations and
circumstances that come intoyour life to help you to become
a stronger person.
You accept it, you receive itand you embrace it.
(07:17):
You begin to welcome resistanceas a powerhouse in your life of
you getting where you need togo.
Because if you're going toaccomplish anything in life and
you're going to be your ownperson, you're going to meet a
lot of resistance.
And when you embrace it and candeal with more resistance than
(07:39):
you even expect, you getstronger and stronger and your
resilience to life becomesbetter and better, because you
know that the more resistanceyou meet, the stronger you
become, because you're embracingit and not running away from it
.
As suggested earlier.
(08:00):
Going to the gym, you startsmall.
There may be some resistance towhat you're doing.
The bigger you go in life.
The bigger your goals, the moreyou're stepping out of the box
and becoming your own person,the more resistance that you're
going to get.
You are going to become moreresilient because struggle and
(08:21):
resistance are your friend,because they build muscle mass,
they build strength, they giveyou a great foundation to stand
upon and the stronger you are,the more resilient you are.
The more resistant you are topeople's opinions, feelings
(08:44):
about you, the more successfulyou can become and the more of
your own person you can be, andthat allows you to live a
happier life.
Discovering the power ofresilience is actually
increasing your resistance towhat is going on on an everyday
(09:04):
level in your life, so you canbecome more resilient.
The power of resilience is thatyou can withstand the storms
that life throws at you like aconcrete wall.
They're very resilient.
In cities where flooding can bea problem, they put up concrete
walls.
Sand is a temporary barrierbecause it's not as resilient as
(09:30):
concrete.
You don't want to establishyour life on a foundation of
sand.
You want something a little bitmore substantial than that.
The question you have to askyourself is this what type of
barriers and protections do youwant to have in your life when
life throws the inevitablechanges and adversity in your
(09:53):
life.
How resilient are you going tobe?
Let me give you some real worldexamples of resistance and
resilience working together soyou can really begin to see how
you combine these two to getresults in your life that you
want, because, ultimately,anything that you do is going
(10:16):
towards getting a result thatyou would like.
Let's talk about three areasthat are important to all of us,
that require a certain amountof resistance from you in order
for you to establish what it isthat you want out of your life.
Let's look at careerrelationships, spiritual or
(10:42):
religious beliefs.
If you want to embark upon acareer that means something to
you, you may actually haveresistance from people around
you about the pathway that youhave chosen.
If you want to be anentrepreneur, you may meet
resistance from people tellingyou that that is impossible, but
(11:02):
that is your business choice,that is your career choice.
And people telling you whetherit's family or friends, what you
can and cannot do.
You're going to have to resistthat and that's going to take
some courage and strength tofollow the path that you feel is
right for you and resist otherpeople's opinions.
(11:23):
It would be the same in anyrelationship that you're going
into.
Some people may approve, somepeople may not.
And again, you're going to haveto resist the tendency to
please other people and explainto them why you are in a certain
relationship and living up toother people's expectations of
(11:46):
what they think is appropriatefor you.
In order for you to truly behappy, you're going to have to
know your own values and resistother people and their opinions.
Thirdly, spiritual and religiousbeliefs.
You may have differentspiritual or religious beliefs
than your friends or family.
(12:06):
The pathway you're going down,that is personal, that belongs
to you.
It has nothing to do withanyone else.
It is so personal that reallyno one can tell you what you
should believe or shouldn'tbelieve, because then you become
a puppet to everybody else'sbelief systems and there's no
(12:27):
surer way for unhappiness tobecome someone that everyone
else wants you to be.
You're going to have to resistthese different areas in your
life.
They're all important.
All three are very important,and that resistance to people
telling you who and what youshould be is the foundation of
(12:47):
your uniqueness and ability toexpress yourself completely in
this life.
Now, that's the first step.
Is the resistance.
How long you can resist is theresilience.
Because when you start out ona path let's say it's a
relationship and you want to bein this relationship and people
(13:12):
keep telling you what is notright for you, but you know it
is you want this relationshipagain,.
it could be career as well, oryour spiritual or religious
beliefs.
The resistance to the input fromother people might have to be
over an extended period of time.
If you're in a relationship,you may hear for a while about
(13:36):
how this relationship isn't foryou, how inappropriate it is.
So you resist these ongoingcomments because you know that
it's right for you.
Now, if this continues on forsix months to a year, it could
be easier to not go down thepath.
In your career choice,relationship, spiritual or
(13:59):
religious beliefs, give in andnot resist anymore.
That comes back to the analogyof the gym.
If you want to increase musclemass, if you want to have a
better body, you have to gothrough the pain in order to get
the gain.
It's the same with your life.
You have to resist and persistfor an extended period of time
(14:22):
and keep going forward on yourchosen road and pathway that you
know is right for you.
Discovering the real power ofresilience is understanding that
as you go along this road inlife.
Resistance is step one, theresilience to put up with the
(14:45):
constant backlash of that isstep two, and if you can have
enough resilience to persistwith your resistance, you will
get the final R that you can addto the initial two that I gave
you at the beginning of thispodcast episode, which is the
results that you're looking for.
(15:07):
If you look throughout history,in civil rights movements, for
example, there was resistance,there was resilience and then
there was results.
It's a formula.
So when you discover the powerof resilience, it really is an
(15:28):
underestimated powerhouse foryou to begin to lock into, to
say that, no matter what, I havethe resilience to resist what
is not best for me to get theresults that I know will work
for me on my journey toself-realization.
(15:48):
Simply meaning, as aself-realized individual, you
know internally, intuitively,what is best for you.
Resist with resilience to getthe results that you want and
live the life that you havechosen for yourself and not the
(16:10):
life that other people wouldlike to choose for you.
I sincerely appreciate youlistening to the podcast.
Please subscribe so you do notmiss any upcoming episodes.
Whatever platform you're on,please leave a rating and review
.
I would greatly appreciate it.
Any additional information onme, Linton Bergsen and my
(16:31):
five-star reviewed bookPurposeful Vision is available
at selfrealized.
com which is all one word.
You can also leave any commentsor suggestions on the website.
I look forward to connectingwith you very soon and take good
care of yourself.
Welcome to the Self-Realized Podcast with
Linton Bergsen, where you willshatter your limits.
I am not much into theself-help industry as much as
I'm into the self-realizedindividual, which is you, what
matters most to you, how you getthere and the obstacles that
may be in your way.
If you would like to be part ofthis podcast and part of that
(00:22):
discussion, I welcome you herewith an open heart, open mind
and open arms.
So, without further ado, let'sget on with the podcast.
I appreciate you taking themost valuable assets that you
(00:48):
have your time and your energyto join me on today's episode
number 96 of the Self-Realized,Shatter Your Limits Podcast.
Discover the Power of Resilience.
A lot of times we don't thinkabout resilience as a power, and
is there in fact anything to bediscovered about this great
power of resilience?
(01:09):
I would strongly suggest to youthat there is, and one of the
most important things todiscover is how do you build
resilience, to know how to useit and its power in the first
place and that is what I'm goingto share with you within this
episode it's not only the powerof resilience, but how you build
(01:30):
resilience.
Resilience is built with itscounterpart.
I call them the two R'sResilience has to have
resistance.
Contemplate on this for amoment.
Do you indeed think it ispossible to have resilience
(01:52):
without resistance?
Now, that is an importantquestion to ponder, because if
you agree with me and you wantto discover the power of
resilience, you're going to haveto have a certain amount of
resistance that you've built upin your life to be resilient
(02:12):
against whatever it is thatyou're trying to overcome in any
type of adversity or setbacksin life.
The beauty about buildingresilience and working with
resistance to do so is that youcan build resilience as fast or
(02:35):
as slow as you like.
Let me give an example of howyou control how you build
resilience.
Let's say that you decide youwant to get healthier, you want
to get fitter, you want to getstronger and you're going to
work with a trainer.
You walk into the gym together.
(02:56):
You want to build some armstrength, you want to build some
muscle mass, and the trainerhands you some weights.
And it's called resistancetraining, because in order for
you to build strength and musclemass, you have to have
resistance.
Resistance is going to bebeneficial for you to build
(03:17):
strength and muscle mass.
The trainer hands you a certainweight.
You decide, starting out, thatweight is to heavy and you would
like to try something lighter.
So the trainer hands you alighter weight.
Now you feel comfortable withthat weight.
It has enough resistance tostart out with that you can
(03:39):
begin to build upon.
So you control the resistancethat you would like to have to
build the strength that you'removing towards.
But you have to have someresistance to build the strength
.
Now, once you begin to build thestrength through the resistance
in the gym, it has certainbenefits.
(04:02):
You are more resilient when yougo out in the world.
If you were to fall over, youwould have greater body strength
to help, number one, preventthe fall and, number two,
recover more quickly because youwere in better shape.
So you were more resilient bydoing the resistance training to
(04:24):
what could happen to you ineveryday life.
The same resilience is mentalas well as it is physical,
because the resistance trainingyou did in the gym required a
certain mental toughness for youto go through that and
hopefully keep it ongoing tobuild the muscle mass and the
(04:44):
body and get to the fitnesslevel that you would like.
The main thing to consider herewhen you're looking at building
the resistance, moving towardscreating greater resilience in
your life is that you controlhow much resistance is
(05:04):
comfortable for you, just as youwould in the gym with a trainer
.
It depends on how far you wantto go.
Some people don't like anyresistance at all, so they have
no resilience.
On an everyday basis, they goout into the world and they are
a lot more vulnerable thansomeone who is working out in
(05:25):
the gym to everyday functioninginjuries and mishaps.
It's just the way life works.
If you're not taking care ofyourself and you reach out for
something that's a little tooheavy, you may injure yourself.
But if you are in better shape,you may not Contemplate on
this for a moment.
Some people don't even likeother people resisting what it
(05:51):
is they would lik e to do .
They don't like other peopleresisting their opinions.
They want everything to gotheir way, have everyone go
along with them, and when peoplequestion them or don't like
what they have to say, they haveno resilience to counter that
(06:13):
and stand up and have ameaningful conversation about
what it is they're trying toeither get across, or why they
would like to do what they aregoing to do, or the reasons that
there may be somemisunderstanding.
They are not used to dealingwith resistance in any form,
(06:33):
especially if it were to come inthe form of a personal struggle
or adversity, because when youget involved in struggles and
adversity, you are not going tobe able to resist them to the
degree that they don't occur.
You're going to have to acceptthem, not resist them, and the
(06:56):
lessons they bring to your life.
Resilience requires you not toresist situations and
circumstances that come intoyour life to help you to become
a stronger person.
You accept it, you receive itand you embrace it.
(07:17):
You begin to welcome resistanceas a powerhouse in your life of
you getting where you need togo.
Because if you're going toaccomplish anything in life and
you're going to be your ownperson, you're going to meet a
lot of resistance.
And when you embrace it and candeal with more resistance than
(07:39):
you even expect, you getstronger and stronger and your
resilience to life becomesbetter and better, because you
know that the more resistanceyou meet, the stronger you
become, because you're embracingit and not running away from it
.
As suggested earlier.
(08:00):
Going to the gym, you startsmall.
There may be some resistance towhat you're doing.
The bigger you go in life.
The bigger your goals, the moreyou're stepping out of the box
and becoming your own person,the more resistance that you're
going to get.
You are going to become moreresilient because struggle and
(08:21):
resistance are your friend,because they build muscle mass,
they build strength, they giveyou a great foundation to stand
upon and the stronger you are,the more resilient you are.
The more resistant you are topeople's opinions, feelings
(08:44):
about you, the more successfulyou can become and the more of
your own person you can be, andthat allows you to live a
happier life.
Discovering the power ofresilience is actually
increasing your resistance towhat is going on on an everyday
(09:04):
level in your life, so you canbecome more resilient.
The power of resilience is thatyou can withstand the storms
that life throws at you like aconcrete wall.
They're very resilient.
In cities where flooding can bea problem, they put up concrete
walls.
Sand is a temporary barrierbecause it's not as resilient as
(09:30):
concrete.
You don't want to establishyour life on a foundation of
sand.
You want something a little bitmore substantial than that.
The question you have to askyourself is this what type of
barriers and protections do youwant to have in your life when
life throws the inevitablechanges and adversity in your
(09:53):
life.
How resilient are you going tobe?
Let me give you some real worldexamples of resistance and
resilience working together soyou can really begin to see how
you combine these two to getresults in your life that you
want, because, ultimately,anything that you do is going
(10:16):
towards getting a result thatyou would like.
Let's talk about three areasthat are important to all of us,
that require a certain amountof resistance from you in order
for you to establish what it isthat you want out of your life.
Let's look at careerrelationships, spiritual or
(10:42):
religious beliefs.
If you want to embark upon acareer that means something to
you, you may actually haveresistance from people around
you about the pathway that youhave chosen.
If you want to be anentrepreneur, you may meet
resistance from people tellingyou that that is impossible, but
(11:02):
that is your business choice,that is your career choice.
And people telling you whetherit's family or friends, what you
can and cannot do.
You're going to have to resistthat and that's going to take
some courage and strength tofollow the path that you feel is
right for you and resist otherpeople's opinions.
(11:23):
It would be the same in anyrelationship that you're going
into.
Some people may approve, somepeople may not.
And again, you're going to haveto resist the tendency to
please other people and explainto them why you are in a certain
relationship and living up toother people's expectations of
(11:46):
what they think is appropriatefor you.
In order for you to truly behappy, you're going to have to
know your own values and resistother people and their opinions.
Thirdly, spiritual and religiousbeliefs.
You may have differentspiritual or religious beliefs
than your friends or family.
(12:06):
The pathway you're going down,that is personal, that belongs
to you.
It has nothing to do withanyone else.
It is so personal that reallyno one can tell you what you
should believe or shouldn'tbelieve, because then you become
a puppet to everybody else'sbelief systems and there's no
(12:27):
surer way for unhappiness tobecome someone that everyone
else wants you to be.
You're going to have to resistthese different areas in your
life.
They're all important.
All three are very important,and that resistance to people
telling you who and what youshould be is the foundation of
(12:47):
your uniqueness and ability toexpress yourself completely in
this life.
Now, that's the first step.
Is the resistance.
How long you can resist is theresilience.
Because when you start out ona path let's say it's a
relationship and you want to bein this relationship and people
(13:12):
keep telling you what is notright for you, but you know it
is you want this relationshipagain,.
it could be career as well, oryour spiritual or religious
beliefs.
The resistance to the input fromother people might have to be
over an extended period of time.
If you're in a relationship,you may hear for a while about
(13:36):
how this relationship isn't foryou, how inappropriate it is.
So you resist these ongoingcomments because you know that
it's right for you.
Now, if this continues on forsix months to a year, it could
be easier to not go down thepath.
In your career choice,relationship, spiritual or
(13:59):
religious beliefs, give in andnot resist anymore.
That comes back to the analogyof the gym.
If you want to increase musclemass, if you want to have a
better body, you have to gothrough the pain in order to get
the gain.
It's the same with your life.
You have to resist and persistfor an extended period of time
(14:22):
and keep going forward on yourchosen road and pathway that you
know is right for you.
Discovering the real power ofresilience is understanding that
as you go along this road inlife.
Resistance is step one, theresilience to put up with the
(14:45):
constant backlash of that isstep two, and if you can have
enough resilience to persistwith your resistance, you will
get the final R that you can addto the initial two that I gave
you at the beginning of thispodcast episode, which is the
results that you're looking for.
(15:07):
If you look throughout history,in civil rights movements, for
example, there was resistance,there was resilience and then
there was results.
It's a formula.
So when you discover the powerof resilience, it really is an
(15:28):
underestimated powerhouse foryou to begin to lock into, to
say that, no matter what, I havethe resilience to resist what
is not best for me to get theresults that I know will work
for me on my journey toself-realization.
(15:48):
Simply meaning, as aself-realized individual, you
know internally, intuitively,what is best for you.
Resist with resilience to getthe results that you want and
live the life that you havechosen for yourself and not the
(16:10):
life that other people wouldlike to choose for you.
I sincerely appreciate youlistening to the podcast.
Please subscribe so you do notmiss any upcoming episodes.
Whatever platform you're on,please leave a rating and review
.
I would greatly appreciate it.
Any additional information onme, Linton Bergsen and my
(16:31):
five-star reviewed bookPurposeful Vision is available
at selfrealized.
com which is all one word.
You can also leave any commentsor suggestions on the website.
I look forward to connectingwith you very soon and take good
care of yourself.
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