Alisa, a 4th grader in Denise Waters’ class at Norman Rockwell Elementary, asks, “Is anyone against you on this walk?”
Alisa, the short answer is, “No.”
There are plenty of people who say, “You can’t do that,” or “that’s dangerous.” However, that’s not resistance. Those are just words coming from peoples’ mouths signaling that I might have some details to think through.
I also get plenty of blank stares. When I tell people what I’m doing, including people here in Turkey, about 70% of them just look at me with blank faces, as if they misheard me. This morning for example, someone asked me that same question. When I told him I was walking across the country, he continued with the normal questions (“where are you from,” “what do you do there,” etc). Only when I was walking away did what I said register with him. He called out after me, asking me if it was true, and then he couldn’t stop telling everyone standing nearby.
When you want to do something a lot of people are already doing, you’ll get a lot of resistance.
But when you want to do something very few people are doing, you’ll get almost none. The resistance will come from inside you, and it will be stronger than anything anyone else could ever send your way. But if you overcome that, your path will be clear.