Why "Resistance Quest"?

I named this brand back in 2014. I racked my brain thinking of a cool word or phrase that did not exist anywhere else.

After a good amount of whiteboarding, mid-sleep scribbles, and Google searches to make sure "I really made it up," I settled on Resistance Quest.

So is that what it is? A brandname with no meaning besides itself? What else is "Mastercard," "Exxon," "Chevrolet," or "Starbucks" besides words that sound cool but mean nothing but the brands themselves? Maybe they meant something once, but no more. Just "credit," "oil," "cars that start with C," or "coffee."

And someday, "Resistance Quest" will be synonymous with "fitness." Is that right?

Perhaps. But for now, it means something very specific. It refers to a process that we all experience at some time in our lives, if we have the right encouragement and motivation. And often even if we don't.

In the fitness world, "resistance training" generally refers to exercises involving the use of weights. So therein lies an inherent meaning in the context of fitness.

What about "quest"? A quest is a pursuit for something specific, like a holy grail or a magic ring.

So is a Resistance Quest a pursuit for weight training? Yes. But it is also something else.

What else does "resistance" mean or stand for? When we attempt something, and that thing is hard to accomplish, we "meet resistance." When we are trying to do something we don't want to do, we might feel ourselves "resisting" the task of doing it.

Perhaps these are also the types of "resistance" that we are "questing" for. We are actually looking for endeavors that "put up resistance," and that perhaps we "resist" doing.

So, a "resistance quest" means an active and deliberate search for an activity that is challenging and that maybe we don't really "want" to do.

And yet we do it anyway.

This is, in fact, the nature of all improvement in any area of life. To progress in the personal realm, or the professional, social, or the like, certain "comfort zones" have to be identified and actively "resisted." It does not have to be rapid or immediate, but breaking through a comfort zone is necessary to succeed, and then succeed again.

After all, a comfort zone is like a wall in every respect, save one: it cannot be circumvented, climbed, or burrowed under. It can only be broken through, whether with a wrecking ball or with a small rock hammer.

A "Resistance Quest" is the summation of this effort: to find that which resists, and to resist it, even if that thing is ourselves.

It is a quest that we have all taken before, whenever we have learned, progressed, moved forward, or overcome; when we took a deep breath and tried again, waited a little longer despite impatience, gave one more chance to someone we love, forgave them for their faults, or stood up for ourselves or others; whenever we got out of bed despite the hardships of the coming day, week, or lifetime; when we chose a path and walked it, even if the choice was to make no choice at all, when we trusted someone or were trusted ourselves, despite our doubts, or when we held ourselves accountable....

All of these are Resistance Quests well-taken. Whether the outcome was a "success" is not the point. The point is that we put faith in our strength and used it, because that's what life required.

This is the strength we all possess as human beings. The next step, and the next strength, is in figuring out what WE require, and questing for that too. This quest can sometimes involve the most resistance, and the most failures, restarts, and doubts as our idea of what we "require" or "want" changes or is jolted.

It can be difficult, it can be jarring, it can be demoralizing, and it can be downright depressing, even if you succeed. But don't tell me you don't have the strength. You have it whether you like it or not, and you use it everyday.

This is what Resistance Quest hopes to signify someday: belief in this human strength, and our ability to draw on it—not just involuntarily, as a result of being human—but by choice, in pursuit of becoming something more.