Yes too much resistance can stop us in our tracks, but there are benefits to meeting a little resistance as we strive to achieve our goals.

I remember how thrilled I was when my first Arduino board came in the mail. I just started building electronics as a hobby and I was super excited to dive into the world of microcontrollers. The Arduino that I bought came with a kit including LEDs , resistors, and other components for basic projects.

Eager to start right away , I went to the instructions link and begin to build the first tutorial project: a blinking LED light. I got a breadboard , some wires, and a LED to build the circuit according to the tutorial’s schematic. After finishing the circuit I opened the Arduino software and wrote the code needed to make the LED blink. I checked my program , compiled it, and uploaded it to the board. Everything was good to go! I connected a wire to feed power from my Arduino to the LED on the breadboard and then powered my Arduino ready to see the blinking LED that I constructed .

The soft green glow of the LED was cut short by a loud “POP!” accompanied with the smell of burning electronics . Sadly my LED did not blink. I went back to the schematics to see what had gone wrong . I forgot to add a resistor to the circuit.

Resistors are objects with the ability to reduce the amount of electrical current flowing through them. While it may seem counterintuitive to weaken the current, resistance actually has its benefits. Many electrical components , like the LED from my project, cannot handle the full blast of electricity generated from the circuit board. The resistor (a 220 ohm [Ω] one this this case) weakens the current just enough to make the LED glow without overheating it.

When we are excited about a goal we put passion and energy into making it happen. Our goal is like a LED light and the energy that we put in is the electricity that turns the light on. Sometimes we get a little overzealous . We rush to act immediately and bypass the steps that force us to slow down. We fail to address the smaller specifics of our goals because they are monotonous and time consuming. We avoid seeking a second opinion because we don’t want to spend time addressing critiques to our work.

Skipping the steps that give us a little resistance causes us to overlook the minute details necessary to achieve our goals. Instead all of our energy goes straight into our ideas with nothing to keep it grounded. Because of this negligence and haste we “blow out” our goals before they can come to fruition.

Yes too much resistance can stop us in our tracks, but there are benefits to meeting a little resistance as we strive to achieve our goals. Resistance forces us to pay attention to the fine points of our work that we overlook. It offers another perspective that can be beneficial in the long run. Instead of avoiding all forms of resistance we should learn to embrace it as a necessary part of achieving our goals. A little resistance can be the difference between blowing a major opportunity and our ideas shining to illuminate the world!

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