Every great story has a villain.
The Lord of the Rings has Sauron. Star Wars has Darth Vader.
In his book The War of Art, Steven Pressfield created an unusual one. He called it Resistance.
We fight with Resistance every day without knowing. It’s intelligent and silent.
Usually, it shows its face in the form of procrastination. Sometimes fear, anxiety or arrogance.
It finds a way to justify everything. “You’re too tired now”, “You’re too old for that!”, “You’re not good enough!”
Resistance is inside you. It’s a force that would like to keep things the same. You can feel it whenever you’d like to do something useful for yourself.
It likes short-term rewards; like binge-watching Netflix. And hates action that drives growth. Like a creative act or getting out of your comfort zone.
Most of us have two lives: the life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.
Steven Pressfield
The War of Art
The good news is everybody has Resistance. It’s not that you are weak and you cannot change. We all have to deal with it.
Steven says people who don’t know how to deal with Resistance are amateurs. And people who know how to deal with it are professionals.
Professionals are aware of their biggest enemy.
They know that whenever they are on the right track, the Resistance will come into play with all its power and divert them from their calling.
They know the stronger they feel Resistance, the more they need to go in that direction. There is always something important there.
And they fight and beat Resistance every single day by showing up and taking action, no matter what it says.
Ask yourself:
– Next time you find yourself procrastinating, think: Is it your conscious decision to not do the work? Or are you losing the battle against Resistance?
– Have you recently had a plan about your life that you didn’t follow through on? Was it your conscious decision? Or was it Resistance finding smart justifications to keep you in your comfort zone?
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Recommendations:
Video: Steven Pressfield explains what Resistance is in two minutes
Video: Steven’s podcast with Rich Roll, where he talks about self-sabotage, beating Resistance, storytelling, and how he ran away across America. (2 hours)