When inspiration touches talent, she gives birth to truth and beauty.

A few weeks ago I had a conversation with my husband about this blog:

Me: I think I should stop my blog
Him: Why?
Me: Because my writing is terrible and it takes forever to come up with ideas
Him: You are improving so it’s good. And practice makes perfect right?
Me: Yeah but I don’t have many readers anyway
Him: You haven’t done it for that long and it takes time to build your audience
Me: Yeah but I don’t know how blogging is useful for me
Him: Well, by writing up about the book you read, you are learning and remembering more of the content. So it’s a good way to expand your knowledge and reinforce it in your memory.
Me: hmm… yeah… but…

This conversation went on for a while with me giving every single possible reason for quitting. Suddenly I realised “shit… this is Resistance” a term used in the book I was reading at that time, The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. I realised that I was trying to rationalise which is sort of like the right-hand man of Resistance. I just did exactly what the book was saying, I dropped right into it!

The bad news is Resistance never sleeps, it is always trying to stop you from doing what you are aiming to do in life. There are many ways that Resistance can manifest itself. One example that most of us can likely relate to is procrastination. Have you ever said to yourself “I need to start exercising more, but I am too tired today so I will start tomorrow”? Or “I am going to write the report, but it’s not due for two weeks so I am just going to start tomorrow”? We all know it is procrastination. It is the easiest way for Resistance to win over us because it is combined with rationalisation. Resistance prevents us from doing our work in this world and tells us to take life easy and to be ordinary.

Resistance obtains its power from our fear. In my Poke the Box post I wrote about my fear in starting up this blog. My fear of failing fuelled Resistance for a while and stopped me from creating the blog. Although I overcame it then (obviously as you are reading the blog now), it lingers and never goes away. It is waiting for the right time to use its power again to stop me from doing my work! And Resistance is the most dangerous when you are faced with what Steven called “the mother of all fears”. It is the fear that you will succeed. When you are so close to the finish line, Resistance will panic and does everything it can to make you quit. This reminds me of one of Bob Parsons’ 16 Rules for Success:

When you’re ready to quit, you’re closer than you think (Bob Parsons)

Remembering this quote helps me to fight Resistance.

Resistance is directly proportional to love. If you’re feeling massive Resistance, the good news is, it means there’s tremendous love there too.

Steven provides ways of defeating Resistance by becoming a professional. One way of becoming a professional is by showing up every day and trying. When you sit down and set aside time to do your work, power will start to concentrate around you. This allows ideas to come and insights to accrue. Being a professional also means loving your work and being realistic with your timetable to finish.

Resistance is the main topic in The War of Art, and Steven Pressfield covers the different characteristics of Resistance and how to make the transformation to become a professional and beat it. No matter what you are called to do in life, this book will make you realise what is stopping you to get there and how to overcome it. Although parts of the book can be tough to go through, it is a worthwhile read.

The power to take charge was in my hands; all I had to do was believe it