Monday's Motivation

Today, I thought I’d share what’s inspiring me at the moment.  Hopefully, it will also be of some value to you. As I’m prone to procrastination I find it particularly useful.

Steven Pressfield wrote a book some time ago called The War of Art.

He maintains that everyone has a talent that arms them with the ability to create something valuable for the world. Very few people act on this though because they give in to “Resistance.”

He says;

“There is a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t and that secret is this: It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance.”

People may claim to be ignorant of what Resistance is. You may have never heard the name before, but you know what friction is. It has beaten you before. You are human so Resistance has won at least once. The goal is to become the master of Resistance.

“Are you a writer that doesn’t write? A painter that doesn’t paint? An entrepreneur who never starts a venture? Then you know what Resistance is. It is the most toxic force on the planet. To yield to Resistance deforms our spirit. It stunts us and makes us less than we are and were born to be.”

The goal of Resistance is to simply prevent you from doing your work.

“Resistance cannot be seen, touched, heard or smelled. But it can be felt. We experience it as an energy field radiating from a work-in-potential. It’s a repelling force. It’s negative. Its aim is to shove us away, distract us, and prevent us from doing our work. Resistance is not a peripheral opponent. Resistance arises from within. It is self-generated and self-perpetuated. Resistance is the enemy within.

Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work.”

So how do we go about defeating Resistance?

Consistency is essential to defeating Resistance. Without consistency you will self-sabotage. Do the work. Sit down. Be consistent.

I remember once asking an Artist I much admired how he is able to conceptualize and keep creating his magnificent works and he simply said; “Being creative is hard work.”

Somerset Maugham said something similar when he said;

“I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’ clock sharp.”

Steven Pressfield writes;

“The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down everyday and trying.

When we sit down each day and do our work, power concentrates around us. The Muse takes note of our dedication. She approves. We have earned favor in her sight.

When we sit down and work, we become like a magnetized rod that attracts iron filings. Ideas come. Insights accrete.

We come into this world with a specific personal destiny. We have a job to do, a calling to enact, a self to become.”

He goes on to say that most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Individuals who are realized in their own lives almost never criticize others. If they speak at all, it is to offer encouragement.

I’ll finish with a last quote from Pressfield;

“Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got. An amateur lets the negative opinion of others unman him. He takes external criticism to heart, allowing it to trump his own belief in himself and his work. Resistance loves this.

The professional cannot allow the actions of others to define his reality. Tomorrow morning the critic will be gone, but the writer will still be there facing the blank page. Nothing matters but that he keeps working.

The professional learns to recognize envy-driven criticism and to take it for what it is: the supreme compliment. The critic hates most that which he would have done himself if he had had the guts.”

This also reminds me of the psychological phenomenon known as the spotlight effect. We over-emphasize the role we play in other people’s lives. We forget we are only the main actors on the stage of our own play. We’re the centre of our own world, not the centre of everyone else’s.

We should just get on with it and create without worrying too much of what others will make of it.

It is better to create something imperfect than to be paralyzed by fear and Resistance and not create anything at all.

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