Beat the resistance to express your creativity
Whenever we sit down to write something like a blog or to create something like a video or music we’re often paralyzed by a force stopping us from starting writing that first word, typing that first page, or filming that first video. Most of us have two lives, one is the life we live and the second is the unloved life within us, and between the two is the thing called the ‘Resistance’ which is the secret to overturn this paralyzing force known as procrastination. The book “The War of Art“ describes the way you can change your decision-making ability and stop being a chronic procrastinator by beating the resistance. The book is divided into three important parts which address:
Know Thy Enemy
Becoming a professional
Banishing the Ego
The first part focuses on knowing thy enemy which in this case is the resistance you face when you want to start doing a task or are taking up a challenging project. This resistance is actively working against us to stop us from doing the things we want to do. It does not stop us from binge-watching a Netflix movie or playing our favorite video game instead it stops us from being constructive with our lives. Resistance isn’t the thing that’s holding you back from cleaning the desk but instead is the force that holds you back from being creative or entrepreneurial or any activity that requires some level of risk-taking. Whenever you try to go up against this resistance, you will come up against a hill of procrastination that you will have to beat. But what fuels resistance is “Fear”, the fear of losing out, the fear of not succeeding, and so on. Resistance is activated by fear and it gains strength whenever we give in to that fear creating a vicious cycle that leads to the resistance to perform that activity even stronger. But as the book mentions fear is a good thing because as you feel scared about doing something it usually means you should just do that thing you have in mind. In a way, resistance is the compass that points towards the things in our life that are most important for us to do. The more resistance you experience, the more important your un-manifested art or project or enterprise is to you.
The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it - Steven Pressfield
Now that you know your enemy which is resistance and know what it is you need to figure out ways of dealing with it which lead to the second part which is becoming a professional. The idea of being professional stems from the idea of “An amateur vs A professional“. An amateur acts of inspiration and mood and only does things whenever he/she feels like doing it with being committed. Their goals are generally more focused on fun, money, and status with society. Instead, a professional shapes him/herself to their work as a priority committed to succeeding by following their inner drive and motivation. A professional’s goal is often driven by their passion and the only way we can deal with our resistance is by becoming one. A key takeaway from this is that a professional does not do the work for the sake of doing the work but takes pride in doing it. if your treat any idea/project as a professional you show up to work and perform the task daily, you work through adversity and are always open to criticism because you want to improve and you understand that fear when performing any task is just part of the work you do. If you are a professional with your work, you will understand that facing resistance is a daily struggle, and no matter what you have to overcome it. So treating our creative and entrepreneurial project as a professional does not mean it takes over our lives, it just means that we are approaching it with a bit more of a professional mindset instead of just winging it.
Once we become professional, the next thing we need to do is banish the ego which leads to the third part of the book that focuses on the constant battle between the self and the ego. When you are led by your ego, it focuses on maintaining your status in the eye of the world and how external events affect us. Everything seems to be superficial which gives into resistance. When we are led by “self”, we are led by the deepest form of who we are which is focused on our dreams, visions, intuition, and aspirations. For example, if I write a blog thinking in mind that this blog should reach 10k post views, it makes the process much more difficult and output-driven whereas if I write a blog expressing my ideas and consistently focus on churning out ideas once every single week it makes the process so much easier and input is driven which means that the goal I’ve set for myself is within my control.
These three parts can be a good base model for getting better at decision making as in, in your life you might never regret doing the things you scared of but you might always regret not doing the things you are scared of.
Reference:
I got my references from the book “The War of Art“ by Steven Pressfield and it has a great perspective over better decision making and battling inner resistance.
