“The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.” -Steven Pressfield
In the War of Art, Steven Pressfield spends the first third of the book describing what he dubs “Resistance.” Resistance is anything that keeps you from getting started on the deep work that you know matters most to your deepest self. It takes many forms, but ultimately they all have one thing in common; they delay you from getting started.
Starting is the only thing that counts for anything later. Taking action. Doing the work. Nobody can experience what we almost did. Nobody can learn from the ideas we are planning to share, only what we have actually shared.
There are a lot of helpful tools and methods that will help us on our journey of doing the work. None of them can be used until we have made that first choice:
Today, I will show up and do the work. I will put in the time and the effort, knowing there is
No guarantee my work will be good today; in fact I know I need to make a lot of bad work on the way to the good stuff
No certainty of acclaim; in fact it is likely my work will go unnoticed, unappreciated, or perhaps even criticized
“What would you do if you knew you would fail? What would be worth doing, even though it’s not gonna work?” -Seth Godin, author of The Practice
The thing about choosing to start is that, once we’ve started, it is surprisingly easy to keep going. With practice, time seems to melt away and we find ourselves in a blissful dance with our creativity, our authentic voice, our muse. With practice, the energy we receive from this dance becomes the reward in and of itself, and it comes with a felt sense that everything is going to be ok.
Then we have to choose to start again tomorrow. And again. And again.
If you haven’t made the choice to get started, your next step is clear: a commitment to repeatedly doing the work is the only thing that matters.
And if you have made that choice, your next step is clear: do it again. A commitment to repeatedly doing the work is the most important thing.
You’ll figure out all the other stuff as you need to. Trust yourself. Do the work today.
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