The War of Art, Part I “Resistance, defining the enemy”
September 18, 2008
The book starts out “Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.”
How many countless goals and dreams are not realized every year? How many times does a new gym pass go unused? How many great ideas does someone have but never actually starts anything? I could go on but you get the point. What Steven Pressfield says gets in the way is “Resistance”. It is an enemy that we are all fighting. There is a symphony waiting to be written inside us all.
A lot of the unhappiness in the world right now is due to people resisting their true callings. The more important a calling is the more we resist doing it. Why? Is it fear? Fear is good. Fear is an indicator which tells us what we have to do. Guess what, fear isn’t going to go away. Henry Fonda was still throwing up before each stage performance. The battle must be fought a new each day.
What does resistance feel like?
Unhappiness. We’re bored, we’re restless. We’re disgusted. We hate our lives. There’s guilt but we can’t figure out the source. We’re depressed. Sounds like life, well it isn’t. It’s Resistance.
We all enjoyed watching Michael Phelps break world record after world record (everyone except his competitors). Michael Phelps has resistance too. Every morning he wakes up at a certain time. You are wrong if you think he doesn’t want to stay in bed.
I heard about another great swimmer that would get so nervous before each race that he would throw up, every time. Where is he now? He gave up. He lost the battle against resistance and he can rationalize it anyway he wants. The truth is, he lost and resistance won.
As Socrates demonstrated long ago, the truly free individual is free only to the extent of his own self-mastery. While those who will not govern themselves are condemned to find masters to govern over them.
Never forget: This very moment, we can change our lives. We have the power to alter our destiny. This second, we can sit down and do our work. Resistance can be beaten, if it couldn’t there would be no Fifth Symphony, no Romeo and Juliet, no Golden Gate bridge, no Google, no Apple, and the list goes on.
