I read a book called The War of Art by Steven Pressfield about a year ago. I picked up the book because I am interested about the topic that the book covers. The book taught me about resistance. This book changed the way I think and this is one of the best book I have ever read on this kind of topic.
What is Resistance?
a universal force that has one sole mission: to keep things as they are. It is the force that will stop an individual's creative activity through any means necessary. - Steven Pressfield
Resistance is dangerous because it keeps you away from your dreams. It stops you from chasing your goals. Have you ever wanted to lose weight? Resistance will keep you away from going to the gym, eating healthy, and many more. Have you ever wanted to start writing? Resistance will keep you away from your laptop. Have you ever wanted to learn new things? Resistance will also stop you from doing so.
Most of us have two lives: The life we live and the unlived life within us. Resistance stands between the two of them. - Steven Pressfield This quote from the book hits me really hard. It made me realized that resistance is the force that keeps me away from the live I have always wanted. Some people think that all of those successful people don't face resistance on daily basis. The thing is they do. They face resistance each and everyday.
The Form of Resistance I think the one that I have always faced is procrastination. We always tell ourself that "we are going to do the things later" not "we are never going to do the things". This is the main problem, the more we procrastinate the more we feel okay about it. Procrastination is not okay. It will become a habit and it is going to be hard to kill that kind of habit. The thing that I do everytime I want to procrastinate is if it can be done right now then I will immediately do the task. It keeps me away from procrastination.
The next form that I learned after reading this book is Criticism. I have never thought about this one before. To be honest with you, I do criticize a lot in my daily life. It is a bad habit that I should get rid of.
People criticize because we start to see other people living their authentic life and we haven't even started yet. - Steven Pressfield
How to Fight Resistance? First thing that got mentioned in the book is to turn pro. Turning Pro means that we are dedicated to our craft full time. Turning Pro means that we are in love with the game that we are currently in. Before we turn pro we can't really beat resistance. What are the traits of a pro?
The pro accepts money but the thing that keeps them going is because they love what they do. I think it is impossible to be a pro in a field that we are passionate about. I didn't love my college degree that is why I am not good at it, I studied on every exam and I forgot everything the next day. If you enjoy your craft, work doesn't even feel like work because it is fun. The thing that we should do is just focus on the work and keep showing up every single day, it won't be easy but I promise you that it is worth it.
There is no mystery to turning pro, it is brought by an act of will. We make up our mind to view ourself as pros and we do it. - Steven Pressfield
There are too many things I got from the book, it is impossible to write it all down here. Resistance seems impossible to beat until you realized that there are a lot of people that have defeated it. I hope that you learn something from it and I hope that this will help you fight your resistance.
Thank you for taking the time to read. I appreciate it always. See you on the next one!