Title: Do The Work Author: Steven Pressfield Published Date: Type: #litnote #book Topics: [[ Procrastination ]] Resistance

This book will help you to understand why you are stuck and, kick you in the pants and help you get moving. Although this book is written for creative individuals, the underlying principles of this book can be applied by anyone in any field. It will help everyone moving from a less or lower conscious plane to a higher one.

Who are our enemies

Resistance

Resistance is a negative force that keeps us from doing the work. Any thing or activity that rejects immediate gratification in favor of long-term growth, health or integrity will evoke resistance. . Or expressed in another way, any act that derives from our higher nature instead of lower nature will evoke resistance. The aim of resistance is to distract us and prevent us from doing our work. Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing you work. It aims to kill our genius, our soul and our purpose

But don’t think you are the only one who suffers resistance. Resistance is a natural force. It is universal.

Rational Thought

If you start thinking rationally, you will never act big. Instead you should act from your intuition, and instinct.

Friends are family

Our friends and family know us as we are and they are invested in keeping us as we are. Therefore, if you want to change or do something new, you should prepare yourself to make new friends.

Who are our friends?

Stupidity, subbornness, blind faith, passion, assistance and friends and family are our allies.

Stay stupid and don’t allow yourself to think. Its only you and I, with our stupid brains and our tiny hearts who doubt and overthink and hesitate. So instead of wasting your time thinking, act.

Once you commit to something, the worst thing to do is to stop. Instead of being persevere, be stubborn. When you are stubborn, you ar mean and mulish. You are in it till the finish.

Start Before You Are Ready

Our enemy is not the lack of prepartion or the difficulty of the project, our enemy is the resistance. If you give your brain time to think, it will start producing excuses, justification and a million reasons why you can’t/shouldn’t/ won’t do what you need to know.

Preparation is a also a form of resistance. Goof things only happen to peope who begin before they are ready? Beacause guess what? You are never ready. Therefore, whatever you are supposed to do, start before you are ready.

Research can be fun. It can be seductive. That’s its danger. We need it, we love it. But we must never forget that research can become Resistance.

Before you begin, if you want to do research, you are only allowed to read three books on your subject. Because research can become resistance. We want to work not prepare for work.Do not underline, highlight, or take notes, just let the ideas precolate. Let the unconscios mind do the work.

Don’t overthink. Don’t overprepare. Don’t spend all of your time on planning on how you will finish the work. Don’t work on getting out every detail. Just outline it. On instinct.

How to start your creative endeavour?

The old saw says there’s no such thing as writing, only rewriting. Get your idea on paper. Figure out where you want to go and work your way backwards. If you’re writing a movie, solve the climax first. If you’re opening a restaurant, begin with the experience you want the dinner to have when she walks in and enjoys a meal. Answer the question, “What is this about?”

End first, then beginning and middle. That’s your startup, that’s your plan for competing in a triathlon, that’s your ballet.

The Middle

The resistance is an active and inextinguishable force which stops us from becoming our bestt selves and from achieving our higher goals. We can never eliminate resistance but we can outsmart it.

Fill in the gaps

Any project or enterpise can be broken down into beginning, middle and the end. Fill in the gaps between the gaps.

Create a rough draft

One rule for overcoming resistance is to get the first full working draft as soon as possible. You don’t have to worry about the quality. Create a momentum and get to the end as if the devil himself was behind your back. Don’t think and don’t look down. Just get your first draft as fast as you can.

Don’t let your inner critic judge yourself. Nobody is ever gonna see your first draft. It doesn’t matter however flawed or imperfect your draft is, don’t judge it. It is not being graded anyway.

Capture ideas

Ideas don’t come linearly. Don’t resist ideas. Instead have something to capture them. Don’t control the idea. Your job is to figure what the idea is and bring it into being.

The opposite of resistance

Resistance is universal and behind every law there is equal and opposite law. The opposite of resistance is assistance. If you are working, it will generate its own energy field. The universe responds this. It helps to translate potential to being and convert dreams into reality. As seth godin said: Monentum is everything. keep it goind. Every day ask yourself how much time can you spare each day. For that time close yourself inside a room and don’t let anybody in. Just work.

Principles of resistance

Resistance is an enemy and its recognition is enormously powerful. It can save your life.
The aim of resistance is not tok obstruct you or harm you. Its aim is to kill. It will kill you like cancer.
Resistance is not something that's outside. It's inside. It's inside you. It comes from within you. 
Resistence is inside you, but not you. That means, you are not to blame for the voices of resistance you hear in your head. If you got your head, you've got a voice of resistance. 
The real you must fight the resistance you. You are the knight and resistance is the dragon. The aim of resistance is to keep you away from all the wealth, wisdom and freedom that's inside you. It's aim is to guard to its final breath. 
Resistance arises second after the passion. Resistance is the response to the idea. 

Resistance asks you two questions

How bad do you want it?
Why do you want it?

The Middle

• Failure
  • we all fail. But they are not the end. They are good for us. It means that we have to grow. It’s a sign that you are getting better and still need to learn more things.
• fear of success
  • Our greatest fear is the fear of success. When we are succeeding and advancing in our craft, we evolve to a higher level. That’s when panic strikes. And panic is a good sign. It’s a sign that we are growing. In the words of Mairanne Williamson: Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

The End

Finishing is the critical part of any project. If we don’t finish, all the work that we did means nothing. To finish your project and ship it to the world requires ball of steels. Resistance works strongest when you are at the finish. When we ship, we are exposed. That’s why we’re so afraid of it. When we ship, we’ll be judged. We can fail. We can be humiliated.

Beat the dragon once

Slay that dragon once and he will never have the power over you again. He still will be there. You’ll have to fight him every morning. But once you have beaten him, you’ll know that you’ll beat him and that is a game changer.