Do the Work : Overcome Resistance and Get Out of Your Own Way by Steven Pressfield

How to beat up your worst enemy aka yourself ?

The most important a call or action is to our soul’s revolution, the more resistance will feel towards pursuing it. Fear doesn’t go away, warrior and artist live by same code of necessity, which dictates the battle must be fight again every day.

What is our allies in this battle ?

1. Stay stupid : Don’t think, act. Ignorance are your friend, You must be clueless enough to have no idea how difficult something is and cocky enough to believe we can put put if off.

2. Stubborn : No quit in us, we are mean, we are mulish

3. Blind faith : Belief in something we cant see , hear, touch or even feel. There will be always something in the box.

4. Passion : Fear sops passion

5. Assistance

Start before you are ready. Baby are born in blood and chaos, stay primitive. In baseball they have a saying “swing for the seats”. Figures where you want to go, then work backward from there.

When we set out to create something, we meet an equal opposite reaction. Resistance is an active, intelligent , protean, relentless and in extinguishable force to stop us becoming our best self. The universe is not indifferent, its actively hostile.

Work in progress produce its own gravitated field, create by your will and attention. This field attract like-spirited entities. Ignore false negatives, ignore false positives, Both are resistance, just keep working.

Ask yourself” What is this damn thing about ?”/ Ask yourself : What is missing? then fill the gap.

Principle 1: There is an enemy : There is an enemy, there is an intelligent, active,, negative force working against us. By recognition alone is power,its saves life.

Principle 2:  This enemy is irreplaceable: It will kill you, it will like you like cancer.

Principle 3: The enemy is inside you. It come from us

Principle 4: The enemy is inside you, but its not you. It means you are not to blame for the voices of resistance you hear in your head.

Principle 5: The real you must deal with the resistance you. The only intercourse between the knight and the dragon is battle.

Principle 6: Resistance arises second : Resistance is the shadow cast by the innovative self’s sun. Opposite of fear is love, love of challenge, love of the work, the pure passion to take shot.

Principle 7: Opposite of resistance is assistance : We can align ourselves with universal forces of assistance – this dreamer, this passion to make the UN-manifest manifest and ride them into battle against the dragon.

There are 2 tests when we face resistance :

  1. How bad do you want it ?
  2. Why do you want it ?

Crashes are hell, but in the end they are good for us. A crash means we have to grow.

Our greatest fear is fear of success. Pain was momentary, a natural part of process of growth. The problem is the problem, our project crashed is not a reflection of our worth as human being. It just is a mistakes. Its a problem, a problem can be solved, solution was mechanical.

No matter how great an artist, he is a mortal, he is fallible. He is not proof against resistance. He will drop the ball, he will crash.

Finishing is the critical part of any project. If we cant finish, our work is nothing. It takes ball of steel to ship. Resistance was strongest at the finish. He did what he had to do, no matter nitty or unorthodox, to finish and ready to ship.

You are taking a few blows. that is the price for being in the arena and not on the sideline.

Slay the dragon once, and he will never have power over you again.

Until next time

Read the book here >> shop-now-button-copy

 

 

 

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