We may receive commissions for affiliate links included in this article. This is a sponsored post. Future Sharks makes no warranties about the statements, facts and/or claims made on this article. These are the opinions of the author. Read our advertising and contributor disclosure here.
The Internal Battle
Calling on my creative genius can often be perplexing. Sometimes I feel like the harder I pull on creativity, the harder it pulls away from me. Have you heard that quote? “The hardest battle you’ll ever have to fight is against yourself”. It’s the real deal. The biggest takeaways from “The War of Art” revolve around equipping oneself to win these internal battles.
You can’t battle against yourself with brute force. You will always lose. By definition, the harder you punch, the harder you get punched back. It’s why the battle against yourself is such a challenge. It’s counter-intuitive. It takes finesse, not brute force. Don’t fight fear with fear. Fight it with love… baby 😉
I am fascinated with how Steven Pressfield articulates this challenge in his book “The War of Art”. It is a philosophical yet practical dive into the battle against yourself which highlights Resistance as the enemy. If you have spent any time with the “Tao Te Ching” or “Meditations” you will recognize similarities. It is a compilation of credos and philosophical awareness made by Steven throughout his life, relating to the challenge of Resistance.
“The War of Art” is a powerful book in my life and I often refer back to it or listen to it as I go to sleep. I hope it can be powerful for you as well. I am writing this summary to do a couple things:
- Get you to read it if you haven’t already.
- Get you to reflect on some core points if you have read it.
- Help you translate some of the insights into tools to fight Resistance in your own lives.
Book Intro
Three things are made clear from the beginning of “The War of Art” I want to highlight:
1) “Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance”
He recognizes two definite lives. The one that acts on the itch, the calling, the things that scare you the most and the one that does not. It’s clear to me after reading “The War of Art” several times that Steven genuinely wants all humans to live the life on the other side of Resistance.
2) “Resistance is the most toxic force on the planet. It is the root of more unhappiness than poverty, disease, and erectile dysfunction”
He despises Resistance. Throughout his life he has come to the conclusion Resistance is the core reason for all most of the negative happenings in our world. He was on a mission to figure out what was stopping him from achieving his dreams and deemed the root of all other barriers, Resistance.
3) “Genius is a Latin word; the Romans used it to denote an inner spirit, holy and inviolable, which watches over us, guiding us to our calling.”
All humans have a genius. We don’t recognize remarkable humans because they are genius’s. We recognize them for their ability to consistently tap into their genius.
I’m not sure I believe in a holy spirit living inside all humans. Said that I lean toward the idea there is something magical within all of us that only we have the power to tap into. It’s not circumstantial. There is no luck involved or a higher power nudging you in the right direction. The only person who can help you is you.
“The War of Art” is broken into three sections:
- Resistance: Defining the enemy
- Combating Resistance: Turning Pro and Beyond
- Resistance: The Higher Realm
Defining the Enemy
“The enemy is a very good teacher.” – Dalai Lama
This section is broken down into two more subsections; characteristics and symptoms:
1) Characteristics
“The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.”
The next time you are feeling a little discomfort, or rather a lot of discomfort, try to look at it like Steven does. Take it as a hint you are onto something special. The universe is telling you something great is behind that wall of discomfort. Aka, recognize the Resistance and use that shit!
“Every ounce of juice it possesses comes from us. We feed it with power by our fear of it. Master that fear and we conquer resistance.”
How do you master fear? I think Steven answered it above. Fear, like discomfort, is another dead giveaway. To master fear we need to habitually do things we are afraid of. Tim Ferris calls this “fear setting”. Identify things you fear and schedule a time to act on them like you would schedule exercise in your week.
2) Symptoms
“Procrastination is the most common manifestation of Resistance because it’s the easiest to rationalize. We don’t tell ourselves, “I’m never going to write my symphony.” Instead, we say, “I am going to write my symphony; I’m just going to start tomorrow.”
Some of the most creative and intelligent people I know procrastinate projects until the very last minute. They say the pressure feeds their creative energy. The result, they get very little deep work done for 6 days then sit down for 10 hours straight and pump it out. While this clearly works for some people, I’d be willing to bet if they tricked their mind into urgency 7 days a week for 3-4 hours at a time they would get a lot more done and manifest much more for themselves.
How do you trick yourself into urgency? Try creating fake deadlines for yourself scattered throughout the week. Do NOT schedule multiple deadlines for one day.
“Rationalization: Instead of showing us our fear (which might shame us and impel us to do our work), Resistance presents us with a series of plausible, rational justifications for why we shouldn’t do our work.”
Steven labels rationalization as the silent killer. I had a productive week so I don’t need to work on my side project this weekend. I had a late night at work so I can skip my run tomorrow morning. Yep, sometimes logic works against you 😉
Combating Resistance: Turning Pro
Steven talks about Professionalism quite a bit. He even capitalizes it, so it must be important. Like Resistance, he takes a philosophical approach toward describing what the word represents. His definition is more than “someone who gets paid for a service”
Below is what I find to be the most relevant and actionable ways to develop “Professionalism” and to combat “Resistance”:
1) Patience
“The Professional steels himself at the start of a project, reminding himself it is the Iditarod, not the sixty-yard dash. He conserves his energy. He prepares his mind for the long haul.”
Gary V speaks about patience it quite a bit, but I still think we can recognize it as a member of our toolkit more often. It goes hand and hand with resilience. The calm and patient mind will bounce back much faster. When we live with patience the bumps along our path become insignificant.
2) Craft
“A pro views her work as a craft, not art. She understands that all creative endeavors are holy, but she doesn’t dwell on it. She knows if she thinks about that too much, it will paralyze her. So she concentrates on technique. The professional masters how, and leaves what and why to the gods.”
Our minds are not capable of thinking fundamentals and being creative at the same time. Most impactful creation comes after the foundation has been built. My favorite analogy is in sports. Tom Brady threw that touchdown pass 100 times before you saw it on TV. He spent countless hours studying the opponent and knows the mind of the defensive coach better than he knows his wife. All the boxes are checked and creativity is free to flow through him with no Resistance.
3) Fear
“The amateur believes he must first overcome his fear; then he can do his work. The professional knows that fear can never be overcome. He knows there is no such thing as a fearless warrior or a dread-free artist.”
Richard Branson speaks to this in his most recent book, Finding my virginity. Are you afraid? Do you feel unprepared for the task? Good! Say yes and work backward to find the solution.
Beyond Resistance: The Higher Realm
“The point, for the thesis I’m seeking to put forward, is that there are forces we can call our allies. As Resistance works to keep us from becoming who we were born to be, equal and opposite powers are counterpoised against it. These are our allies and angels.”
If you put yourself in the right circumstances creative energy will manifest naturally. Like chemistry, but in this case, the elements are professionalism, patience, seeking discomfort, etc.
Below are the forces I find most practical:
1) Magic of starting
“Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would not otherwise have occurred.”
Tim Ferris has a very practical way of starting and sticking to decisions that I love! He says to make decisions that are to simple to break. Do 1 pushup every morning for the next month. It’s silly but it gets you in the habit of starting. I dare you to rationalize your way out of doing 1 pushup.
2) The magic of keeping going
“What does it tell us about the architecture of our psyches that, without our exerting effort or even thinking about it, some voice in our head pipes up to counsel us (and counsel us wisely) on how to do our work and live our lives?
The power of momentum. We have pretty cool brains. They have the ability to achieve exponential growth. Something happens when we double down, the game starts to become fun and Resistance is replaced with flow.
The y-axis represents creativity, the mindset, the muse or whatever you think the components are of personal growth. The x-axis represents the number of times you overcame fear, acted on a decision, sought out discomfort or stopped yourself from acting on a negative urge.
3) The Ego & the Self
“Authentic Self: Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.”
I don’t believe in fate. It’s tough for my logical mind to believe that we are born to be X and all we have to do to get there is search deep inside ourselves to figure that out.
On a practical level, “finding yourself” means doing a shit ton of experimenting to identify the shit that lights you on fire.
4) The greatest fear
“The Mother of all Fears that’s so close to us that even when we verbalize it we don’t believe it. Fear That We Will Succeed. That we can access the powers we secretly know we possess. This is the most terrifying prospect a human being can face.”
This is particularly relevant today. We know it’s possible to achieve our dreams because we see people on social media doing it consistently. This scares the dog shit out of us. We tend to reflect more harshly on our present selves if we know a “better” version of ourself exists. Remember that first quote? “Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.” It’s the real deal!
Conclusion
“Are you a born writer? Were you put on earth to be a painter, a scientist, an apostle of peace? In the end, the question can only be answered by action. Do it or don’t do it. It may help to think of it this way. If you were meant to cure cancer or write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don’t do it, you not only hurt yourself, even destroy yourself. You shame the angels who watch over you and you spite the Almighty, who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter farther along its path back to God. Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.”
Victor Frankl makes a related statement in his popular book, “A Man’s Search for Meaning” Do not ask “what can I expect from this life” but rather “what does this life expect from me”
You are a gift to the world. Don’t let Resistance prevent you from delivering your gift!
➡ Looking to get featured on Future Sharks?
