Do The Work
Have you ever sat and wondered why you can’t get certain things done? That is, you have a lot of ideas and you fantasize about how you want your life to be but you can’t just get yourself to sit down and do the work. You can’t get yourself together to take action on your brilliant idea. Or even when you are ready to do the work and you have all the tools at your disposal, you still find a plethora of reasons not to do the work. The awful monster deep in your soul that keeps you from doing the work is known as THE RESISTANCE
Every day, a person wakes up to conflict. The enemy in this battle is that multi-faced Dragon, The Resistance. Valiantly, like Knights, every person must contend against the enemy within in all its various forms. The prize of this battle is our very own survival, so we must fight desperately every day.
Some activities that can entice resistance are; any creative endeavour (painting, writing, music, film, dance, coding) or any unconventional behaviour, launching of an enterprise, health diet, programs of spiritual advancement or any program to overcome an unwholesome habit. In essence, any act that rejects immediate gratification in favour of long-term growth, health or integrity, entices resistance
Resistance and Procrastination, are brothers from the same family. This is because procrastination can become a habit that we keep doing till we die. Rationalization is another right-hand man to resistance. The job of rationalization is to keep us from feeling the shame we would feel if we truly faced what cowards we are for not doing our work. Rationalization comes as a series of plausible rational justifications for why we shouldn’t put in the work.
The good news is that we can all combat resistance, but in order to combat resistance, we must stop handling our creative endeavours as amateurs. We should rather handle them as professionals do. What do professionals do?
Show Up Every Day
This is very important in every creative endeavour we want to embark on. In order to be successful, we must get up every single day and show up to do the work. The professional shows up every day whether he/she wants to or not. As long as they don’t they get fired. So fight the resistance and show up every day.
Stay On The Job All Day
Our minds may wander, but our bodies remain at wheel. We don’t go home till the whistle blows.
The Stakes Are Real And High
The professional knows the work he/she is engaged in is for his/her survival and livelihood. Therefore whatever they are engaged in can’t be treated as a hobby but as a real job. If we treat every important task as a serious job, we are steps away from combating the resistance.
Don’t Over-Identify With Your Work
Most times, people are happy with the illusion of being a writer, painter, musician etc. and are eager to identify with such titles that they never get the time to put in the work to really get to where they are meant to be so they stay dreaming. A professional doesn’t waste time struggling with the idea of being a writer, musician painter etc. because they have combated the resistance. So they know in order to get to where they should be they simply put in the work then others see them and identify them by their work.
So to reiterate, Resistance is an enemy within you that you must fight every day. It is always going to be present in your life every single day and it will come in different forms. The important thing when dealing with resistance is to be conscious of its presence and be ready to put in the work to combat it so that you can reach the goals you have set in different areas of your life. So whatever you do or dream you can do, BEGIN IT! Boldness has genius, magic and power in it. BEGIN IT NOW!!!
P.S For further reading on how to combat the resistance, you can read;
– The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
– Do the Work by Steven Pressfield