After upgrading my computer, renaming the blog, enlisting support to trouble-shoot technical glitches and alerting many of you to the “relaunch” ta-dah!— well….the blank page stared back at me.
Hello Resistance, we meet again.
I had never really defined ‘lack of action’ this way before until a wonderfully insightful book called “The War of Art” found me a few months ago. As Steven Pressfield writes, “Resistance cannot be seen, touched, heard or smelled. But it can be felt. We experience it as an energy field radiating from work-in-potential. It’s a repelling force. It's negative. Its aim is to shove us away, distract us, prevent us from doing our work…”
It's “Talking about a revolution,” as my friend Dave would say.
Once I became aware of Resistance, I began seeing it everywhere, manifesting its many forms.
It’s a daily occurrence at work, and I would even say that it’s the barrier between good to great, and truly realizing our potential. Resistance can even be more apparent with loved ones, whose best self you see and believe in, and yet are armed with excuses you may know better than your own.
Steven Pressfield defines Resistance as the insidious enemy within, that thwarts plans and dreams, sabotaging small and large efforts, distracting with activity, vice and obligations.
Distracting perhaps from a life assignment…that may go unrealized.
With me, the blank sheet of paper gets tied up with waiting for inspiration to strike, in order to attempt to create something worth reading. Pressfield calls this waiting on the Muse.
The Muse seems to always be around during the seasons when life really flows, and everything clicks and falls into place. It’s in the ebbs, where things feel dry, dark and barren, when Resistance really shows up, sweeping in for the easy victory.
It’s in these moments that you must begin (like I am beginning now), not knowing where you are going, though keeping the faith that if you just start, if you make the first move, eventually the Muse will show up again…
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