Hello Resistance, How Are You Today and What Do You Want?
The inaction is strong with this one. Or is it?
Do you ever feel like you’re not doing enough? Maybe you have these bouts of work that last for a while here, a time there, but then, even if you’ve gotten a ton of stuff done, you still question what you’ve not done?
Studies I’ve read (but am not looking up to cite here) have shown that most people who “work” an 8-hour day only work maybe 2-4 hours, in total. This is true for lots of reasons, but I believe (again, I’m not citing anything but my memory) this is because most modern jobs don’t need an 8-hour day.
When you’re in a factory on an assembly line, or packing materials in an Amazon warehouse, I imagine that you are working the full 8-hour day. But if you have any sort of office job, odds are you work a bit here, a bit there, but not the full-on 8 hours.
Factor in working from home, and how the “discipline” of in-office supervision alters this further. However, if the work you must do gets done in 2 of the 8 hours that you’re “working”, I think that’s proof positive that the 8-hour workday isn’t what it used to be.
The reason I’m going on about this is because this notion of 8 hours working is insidious. Thus, if you get all your work done in 2 hours and have 6 hours without, is it any wonder you might feel like you’re not doing enough?
Enter the artist. As an author, I strive to write at least 1500 words of fiction a day. When I don’t meet that goal, one key reason is Resistance.
What is Resistance?
I’ve written about this before, but the concept of Resistance is based on the definition by Steven Pressfield in his brilliant book The War of Art. As Mr. Pressfield explains,
“Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance.”
Resistance manifests as fear, procrastination, writer’s block, excuses reasonable and unreasonable for not doing your creative work, and the like. It is a wholly internal thing, not a product of the world without but the world within. As Mr, Pressfield explains further,
“Resistance has no strength of its own. 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.”
What is it that Mr. Pressfield believes we’re afraid of? Success, failure, being seen, not being seen, being judged, being ignored; but most of all, fear of being our truest, most authentic, and genuine creative self. Rather than slot ourselves into the place society expects us to be, we go where we desire to be.
This is a pernicious, challenging, often frustrating nuisance. It will show up right on time and also unexpectedly, and it will keep you from doing your work.
Lately, Resistance has been sticking around me like an uninvited relative sleeping on my couch and showing no signs of ever leaving.
I’m working, but why aren’t I doing the work?
Like everyone else, I have bills to pay. Rent, insurance, utilities, credit cards, the usual. Also, I need food, clothing, gas for my car, and other things that cost money.
To allow me the opportunity to work as a full-time authorpreneur I have a part-time job. Two of them, in fact. Both involve working for amazing – but very different – female entrepreneurs.
My duties for these jobs probably take up 15-30 hours of my week. This amounts to no more than 4 hours a day, usually. The work I do for both of them is quite different and variable. Both utilize a vast number of my skill sets.
On top of that, I post a blog four days a week. It takes me about an hour to write, edit, and post an approximately 1000-word article. Normally I write the day before and edit and post the day it’s due. Arguably, this is part of my authorpreneur business, but since it’s not fiction I don’t count it in my desired word count.
Then there is my podcast. This takes about 25 minutes to record and 40-60 minutes to edit and post.
Finally, some time each week is dedicated to tweaking my websites, updating things related to my books, editing books, and maintaining my newsletter. I’d say about 1-2 hours per week go to this.
Let’s do the math. Blogging four hours a week, plus podcasting for 90 minutes, plus 90 minutes for website and writing business maintenance, plus let’s call it 25 hours of part-time work equals 28 hours total. This is actual work time, not “40-hour workweek” work time.
But it does mean that, in light of the 8-hour workday, I should have 12 hours a week to get those 1500 words of fiction a day written.
Resistance and should
Should is a dangerous word. It makes assumptions, sets expectations, and creates unrealistic ideals to follow.
It also sets us up to fail. When you don’t live up to the expectations or assumptions that you “should” live up to, it’s easy to fail. Or at least to not get everything done like you think that you “should”.
This, however, is a unique problem in the face of Resistance. Why? Because I don’t do the work – write the books – because I “should”. I do it because I can’t not do it. It’s a compulsion to create that I can’t resist. There are stories I must tell, fantastic worlds I must share, and characters I need to make come alive for readers as much as they live in my head.
Making the time to do the work is joyful to me. While writing my blogs and producing my podcast is a similar form of joy, I take a different and greater pleasure from the fiction I write.
Resistance tells me that I “should” write 1500 words a day. I “should” make this my first and primary action. It’s not wrong, but the lie is in the use of the word “should”.
Let’s say that you fail to get something done that you “should” have done. The house wasn’t vacuumed, the dishes weren’t done, or you didn’t 100% finish that project for work today, but will complete it first thing tomorrow. You probably feel a degree of guilt because you didn’t do what you “should” have done.
Resistance loves guilt. That’s because it keeps you from your work. Even when your work is what you are guilty about not doing. Unsurprisingly, it’s a vicious cycle.
Is there a solution?
Yes. It’s a matter of seeing what you do and don’t do, and finding something you can apply to actively, consciously change.
For me, it’s about better time management.
To that end, months ago now, I acquired a whiteboard weekly calendar. On it, I write the things that I consider most important for me to do every weekday. Allow me to share them here:
- Edit (one of my finished books that’s not gone to a pro, yet)
- Write 1500 words of fiction
- Meditate (10-20 minutes a day)
- Journal (write in a paper journal daily)
- Exercise
- Affirmations (I have a set that I go through 3 times a day)
- Water (drink 7 or more 12-ounce glasses of water per day)
I check them off as they are done. Then, I write them in a notebook and write how many times I did each last week. What would best suit me to be added to this would be times for these to be done.
Why? Because that’s an outstanding way to build a habit. By building good habits you can create rote and routine that is healthy and positive for your life. That, in turn, helps you better connect your conscious and subconscious minds.
Then you can be more cognizant of a given path and how you’re traversing it. You can also get a clearer picture of Resistance and how it might be impacting you.
Recognize and acknowledge that you can never be rid of Resistance. So you might as well say hello. Then you can better stand up to it and keep pushing it out the door. If Resistance wins today, acknowledge it, then strive to beat it tomorrow. As they said in Galaxy Quest,
“Never give up, never surrender.”
What do you do when you contend with Resistance?
This is the six-hundred and twenty-first (621) exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – applying mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.
I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-post and share this.
The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out Amazon for my published fiction and nonfiction works.
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