It’s day 30, out of 31, of the UBC challenge which means this is the 30th post I have written this year. Enough to make you think I don’t have a problem with “resistance”, or that little (or big) negative voice that tells me I have a million other things to do than that bit of important writing, that I haven’t formed my thoughts yet, or that I don’t need to start because it’s ages until the deadline. Not true, I do get resistance but I just seem to find daily blogging fairly easy. Looking forward to a week off soon though! Most people suffer from resistance in one form or another; if you don’t, please let me know and tell us all your secret!
Resistance is rather subtle and sneaky, so it doesn’t get me every time, only with certain things. I make them into big scary unscalable peaks in my imagination, and find all sorts of excuses not to tackle them. Procrastination is part of it but it’s not exactly the same. It’s just so hard to make myself do certain things!
For example, in the last few days I have been busy with my other work, put in quite a lot of time to interviews and prep work for the book, blogged every day and done my “homework”. But I have managed to avoid writing a single word for the book itself for several days now. If I had wanted to, I could have found time every day, and of course I do want to! Ah, resistance…
Our Book Jam session today was all about resistance and it was so helpful. A lot was said and I know it will take me some time to process it all. One of the most important things to know is that everyone, or nearly everyone, suffers from resistance. It’s not just me! It’s not just you!
Why, when I was asked to write a 2,000 word article in November, with a deadline of last Friday, did I leave it until last Tuesday to write it? It felt as if I needed the forcefulness of the impending deadline to impel me into action. It worked, but wouldn’t it have been nice to get it all done before Christmas?
There are secrets and strategies, of course, and Lisa has shared some ideas with us today. Anyone who does creative work should read The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, which deals with this issue in helpful detail. Another book that really helped me was The Energy of Money by Maria Nemeth. Dr Nemeth talks about “trouble at the border”, or the difficulty we have in transforming ideas in the metaphysical realm into things in the physical realm. She also explains that if we encounter hurdles, that’s a great sign because it means we are progressing along our chosen path.
So, there is information, company and reassurance. It seems, however, that the reassurance doesn’t go too much further than telling us that, yes, it’s a common problem and no, it won’t entirely disappear. But we can learn to manage resistance without imposing an unpleasant degree of discipline on ourselves. We have to be clever about it and it really, really helps to get some guidance and support along the way. Let’s see how it goes.
Meanwhile, please do share if you have ways of dealing with resistance, or if you have a particular sticky subject. It’s always nicer to remember we’re far from alone with this sort of stuff!
