The resistance that Steven Pressfield outlines in his book, The War of Art, gets praise for accurately describing the feeling that many people doing important work feel.
He’s right. Or at least, I want to believe he’s right.
To attribute my inability to progress through important work to something else is reassuring. But I don’t want it to be like that.
It feels like I’m deflecting my responsibility to get things done whenever I think of it as ‘something else.’
But maybe I’m misunderstanding what Pressfield is saying.
He names the avoidance of work as Resistance, not to deflect responsibility, but instead to acknowledge it and overcome it.
In fact, Pressfield said this in one of his blog posts:
The more Resistance we feel to a project or idea, the more certain we can be that that idea is critical to the evolution of our soul.
And if that’s really the case, could that be why I’m feeling so much resistance to finishing the cover letter for a job application I’m hoping to get?
Weirdly enough, I see writing a cover letter as important work. I’ve been losing sleep thinking about it and getting distracted throughout the day, wondering how to get it done.
I also have to start writing the first story for my storytelling project, which is also something I’ve been avoiding.
Why is this the case?
Why do I feel this way about two of the most important pieces of work I should be doing now?
The discomfort I feel when I finally have time to sit and write frustrates me. I have the time and energy, yet when I attempt to do something, I get anxious and look for ways to distract myself.
I thought that meant I didn’t care enough.
But the fact is that those are the only thoughts that consume me throughout my days. And if I genuinely didn’t care enough, then I wouldn’t be overthinking them so much.
The cover letter and the storytelling project. These two pieces of work matter to me— and I feel a substantial amount of resistance.
Accept it, Jose.
Now what will you do?
Deadlines are approaching soon.
By next week, you will have found your answer.