The Invisible Force Blocking Your Creativity
How understanding Resistance can get you doing your Life's Work
If I could choose only one thing to have learned about earlier in life, it would be this: whenever we endeavor to take action true to our deepest self and values, whenever we step out and take a risk, whenever we believe we can do something that nobody in our family or town—or maybe ever—has done, we will meet a force I now know to call "Resistance."
It is on Resistance's rocky shoals that many of our dreams die.
Most people will never understand what happened, or why it’s so hard to express their creativity in the world.
"Resistance can not be seen, touched, heard, or smelled. But it can be felt. We experience it as an energy field radiating from a work-in-potential," writes
in The War of Art. "It's a repelling force. It's negative. It aims to shove away, distract us, prevent us from doing our work."Resistance does not want you to finish that Substack post. It does not want you to turn on the paid option for subscribers. It doesn't want you to be vulnerable with readers or write about the things that matter the most to you. It doesn’t want you to treat yourself or your writing seriously.
It does not even want you to think you can be a writer.
If writing isn't what you do, then insert whatever meaningful endeavor you are pursuing in the place of "writer." The same principles apply. Whether you are pivoting to a second career, starting a new workout regimen or meditation practice, dreaming up a business, or thinking about going back to school in the second half of life, Resistance will do everything possible to keep you from moving forward.
Should you keep to the beaten path, you won’t need to worry about Resistance. But if you choose to do something creative, daring or just different from what is expected of you, then Resistance will be the force standing menacingly between you and that thing.
I wonder how different my life might have been had I heard about Resistance sooner. Most of what I have learned is from Steven Pressfield’s various books on the subject and Julia Cameron’s The Artists Way. I only discovered their work in my 40s, on the recommendation of a prolific and commercially successful writer friend. It would be hard to overstate the impact they have had on me.
I can see in hindsight where I managed to push through Resistance without knowing what to call it, but cursing this invisible menace nonetheless. I also see the many times it left me flattened like a bug having met an oncoming windshield.
Don't ask me why Resistance shows up. There is time to discuss these theories later.
All you need to know is that it is as true as gravity.
We ignore this reality at our peril.
So, how do we know when Resistance is on the scene?
Pressfield explains in The War of Art:
We feel like Hell. A low-grade misery pervades everything. We're bored, we're restless. [W]e want to go back to bed; we want to get up and party. We feel unloved and unloveable. We're disgusted. We hate our lives. We hate ourselves. Unalleviated, Resistance mounts to a pitch that becomes unendurable. At this point, vices kick in. Dope, adultery, web surfing. Beyond that, Resistance becomes clinical. Depression, aggression, dysfunction.
If you manage to get to your desk, the blank screen stays blank. You can't even string together a single sentence, let alone write an article, post, or do your daily quota for your book in progress. The thought of filling out the application for your dream advanced degree makes you so nauseous you need to lie down. Just sitting still in meditation for five minutes feels like being asked to run a marathon.
Before you know it, you are procrastinating—answering emails, scrolling Instagram, rearranging the coat closet, and even vacuuming.
Anything to not have to do your work.
If you want to skip your writing to grab a round of golf or engage in a Netflix binge, Resistance will drive you to the range or pop the popcorn. You never have to worry about Resistance showing up when you choose procrastination over doing your work.
There is no reason for it to bother you. Any time you are procrastinating or taking the easy way out, Resistance has won.
"Procrastination is the most common manifestation of Resistance because it's the easiest to rationalize," writes Pressfield. We don't tell ourselves, 'I'm never going to write my symphony.' Instead, we say, ‘I am going to write my symphony; I'm just going to start tomorrow.’
To be fair, Resistance will grind you down until you feel you have no choice but to toss in the towel and head for the links or settle in on the sofa.
You can’t give in.