As I continue to move through the self-improvement work of Steven Pressfield, I’m covering “Do the Work” this week.
This book covers a lot of the same ground as The War of Art, Turning Pro, Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t and Put Your A** Where Your Heart Wants to Be. Yes, I am a Steven Pressfield fan because never have I read a book that so clearly illustrates the blockages that many of us creatives face (due to Resistance) and how pernicious Resistance can be. We must fight it on a daily basis, never to forget the tremendous toll it can take on our art and on our lives.
Here, he goes more in depth about Resistance, but what I most appreciate is how he lays out the Seven Principles of Resistance and the two Tests.
I’m going to share them below with and without my commentary.
Principle Number One: There is an Enemy
“The first principle of Resistance is that there is an enemy.
In our feel-good, social-safety-net, high-self-esteem world, you and I have been brainwashed to believe that there is no such thing as evil, that human nature is perfectable, that everyone and everything can be made nice.
We have been conditioned to imagine that the darkness that we see in the world and in our own hearts is only an illusion, which can be dispelled by the proper care, the proper love, the proper education, and the proper funding.
It can’t.
There is an enemy. There is an intelligent, active, malign force working against us.
Step one is to recognize this.
This recognition alone is enormously powerful. It saved my life, and it will save yours.”
Principle Number Two: This Enemy Is Implacable
“The hostile, malicious force that we’re experiencing now is not a joke. It is not to be trifled with or be taken lightly. It is for real. In the words of my dear friend Rabbi Mordecai Finley: “It will kill you. It will kill you like cancer.
This enemy is intelligent, protean, implacable, inextinguishable, and utterly ruthless and destructive. Its aim is not to obstruct or to hamper or to impede. Its aim is to kill….”
My thoughts: In some ways, I can’t help but feel like Resistance is the devil (or “the enemy” in modern Christianese) Perhaps this is a discussion for another time, but I can’t help but think of Jesus saying, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). I feel like Resistance and the “thief” are destructive forces that run in direct opposition to the act of creation.
Principle Number Three: The Enemy Is Inside You
“…Resistance is not a peripheral opponent. It does not arise from rivals, bosses, spouses, children, terrorists, lobbyists, or political adversaries. It comes from us. You can board a spaceship to Pluto and settle, all by yourself, into a perfect artist’s cottage ten zillion miles from Earth. Resistance will still be with you. The enemy is inside you.”
My thoughts: Just like the monster in Alien. Except that it’s not just inside of you; it’s inside of everyone.
Principle Number Four: The Enemy Is Inside You, But it is Not You
“The fourth axiom of Resistance is that the enemy is inside you, but it is not you.
What does that mean? It means you are not to blame for the voices of Resistance you hear in your head.
They are not your “fault.” You have done nothing “wrong.” You have committed no “sin.” I have that voice in my head. So did Picasso and Einstein. So do Sarah Palin and Lady Gaga and Donald Trump.
If you’ve got a head, you’ve got a voice of Resistance inside it.
The enemy is in you, but it is not you. No moral judgment attaches to the possession of it. You “have” Resistance the same way you “have” a heartbeat.
You are blameless. You attain free will and the capacity to act.”
My thoughts: Do the Work was written five years before the 2016 election.
Principle Number Five: The Real You Must Duel the “Resistance You”
“…There is no way to be nice to the dragon, or to reason with it or negotiate with it or beam a white light around it and make it your friend. The dragon belches fire and lives only to block you from reaching the gold of wisdom and freedom, which it has been charged with to guard to its final breath…”
My thoughts: My favorite movies are the ones in which the protagonists eventually have to face themselves at the end of Act Two. Facing oneself – with all of a person’s shortcomings – can be a tremendously difficult thing. That’s why we root for the character to get it together and right the wrongs in Act Three.
Principle Number Six: Resistance Arises Second
“…What comes first is the idea, the passion, the dream of the work we are so excited to create that it scares the hell out of us…”
“…Resistance is the response of the frightened, petty, small-time ego to the brave, generous, magnificent impulse of the creative self….”
“…Resistance is the shadow cast by the innovative self’s sun…”
“…It means that before the dragon of Resistance reared its ugly head and breathed fire into our faces, there existed a force so potent and life-affirming that it summoned this beast into being, perversely, to combat it…”
“…But the urge to climb came first.
That urge is love.
Love for the material, love for the work, love for our brothers and sisters to whom we will offer our work as a gift…”
Principle Seven: The Opposite of Resistance is Assistance
“…The seventh principle of Resistance is that we can align ourselves with these universal forces of Assistance–this dream, this passion to make the unmanifest manifest–and ride them into battle against the dragon…”
My thoughts: If we believe that we live in a beneficent universe, we can believe that forces will align to bring our work into fruition. Love for the work will get us through.
Test Number One: How Bad Do You Want It?
“This is Resistance’s first question. The scale below will help you answer. Mark the selection that corresponds to how you feel about your book/movie/ballet/new business/whatever.
Dabbling*Interested*Intrigued but Uncertain*Passionate*Totally Committed
If your answer is not the one on the far right, put this down and throw it away.”
My thoughts: I’ll admit that this is scary. To my ears “Totally Committed” means “Practically Fanatical”; what concerns me is the risk of burnout or putting everything on the altar of career/creative success. While I believe in showing up, too much fanaticism can be dangerous.
Test Number Two: Why Do You Want It?
- “For the babes (or dudes)
- The money
- For fame
- Because I deserve it
- For power
- To prove my old man (or ex-spouse, mother, teacher, coach) wrong
- To serve my vision of how life/mankind ought to be
- For fun or beauty
- Because I have no choice
If you checked 8 or 9, you get to stay on the island. (I know I said there was only one correct answer. But 8 or 9 are really one.)
If you checked any of the first seven, you can stay, too–but you must check yourself into the Attitude Adjustment Chamber…”
He then goes more into what that is and what that entails.
Overall, I liked this book in that it went further into why and how Resistance can screw everything up.