Resistance

Is there something that you've always wanted to try but have never felt like you've had the time, courage or energy to actually give it a chance? 

Have any of these desires remained with you, unexplored for over a year? Five? Ten?

Stepping into something new can feel hard, especially if you are someone that enjoys your routine and feels comfortable with a known set of circumstances and activities.

The reality however, is that if you have an unexplored area of interest that keeps surfacing year after year, there is probably a core part of you that won't be happy until that interest has been engaged at some level.

Former Marine turned professional writer Stephen Pressfield explores the dynamic of resistance toward new endeavors in his book The War of Art. Pressfield conceptualizes resistance as "an energy field radiating from a work-in-potential.” He further notes that “resistance is a repelling force. It's negative. Its aim is to shove us away, distract us, prevent us from doing our work.” Pressfield also points out that "resistance is always lying..."

We can buy into this lie without knowing it. When we are moving toward a new endeavor, our imagination can be tied into resistance. We may imagine that the new project will be too hard, that we won't have enough time or that we should have started sooner. 

Thankfully stepping into something new doesn't need to be difficult or time consuming. 

You can take the smallest possible step toward your interest, and when you do, you will have transitioned from a place of worry and delay, to a place of experience and knowledge. 

Take the example of someone who wants to play basketball but has never tried. Does thinking about the long journey of learning the sport feel better than asking a friend for some advice on how to get started? Or going to the court and shooting at the basket for ten minutes? Even if you miss most of the shots, you’re already ahead of where you were before.

Or think of someone that wants to be a landscape painter. Does lamenting the fact that you never started earlier feel better than buying a brush, going outside and making a few preliminary outlines of a landscape. Probably not!

Give yourself permission to start small. If you do something poorly, it’s okay, you are learning. Focus on the joy that it is bringing you. More than likely you'll learn something on your first day and you will gain a better sense of how you'd like to pursue the interest going forward.  

Pressfield, S. (2002). The War of Art: Break through the blocks and win your inner creative battles. Black Irish Entertainment LLC.