“There’s a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t, and the secret is this: It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance.”

I’ve been playing a little game with myself lately. Or, should I say, poking fun at myself by calling out a Force that lives within me.

There’s something I need or want to do—typically something that’s related to making progress on a goal—but when the time approaches to do that thing, my mind immediately starts scattering and searching for all the things I could do other than that thing.

“You don’t want to do something, Reed!?! Well, that’s Resistance talking and, as Steven Pressfield says, Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work. If you take Resistance at its word, you deserve everything you get. Resistance is always lying and always full of shit.”

Here’s an example:

My alarm went off at 4:30am this morning so that I could get up and work on this week’s blog before heading out the door at 6am to get in an 8 mile run.

That Force—Resistance—got its grip on me quickly.

The reality of what took place is that I snoozed for 30 minutes before getting up—telling myself all sorts of reasons to stay in bed.

When I finally got up, I stumbled out to the kitchen to fill my coffee cup and then sat in front of my computer aimlessly checking different email accounts, then I had to check LinkedIn, then Medium, and then, just in case anything really important came up, I had to go back to LinkedIn.

Around 5:20am, I finally got the courage to at least open Squarespace so that I could start typing this blog, but then I quickly closed the tab and went back to LinkedIn—just in case.

By this time, I was already 3/4ths of the way through my cup of coffee and it was almost 5:30am.

I’d made no progress.

So, I poked a little fun at myself:

“You don’t want to write the blog, Reed!?! Well, that’s Resistance talking and, as Steven Pressfield says, Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work. If you take Resistance at its word, you deserve everything you get. Resistance is always lying and always full of shit.”

And, sure as shit, it got me going.

It works.

It’s 5:45am and I’ve gotten a bunch of words down. I don’t know the quality of these words and, frankly, I don’t even know where they came from because 15 minutes ago I was at a complete loss for what I was going to write about this week.

But, I pressed a key on the keyboard.

And then another.

And another.

And, before I knew it, I had a whole paragraph.

It’s almost 6am and I know I need to tidy things up because, well, I’ve got an 8 mile run looming.

With each tick of the clock that Force—Resistance—starts getting louder and louder. My mind is currently scattering and searching for all the reasons why I shouldn’t put on my running clothes and head downstairs to start my run.

I guess it’s time to poke a little fun at myself:

“You don’t want to run, Reed!?! Well, that’s Resistance talking and, as Steven Pressfield says, Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work. If you take Resistance at its word, you deserve everything you get. Resistance is always lying and always full of shit.”

It’s time to go run because my guess is that, in a play on Steven Pressfield’s quote:

“There’s a secret that real triathletes know that wannabe triathletes don’t, and the secret is this: It’s not the running part that’s hard. What’s hard is starting the run. What keeps us from starting is Resistance.”

Curious to learn more about Resistance?

Check out Steven Pressfield’s book, The War of Art.

Resisting reading the book?

Check out this recent podcast with Steven Pressfield.

Got something you need or want to do today but find your mind scattering and searching for all the things you could do other than that thing?

That’s Resistance and, remember…

…it’s lying.

What Keeps You From Sitting Down?

“There’s a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t, and the secret is this: It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance.”

“You don’t want to run, Reed!?! Well, that’s Resistance talking and, as Steven Pressfield says, Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work. If you take Resistance at its word, you deserve everything you get. Resistance is always lying and always full of shit.”

“There’s a secret that real triathletes know that wannabe triathletes don’t, and the secret is this: It’s not the running part that’s hard. What’s hard is starting the run. What keeps us from starting is Resistance.”

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