Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 13 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: The opposite of Resistance is Assistance
— From Do the Work: Overcome Resistance and Get Out of Your Own Way by Steven Pressfield
Steven Pressfield, renowned author, has written much about Resistance as part of our work (The War of Art, Turning Pro, Do The Work). Resistance is that chatter inside our head that criticizes all we do, prevents us from starting or continuing a project, and wants to sabotage its completion.
However, in Do The Work, Pressfield says, “The opposite of Resistance is Assistance.” The Assistance, whatever form this takes, stands for the love for your dream, your creation, or whatever it is that you are looking to bring to fruition: “The dream is your project, your vision, your symphony, your startup. The love is the passion and enthusiasm that fill your heart when you envision your project’s completion.”
“In myths and legends, the knight is always aided in his quest to slay the dragon. Providence brings forth a champion whose role is to assist the hero. Theseus had Ariadne when he fought the Minotaur. Jason had Medea when he went after the Golden Fleece. Odysseus had the goddess Athena to guide him home. In Native American myths, our totemic ally is often an animal—a magic raven, say, or a talking coyote. In Norse myths, an old crone sometimes assists the hero; in African legends, it’s often a bird. The Three Wise Men were guided by a star. All of these characters or forces represent Assistance.”
Pressfield details how, when Resistance appears (which, in his words, is all the time), he thinks of Charles Lindbergh:
What symphony or Resistance must have been playing in his head when he was struggling to raise the funding for his attempt to fly across the Atlantic solo?
“You’re too young, you’re too inexperienced; you’ve got no credentials, no credibility. Everyone who’s tried this has failed and you will, too. It can’t be done. Your plane will crash, you’re going to drown, you’re a madman who is attempting the impossible and you deserve whatever dire fate befalls you!”
(Here’s a great blog post from Pressfield on how to look at and deal with Resistance and self-loathing in a positive way.)
“What saw Lindy through?” asks Pressfield. “It can only have been the dream,” he answers himself. “Love of the idea.”
It is that love of the idea, the visualization of our goal, along with dogged determination, that gets us through the finish line. Pressfield points out that it is in our best interest to keep our end in mind so 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.”
After all, Pressfield goes on, “How cool would it be, in 1927, to land at Le Bourget field outside Paris, having flown from New York, solo and non-stop, before anyone else had ever done it?”
Keep your end in mind. Always. And keep working at it. But as you work on it, don’t get so mired in the details that you lose sight of your desired goal. Focus on Assistance, not on Resistance.
If you have 3 minutes, I highly recommend you watch this video of Pressfield talking with Oprah about Resistance.
Let me know in the comments here your favorite way to beat Resistance!
ACTION
TODAY: Rekindle the flame of some dream that you’ve set aside lately because Resistance beat you. Assistance can come to the rescue. Read this post if you are battling impostor syndrome, another manifestation of Resistance.
FUTURE: Focus on Assistance to get you through to the completion of your projects, goals, and dreams. And when you experience Resistance, read this post to overcome any block (writer’s or any other) that you encounter. Keep at it. Think of Lindbergh: how cool will it be when you land on your goal?
Please help others get Assistance for their Resistance by sharing this post! Email, Facebook, Twitter.