Wanting More

Hey everyone. It’s the start of a new week and time to talk about how we can all fight resistance. Resistance being that which stops us from doing the things we were created to do. If you missed previous posts you can find them by clicking the Resistance Fighters link in the categories section. 

Today’s post is going to be short and sweet.

The thing to remember this week in our battles is that despite how it seems, resistance is an internal force.  We quite often will try to blame our struggles to accomplish our goals on things outside of ourselves or our circumstances.  ”If I only had more money”, “if my kids weren’t in the way”, “If only my boss didn’t ride me like that” etc. 

Resistance doesn’t come from these outside opponents it comes from within. We generate it ourselves and use outside excuses to continue giving in and justify it.  It’s important that we accept the responsibility and not cast blame.  We need to examine our lives and get to the root of what is holding us back. 

The last few weeks haven’t gone exactly like I would have liked them to. There have been some external pressures but I can’t really blame them for me not taking the full responsibility in accomplishing my goals.  So this week with God’s help I’m working on changing my attitude so I can  step up and fight the battle in myself.

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So today I’m continuing the Monday series we started about fighting resistance. If you missed the first few posts you can look at the categories section on the right side of the site. I have this whole series in it’s own category. Like I mentioned in the introduction to this series I can’t recommend highly enough Steven Pressfield’s book the War of Art. It’s fantastic and serves as the framework for this series.

Last week I talked about some of the specific things in my own life  that resistance uses to beat me. This week I want to look at some of the things that causes resistance to come after us. 

The first thing to know is that resistance has no interest in those who are comfy or complacent. Resistance does not interfere with a person whose life is void of dreams or ambitions. 

Resistance is interested in those who are interested in grand things. 

Do you feel the calling on your life is to create some grand masterpiece? It could be a novel, songs, poetry or visual art. 

Do you plan on starting a new business? Or embarking on a new and exciting career? 

Do you plan on getting in shape? Or improving your physical health?

Do you have any addictions you are trying to over come?

Are you in school trying to better yourself?

Planning on standing up for a cause of some sort? Want to change the world for the better?

Lastly, are you trying to grow closer to God? 

If you answered yes to any of these things be prepared for a battle. These are the types of things that draw resistance.  In Pressfield’s words resistance is drawn to “any act that rejects immediate gratification in favour of long-term growth, health or integrity. Or, expressed another way, any act that derives from our higher nature instead of our lower. Any of these will elicit Resistance.”

In my own life right now I feel like the battle with resistance has been constant and unfortunately in a number of areas resistance is currently kicking my a$$.  

Some of the specific areas in my life that I’ve very much been battling are:

This blog (I have not been working at it the way I had hoped)

Practicing (I’ve been playing the piano around 90 minutes a day right now which isn’t horrible but it’s the way I’m practicing and letting myself get distracted during it)

My relationship with God (I mentioned last week my devotion times have been sparse. I’ve been working harder at not letting the little things of the day get between God and I)

Writing (specifically music.  Currently I’m not doing any so I guess you can say resistance has temporarily won. But not for long!)

Like I said last week there are a number of different things resistance uses to distract me.  Some of them are good things but they are not the right things.  

If you’re comfortable feel free to post a comment with areas in your life right now where you feel the battle with resistance raging. Perhaps battles you’ve even been afraid to start.

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Happy Monday everyone!

This is the first in a serious of Monday posts that I’m going to be doing on fighting resistance. I talked in a previous post  about a book call The War of Art by Steven Pressfield and how he talks about resistance.  This series is going to be my thoughts on resistance and how we can fight it and I’ll use the War of Art as a framework for it.

“Resistance cannot be seen, touched, heard, or smelled. But it can be felt. We experience it as an energy field radiating from a work-in-potential. It’s a repelling force. It’s negative. Its aim is to shove us away, distract us, prevent us from doing our work.” (The War of Art pg. 7)

I can’t tell you how many times in my own life I put things off. How often I put off things I know I am suppose to do to help me become who I am suppose to be, and I just don’t do them . I don’t think I’m the only person who feels that way.  I’m not talking about all kinds of extra things for self improvement that will add more things to my calendar. I’m talking the everyday simple “work” of my life.  I have enjoyed putting this blog together but I haven’t posted much here over the last week or so. That’s because the major work of my life has not been getting done.

I am a musician and a creator.  There were several days last week that 9pm would come around and I’d notice that I barely touched the piano that day. The day would fly by and I had been productive at getting “things” done. However they were the busy urgent things of the day. They weren’t the important things or the things I was created to do. 

Then once I realized how little of my work I had done that day I would usually rationalize myself out of doing it, convincing myself I needed some “downtime”.  Now downtime and breaks are important but if I honestly look at my day the things I was doing were my downtime. They were keeping me from doing the things I was suppose to do or created to do.  Some of them were good things but they weren’t the right things. 

For years I would rationalize that I needed to be more productive or prioritize better and sometimes even berate myself for being lazy. Now I’m beginning to realize that something bigger is going on.  Something that can’t be touched, smelled etc. 

I’m not trying to rationalize my way out of my responsibility. I’m trying to call myself to a higher responsibility. Not to get more done but to get more of the things I’m called to done. To fight the resistance that distracts me by telling me I could put that off to accomplish such and such instead which try to make me feel like I have accomplished something but that something usually leaves me feeling hollow.

Instead I want to fight the bigger battle and focus my time on what will add value to my life and the lives of people around me both for now and the future.

In a desire to create an honest environment with this blog I’m going to share some of the things that have been resistance in my life the last while. Some of these are good things. However they were used to put off what I was suppose to be doing instead. 

Computer Games

Exercise 

Cleaning

Snacking 

Over planning

If you’re comfortable feel free to post a comment with some of the things resistance has used to distract you lately.  We can all help keep each other accountable. 

Next week I’ll look at some of the things that we do that make resistance “out to get us”.

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So today I have a book recommendation and the start of a series for you and me.

About a year ago I was going through a bit of a creative rut. Wasn’t able to finish a lot of the creative endeavors I was taking on and was finding it frustrating.  You know how it is. You have lots of great ideas and will put everything aside to get to them. That includes put aside all the other great ideas you had before that made you put the other great ideas off to the side as well. 

I came across a review for The War of Art on a blog.

I thought it looked interesting so I added it to my next book order. I am very glad I did.

It was a really quick read I think I polished it off over two days. The thing was I couldn’t put it down. I totally thought he wrote the book just for me.  Everything he was talking about just hit home and was a big kick in the rear.   The thing is this book is not light and fluffy with little pat answers for life. Nor is it way off in the distance theory. It just plan spells out in a real simple with no sugar coating the reality that faces any individual tackling a goal whether it be in music, writing (Pressfield is an author), dance, business, or ministry.  

The book is divided into three separate books.  The first is “Resistance”. Basically this chapter covers why we don’t accomplish the things we set out to do. It was a real eye opener. Gave me insights into a lot of the things that I do that essentially sabotage what I’m trying to accomplish. 

The second is “Combating Resistance”. This is covering the idea of turning pro. What separates a pro from and amateur (more than just money). What mind set do we need to have in order to accomplish our goals. 

The third is “Beyond Resistance”. In the book Pressfield acknowledges the existence of God and the role that the higher realm plays in our lives. Now I would not agree in a lot of ways with Pressfield’s beliefs of who God is, but he does offer a lot of interesting thoughts in how our work is effected by things outside of us or this world. 

This is not (nor was it meant to be) a thorough review of the book. Just a strong recommendation of it for anyone that ever struggles with completing goals or has some larger ambitions. I have just finished reading the book for the third time and it still blows me away.

That leads me to the series that I am going to start here. As I’ve said in previous posts I have just left my ministry job. I have left to re pursue a career in music, to relaunch my recording studio and to explore some new ministry opportunities. Like I also said earlier in this post I have a tendency to get sidetracked from what I’m trying to accomplish. So what I am going to try to do is to post every Monday thoughts on fighting the resistance that stands in the way of achieving our aspirations (whether they are in the area of ministry, art, exercise, whatever).  I am going to use parts of the book as a framework or starting point but also share the things that are going in my life (I’m going to be quite honest) as I launch in this new artistic and professional endeavor with the hope that it will be relevant to you wherever you are at. I am not trying to make this into a self help blog or anything like that. Just a place to be honest as we all try to work towards whatever it is God is calling us to.

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