I am reading The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield about a demonic force called Resistance—which conspires to prevent writers writing, painters painting, composers composers, the overweight exercising… You get the picture.
And here’s another brilliant passage from The War of Art
Resistance and Unhappiness
What does resistance feel like?
First, unhappiness. We feel like hell. A low-grade misery pervades everything. We’re bored; we’re restless. We can’t get no satisfaction. There’s guilt, but we can’t put our finger on the source. We want to go back to bed; we want to get up and party. We feel unloved and unlovable. We’re disgusted. We hate our lives. We hate ourselves.
Unalleviated, Resistance mounts to a pitch that becomes unendurable. At this point, vices kick in. Dope, adultery, web surfing.
Beyond that, Resistance becomes clinical. Depression, aggression, dysfunction.
Sounds like life I know. It isn’t. It’s Resistance.
What makes it tricky is that we live in a consumer culture that’s acutely aware of this unhappiness and has massed all its profit-seeking artillery to exploit it. By selling us a product, a drug, a distraction.
As artists and professionals, it is our obligation to enact our own internal revolution, a private insurrection inside our own skulls. We unplug from the grid by recognising that we will never cure our restlessness by contributing to the bottom line of Bullshit Inc. but only by doing our work.
More from my site
The Toxicity of Unexpressed Creativity Leads to Physical and Mental Illness, and Addictions
On a Shortcut into Happiness
When Shackles become Wings: On Domesticity, Creativity, and Me
We Have Something to Learn, and Something to Teach at Every Stage of Life
Where Good Stories are to be Found
In which I am Against (Most) Military Interventions, & Musing on Invisible Weapons of the Spirit
Pressfield sure knows how to lay bare our situation! In his book “Do the Work,” he does an equally stellar job of getting us off our duff and doing the necessary work to fulfill our dreams. Every time I’m leaning towards procrastination, the words “the Resistance” come to mind and spur me to action.
HI there, Alison. I’d love to read “Do the Work.” Next on the list though is “Turning Pro.”
I hear that “Turning Pro” is very good too. All of his work is good. Have you read any of Seth Godin’s work?
I’ve seen his blog but I find the posts too short and open-ended to be satisfying. Haven’t read his book. I find Leo of Zen Habits quite inspiring.
Leo’s was the first blog I ever read, even though at the time I didn’t know it was a blog! I was clueless about blogging at the time, but I loved what he wrote and connected with the lifestyle he espoused.