Resistance is a hot chick with a sucker punch. Don’t blink at her beauty – brace for the blow. You look her in the eye, tighten your core, and give it right back.

She sees the darkness inside you. The narrow corners where you hide your fears and your guilt. Make sure you know them too – drag them into the light. Don’t let her feel special. For that she’ll sulk away, hating you.

Good. You hate her too.

Like any bad broad, she’ll look over her shoulder. She’ll bat her innocent eyes and you’ll want to welcome her back. Resist. Be strong until she turns the corner – be strong a moment longer.

Now get back to work.

The only way I fight the Resistance is by reminding myself that I am here for a specific purpose, and that living up to that purpose is not optional, it’s mandatory. Before I knew that resistance was named Resistance, I was no match for it. I was the 98-pound self-esteem weakling, and Resistance was kicking sand in my face. There really wasn’t much of a fight. Eventually I got to a place where I began to see myself differently, in a far more positive light. It was only when I began to view my talents, gifts, and abilities as gifts that I needed to offer to the world that I was able to fend off Resistance. Living up to that which I was created to become is my obligation and responsibility. When resistance rears it’s ugly head, the larger-than-myself me is able to move forward, stronger and more determined out of respect and obligation to God and to the world I am here to serve.

I am thrilled that I discovered your artistry. Thank you for sharing the gift of you with the world!

Resistance feels like a force that sucks every once of positive energy out of me. Yesterday, after reading your latest post, the monster must have gotten riled up and went on the offense because I watched a presentation that I knew would take the wind out of my latest venture. Ready to quit, again, I picked up the “War of Art” and opened to the “Resistance and This Book” page. Resistance must have thought it had me and momentarily looked the other way. The voice you decided to ignore sounded remarkably like the voice I had been listening to. Back on track until the next bout, I want to thank you for going ahead with the book, writing this blog, and sharing your battles. Your voice gives me strength.

Kathleen

Second, the single and only advantage I’ve been able to gain over it is awareness, or “enough space” for both it and me to sit together with a minimum of reaction. Like many of the commenters have said, being still and looking it straight in the eye and breathing with it has been the best way so far to maintain left brain function and logical decision making in the face of whatever it’s dishing. And anything that helps me deepen awareness has helped.

Third, I believe our metaphor for it makes a huge difference in it’s power over us. I think of it sometimes like a scared child that needs to be consoled and parented correctly this time, or I think of it like my memory bank for potential danger.

There’s a Sufi perspective on resistance that I’ve found hugely helpful, which is that our resistance is everything in us that needs to be transformed in our pursuit of what we love. And there’s a perfect alchemy in the way our calling leads us directly toward our inner and outer obstacles. So it can seem sometimes like we’re no farther ahead when we defeat resistance for one day, but I believe now that each win is one more step in the transformation process.

And finally, I want to say to the fellow with no money to get music produced – that lack of time, money and energy are just other forms of resistance. = >

If I have calls scheduled and “only” have an hour before a meeting or something, then resistance will convince me that I should do a bunch of unimportant busy work tasks with that time because it’s ONLY and hour. So I answer e-mails, check twitter, check for software updates, etc. And if I have all morning, or even all day, then resistance convinces me that there’s no rush, because I have “All morning,” I can afford to do a few fun things before settling down to work. Next thing you know, half the morning (or more) is gone.

This is where the notion of “looking resistance in the eye” comes into play. I have to recognize the siren calls when they come, look resistance in the eye, and say, STFU, and then get down to work.

When I get past that stage, resistance pulls the “you’re writing crap” crap. That’s when I have to ask one of two questions: 1) will it get any better if I procrastinate on it, or will having written a shitty first draft win me the attempt at a much better 2nd draft, and/or 2) if everything I wrote was destined to turn out as crap, would I still want to write for a living? Would it still be worth doing? The answers to those two questions can usually get me through. But I’ve got to win a few battles with resistance before even getting to that stage, and it’s in the early battles where my record is so spotty.

- Jeff