Resistance is Futile. Or is it?

If you've ever tried to do anything with your life and have failed, or if you ever want to improve your life someday, pick up The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield.

I can't remember who recommended the book, but it might have been Michael Hyatt. It's not a long book, only 163 pages and some pages only have one paragraph on them. But it packs a punch in that small amount.

Ever wonder why you can't seem to get any traction when you want to start a diet, get in shape, write a book, get organized, or do anything that might improve your life? Pressfield attributes it to Resistance, that evil, sneaky force that keeps us from reaching our goals. Pressfield says this: "Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance."

See if any of this sounds familiar, my writing friends: "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."

Pressfield spends the first third of the book defining Resistance. We've all encountered it, but it's sneaky and so I suspect you will, like I did, have some "Aha!" moments when you realize what you thought was great rationalization, planning, or whatever you want to call it was really Resistance.

I was aware that procrastination and distraction were Resistance, but I didn't know about all of its masks such as family, analysis, self-sabotage, pleasure, trouble, shopping, and the list goes on.

There's some rough language but don't let that stop you from reading something that will change how you view the obstacles in your life and your ability to overcome them.

I'll talk about how you overcome Resistance next.