“The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.”
- Steven Pressfield/The War of Art
Have you ever read Steven Pressfield's book The War of Art? It's a short book. I've read it five times, maybe more. You'd probably find it in a bookstore shelved in the “Self Help” section. I mostly loathe those books. That's not what this book is. It's more just a kick in the butt, here's the truth of the matter, book.
The thesis is, to quote Pressfield, that, “Most of us live two lives. The life we live and the un-lived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.” This Resistance is a dispassionate force in the universe that is there at every turn to prevent you from doing the work you are here to do. Call it what you want, it doesn't matter, the Devil, procrastination, sloth, fear of failure, fear of success; it's ever present and relentless and must be confronted and defeated constantly.
A favorite passage in the book tells of the legendary American actor, Henry Fonda, who:
…was still throwing up before each stage performance, even
when he was seventy-five. In other words, fear doesn't go away.
The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity,
which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day.
Anytime Resistance has me on the ropes, I re-read The War of Art and I'm back in the fight.
I had Resistance on my mind when I fast-wrote the little ditty below. One time quite a while ago, Kendra saw a greeting card that said, “Every zoo's a petting zoo, if you're brave enough.” It sure is.