Show Us What Your Wonderful Soul Can Create

First published on September 18, 2017

Resistance has been kicking my ass recently.

Last month I ran a seminar on Resistance, and as part of that, I realised and then shared with the group that I needed to turn pro with my writing. Turning Pro is Steven Pressfield's language for how to beat Resistance. It basically means I need to knuckle down with it. First step, schedule some writing time in my diary. I had two hours for it this morning. I probably managed about 45 minutes. I started five minutes late, and faffed around with wondering what to write for most of the next 45 minutes. Then my fiance came home from a medical appointment after 45 minutes and I spent time talking with her and having lunch. All important things; all stopping me from writing.

I settled on working to finish something I'd already started - I have about 11,000 words of what might be a short book about the struggle to live life from a place of possibility, not one of lack and scarcity. I wrote most of it about a year ago. And since then it has been sitting, unfinished. Almost untouched.

And Resistance was doing its work on me as I tried to write. In all sorts of ways. I was questioning whether it should be something else that I should be writing about with my writing time, not this "book". I was questioning who I am to write about relationships and politics, and more importantly who am I to draw together a set of concepts and say 'This is a way to make your life better.'

And the answer, of course, is another question: who am I not to?

Who am I to say what people will or won't find valuable? Who am I to deny the world the thoughts and ideas that I have found useful? If only one person finds a way, through those thousands of words, to live a happier, healthier life, isn't that worth it?

And that's one of the worst things about the set of concepts and ideas that Steven Pressfield draws together into this irresistible universal force, Resistance. It leaves all sorts of almost finished ideas and art gathering dust as relics of another time. We have all had them. A business idea never pursued. A song unfinished or unshared. A passion not fulfilled.

What if each of us could have improved the life of just one person by sharing that art, those ideas? If each of us could have done that, then billions of people would be happier, healthier and more fulfilled than they are now.

And here's the secret - I can guarantee that sharing that creativity would have improved the life of one person. It would have improved the life of the sharer. The reason I know that is that creativity, making something from nothing, whether that is one of the traditional arts, or a website, or a business, or just something that you're holding inside, shows us something magical. It shows us we can do things. We can make things. We can change things. It gives us hope.

And here's one last thing. The chances are, you're some of the way there already. There's a version of my part finished book in each of you somewhere, and it probably doesn't take that much to finish it. But the longer you wait, the harder it will be, especially if you listen to Resistance.

The answer comes in knuckling down. Choose which dusty piece of art unshared or unfinished and answer this question: What's the biggest amount of time you can give it this week? Then give it that time, or as much of it as your Resistance will let you. Then share it. If you can't bring yourself to share it with the world, share it with a friend - someone who understands this stuff. If you don't have a friend like that, share it here, or share it with me.

I'd love to see it. It might make all the difference to me.

I'd love to see what your wonderful soul can create. And so would the world.