7 Ways to Beat The Resistance

In The War of Art, Steven Pressfield identifies the Resistance as that thing which keeps us from accomplishing what we’ve set out to accomplish. It’s what pushes against the creative process and gives us the excuse to procrastinate and put things off.

The Resistance keeps us from simply getting things done. It regularly creeps up in my life, and I let it win far too often. I have far more ideas than what I actually get done because I succumb to The Resistance.

When I do well, here’s 7 ways that help me to beat The Resistance.

1. Turn off the Internet. A lot of what I do often involves writing on the computer, which means that Email, Twitter, looking up random definitions of words and seeing what else pops up when I google my name become far too easy and distracting. If I’m going to get something done, I have to intentionally turn those things off for a set period of time. Every time you glance at your email or briefly check your Twitter when you need to get something done, The Resistance wins.
2. Do Things On Your Schedule. Just because the phone rings, you don’t have to pick it up. Just because a TV Show is on at a certain time, you don’t have to watch it then. Just because Steve Jobs is giving a keynote address, you don’t have to pay attention to the live-blog of it…maybe that’s just me. Do those things on your schedule – return the call later, utilize a DVR, and read about the keynote on the million blogs reporting on it later. Whenever we let the immediate thing drag our attention away from what we had planned on doing, The Resistance wins.
3. Launch Unfinished Ideas. The Resistance says that everything has to be a certain way in order to launch it. You hold back from making things public because it’s not quite there yet. If it has to be perfect, it never will be, and The Resistance wins.
4. Set a Schedule and Put it in Your Calendar. How many people have started a blog, but never done much with it, or began a project only to put it aside later without much being done on it. Force yourself to write or to take that next step with your project by scheduling it out and putting it on your calendar. The Resistance wins when we keep putting it off and find other things to do
5. Have Bad Ideas. Every time we won’t write something down, try something new, or say something out loud because we’re afraid it might be a bad idea, The Resistance wins.
6. Don’t Wait for Inspiration. I used to think that I could only work on my sermons when I was inspired. The problem was that I wouldn’t always get inspired and Sunday came up again pretty quickly. The reality is that we’re not often just inspired. Creativity is just hard work. The Resistance wins every time we put something off because we’re waiting for inspiration.
7. Just Do Something. Every one of us has an idea to implement, a story to write, a craft to create, a project to build. Don’t let others be the creatives, and others be the ones who do inspiring things. Just do the thing you’ve been thinking about doing. Don’t talk about it. Just do it. When all you do is think about it or talk about it, The Resistance wins.

What has helped you to beat The Resistance?