It is one thing to study war and another to live the warrior’s life.
I guess what I want to say to us artists and entrepreneurs is that conventional yardsticks of success don’t apply to all enterprises. Labors of love count.
Don’t prepare, do. Don’t let Resistance sucker you into wasting months on background, foundation, planning. All that can come later.
Making a judgment, taking a stand and then acting against an injustice or acting to support excellence is the stuff of the everyman hero. If you are an aspiring artist and you wish to avoid “judgments,” you’ll find that you have nothing to say.
The highest treason a crab can commit is to make a leap for the rim of the bucket.
As resistance works to keep us from becoming who we were born to be, equal and opposite powers are counterpoised against it. These are our allies and angels.
On the artist’s journey we are redefining and reconfiguring ourselves and our lives.
Resistance is greatest just before the finish line.
The professional tackles the project that will make him stretch. He takes on the assignment that will bear him into uncharted waters, compel him to explore unconscious parts of himself. Is he scared? Hell, yes. He’s petrified.
I am going to write my symphony; I’m just going to start tomorrow.
We need to ascend beyond our own petty Resistance, our own negative self-judgment and self-sabotage, our own “I’m not worthy” mind-set.
Start before you’re ready. Good things happen when we start before we’re ready.
When we sit down to work, we become like a magnetized rod that attracts iron filings. Ideas come. Insights accrete.
We’re wrong if we think we’re the only ones struggling with Resistance. Everyone who has a body experiences Resistance.
Our greatest battle is to become ourselves, in the face of adversity.
The hero wanders, the hero suffers, the hero returns. You are that hero.
Anything that draws attention to ourselves through pain-free or artificial means is a manifestation of Resistance.
Contempt for failure is our cardinal virtue.
There is an enemy. There is an intelligent, active, malign force working against us. Step one is to recognize this. This recognition alone is enormously powerful. It saved my life, and it will save yours.
Do we have to stare death in the face to make us stand up and confront Resistance?