Do The Work

One of the most powerful short books I’ve ever read is Steven Pressfield’s Do The Work. The book introduces the concept of “resistance”, that pervasive force that pulls us away from our goals.

The subtitle is perfectly appropriate: Overcome Resistance & Get Out of Your Own Way.

I think we can all relate to being in our own way!

Sometimes “resistance” is internal – doubt, excuses, procrastination, fear – and other times it’s external – competing priorities, setbacks, crisis.

Either way, our ability to reach our goals depends in large part on how we train ourselves to identify resistance and respond to it.

Pressfield suggests that we will experience resistance almost anytime we pursuing something that requires us to reject immediate gratification in favor of long term growth.

Basically, we can expect resistance if we want to improve our eating habits so we can lose weight, if we want to start working out to build strength & endurance or if we want to stop making excuses so we can move towards higher goals.

They key here is recognizing resistance & then not giving into it! 

Here’s one of my favorite quotes from the book:

The enemy is our chattering brain, which, if we give it so much as a nanosecond, will start producing excuses, alibis, transparent self-justifications and a million reasons why we can’t/shouldn’t/won’t do what we need to do.

Take a look at the short video below for my thoughts on overcoming resistance & doing the work!