Resistance

I’ve recently been thinking about and actually addressing the issue of resistance. I first came across the term in Steven Pressfield’s book The War of Art, and then I read his very similar, Do the Work, which I obtained as a free download on my Amazon Kindle reader. Now last night I came across virtually the same concept in Barbara Sher’s book I Could do Anything if I Only Knew What It Was. I’m thinking this is resonating with me because it’s spring and kids are making college and career decisions. As we close many strands in our son’s life and send him off to start new experiences and opportunities, I’m beginning to re-evaluate where I am in my own life. What are some things that I want to do? What changes would I like to make? What is keeping me from acting on those desires? Resistance. Both Sher and Pressfield talk of resistance as if it is its own separate entity that must be battled and conquered. The only way to get what you want done is to just do it. Do something, anything that takes you in the direction you want to end up. A wise woman I work with shared with me recently a saying that is on the wall of the Facebook headquarters: “Done is better than perfect.”

To that end, I started my dirtyrottensaint blog, a regular posting of the best bits of the variety of devotional readings I do every day. Setting up the blog was fairly easy and keeping up with it has been surprisingly rewarding. It did take quite awhile and some persistence for me to get it set up as a Kindle blog that people can subscribe to, but now starts the second phase of resistance. I’m not doing the blog just for me but for those who just want a short, yet substantial something to inspire and give them something to think about during the day. Self-promotion makes me extremely uncomfortable, and urging people to check out the blog takes me out of my comfort zone. Being the good dad that I am, I just made my kids sign up to be followers on the online dirtyrottensaint blog site so I’d feel like I’m doing it for somebody. Fatherhood has its privileges. If truth be told, I’ll be happy if nobody else ever looks at it as long as it becomes a regular means for me to feed my kids’ character and help shape them into the best them they can be.

What is it that you would like to do for or with your kids? Read a book? Go to a ballgame? Start a scrapbook? Organize your home videos? Have the sex talk? What is your resistance? It’s spring, time for a new beginning. Don’t wait, don’t think about it, don’t question it, don’t worry about it, and don’t make excuses, just do it.

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