"Late at night have you experienced a vision of the person you might become, the work you could accomplish, the realized being you were meant to be? Are you a writer who doesn't write, a painter who doesn't paint, an entrepreneur who never starts a venture? Then you know what Resistance is....Resistance cannot be seen, touched, heard or smelled. But it can be felt. We experience it as an energy field radiating from work-in-potential. It's a repelling force. It's negative. It aims to shove us away, distract us, prevent us from doing our work." (The War of Art, Steve Pressfield, pg. 6)
You can feel it. How do I know? I feel it right now seeping out of everything. All the voices in my head, all the signs in my daily life, all the circumstances of right now seem to be urging me toward giving in to the resistance.
Last night I went to band practice and confessed that I was on the verge of giving up, getting a "real" job and forgetting the whole thing. I've let myself get so overwhelmed at the prospect of something not working out or not getting the outcome I hope for that quitting starts to feel like a real option. We call that "resistance."
Thankfully, I was reminded of that by my dear Emily. Thankfully when I woke up this morning I was ready to roll up my sleeves and fight back.
Have you hung up a dream? Have you not even taken one step because you don't think you can finish the marathon? Have you stopped sketching the sunset because you'll never afford the paints to do it justice? That's resistance. That's that feeling that manifests itself as the million other things you should be doing instead of the one thing you cherish deep in your heart.
I'm still scared. I'm still worried that I'm too old, too fat and too midwestern to make a record and try and get people to listen to it, but I'm going to do it anyway.
A long time ago I came to understand that I was the only one who could end my music career. I'm also the only one who can keep it going. If I quit now then this'll be as far as I get and I'll have to live with that being a choice I made, not a choice that was made for me.
When I woke up this morning I resolved to keep going. No one said I had to get to Nashville, I just have to get a little further down the road than I am right now. So I'll resist the urge to cave into the resistance, I'll work through the fear and take that next step down the road. I hope you feel strong enough to do the same.