The Benefits of Stretching Your Mind In Unexpected Directions
“The resistance is waiting. Fight it. Ship.” — Seth Godin
When I sat down to write, I had this weird sense of tension. Do you know that feeling when you have all these fantastic ideas that you can’t wait to get on paper? It was the opposite of that.
And then it hit me. It was the Resistance.
“There’s a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t, and the secret is this: It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance.”
Steven Pressfield introduces this concept in his book “The War of Art.” The Resistance is an internal feeling that keeps us from showing up from doing our best work.
I know I could probably just put some headphones on, make a cup of coffee, and power through it. But I wasn’t going to leave it to chance.
I used my favorite “weapon” that I prepared in advance, knowing Pressfield was right and the Resistance would eventually reveal itself.
My weapon of choice: Writing Prompts.
It sounds basic, but in “Accidental Genius”, Mark Levy suggests, “Instead of beginning a session with whatever appears in your mind, you begin with a predetermined phrase that guides the direction of your writing.”
Prompts can warm up your mind and give you a slight nudge in a direction you never thought of exploring. They should be short and open-ended.
Here are a few of my favorites from the book:
“After the storm…”
“I’d love to learn about…”
“You know what I’d like to do again?…”
“I opened the door…”
They can be anything but have them ready. Because as Pressfield says:
“The Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work”
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