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.
The War of Art, Kindle location 83
What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance.
There’s a principle here. Based on the previous chapter, the quality of the writing is not a concern. Writing at all is win. That is the overcoming of Resistance. Thus, the hard part is not the doing of the task, it is the starting of the task.
And starting is fraught with all kinds of problems. Mostly just the discipline to sit down and do it.
My yesterday is a good example. I didn’t write. I spent 6+ hours sitting in this same chair, though. But I wasn’t on this keyboard, connected to this computer.
I had the time, I even had the thought “you could still write today, it wouldn’t be that hard.” But I didn’t make the situation happen. I didn’t write because I didn’t go through the ritual of changing the cords, of sitting down with the intent to write. I didn’t do the work of starting, I simply let it go.
Conclusion: the long tail of activity–what I will spend the most time on, the actual work–is not the hard part. The hardest part is sitting down to do it.
I can see this in experiences across my life. As a missionary, I would find every excuse to not start knocking on doors. But when I finally started, it was easy and fine.
Yesterday, interestingly, also provides a good example.
I’ve thought for a few days it might be time to start investigating the finding of a new job. But I never actually started the searching process. I never put myself in the position to find and then apply.
Yesterday I did. Luckily, I already had my LinkedIn and resume up to date, or there would have been more work standing in my way.
A good friend went looking for a job recently, and she experienced significant Resistance. She planned a month of searching, but never updated her own resume. She beat the Resistance by hiring a resume writer.
It worked for her. But at some level the Resistance still won.
The result of my finally starting is that the work is actually easier–or seems easier than it used to be. And that’s really good.
Beating Resistance occurs in the starting of the activity.