Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Book Review: Do The Work!

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pAmong creative freelancers, Steve Pressfield is well-known for a book called a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004IZMQI2/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8#038;tag=freelanceswitch-20#038;linkCode=as2#038;camp=217145#038;creative=399373#038;creativeASIN=B004IZMQI2"The War Of Art/a. A nice title to wave in the face of someone who thinks that we enjoy an easy life./p
pNow he#8217;s back with another tough-talking title: a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1936719010/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8#038;tag=freelanceswitch-20#038;linkCode=as2#038;camp=217145#038;creative=399373#038;creativeASIN=1936719010"Do the Work/a. With the subtitle ?Overcome Resistance and get out of your own way,? you can pretty well guess that this book isn#8217;t about what#8217;s out there. Nope. It#8217;s about you and how you resist doing the things you need (or want) to do.span id="more-20610"/span/p
h3Learning to Overcome Resistance/h3
pThis slender book is largely about overcoming resistance. That task is a lot tougher than it looks. It#8217;s also easier./p
pWhy? Because resistance is always there. It#8217;s impersonal. It never goes away. Or, as Pressfield puts it, ?Resistance Never Sleeps.? To illustrate this point, he notes that ?Henry Fonda was still throwing up before each stage performance, even when he was seventy-five.?/p
pThat#8217;s Henry Fonda. One of the greatest actors America has ever produced. Tossing his cookies long past the age that most people retire. Still have your lunch on board? Let#8217;s keep going./p
p/strongFirst big do the work tip/strong: Start before you#8217;re ready. Pressfield says, /p
blockquotepGood things happen when we start before we#8217;re ready. For one thing, we show emhuevos/em. Our blood heats up. Courage begets more courage. The gods, witnessing our boldness, look on in approval./p/blockquote
pWant to hear something really spooky? Day after Halloween, I sit down for yet another round of cold calls. It#8217;s a list of local leads, and I really wasn#8217;t in the mood to talk to these people. I hadn#8217;t slept well, and I was sure that my fatigue was zapping right through the phone line./p
pThose calls were really feeling like a waste of time until I hit the next-to-last name on my list. Yes, I do websites. Uh-huh, I#8217;ve done sites for university laboratories before. With that, the professor on the other end gets her calendar. We set a meeting./p
pOkay, that#8217;s getting started on a day when you really feel like staying in bed to reclaim that lost sleep./p
pOn to the next stage of that thing you#8217;ve reluctantly started, but look at you now! You#8217;ve arrived at The Middle. What a lovely place to be. So cue up Pressfield#8217;s rhapsody:/p
blockquotepIdeas are flowing. Our movie, our new business, our passage to freedom from addiction has acquired gravitational mass; it possesses energy; its field produces attraction. The law of self-ordering has kicked in. Despite all our self-doubt, the project is rounding into shape. It#8217;s becoming itself./p/blockquote
h3Hitting the Wall of Resistance/h3
pThen you hit the wall. That thing#8217;s hard as a rock. And it hurts when you hit it. Time for Pressfield#8217;s Seven Principles of Resistance and the Two Tests:/p
ul
listrongPrinciple Number One:/strong There Is An Enemy/li
listrongPrinciple Number Two: /strongThis Enemy Is Implacable/li
listrongPrinciple Number Three:/strong This Enemy Is Inside You/li
listrongPrinciple Number Four:/strong This Enemy Is Inside You, But Not You/li
listrongPrinciple Number Five:/strong The ?Real You? Must Duel The ?Resistance You?/li
listrongPrinciple Number Six:/strong Resistance Rises Second (not first!)/li
listrongPrinciple Number Seven:/strong The Opposite of Resistance is Assistance/li
/ul
pPrinciple Number Seven could be summed up in one word: HELP! As in, reach out and ask for it. Or just reach out./p
pThat#8217;s what I did this morning. I#8217;ve been trying to get media coverage for the photography book I launched at the end of the summer. The editor of one local blog e-mailed a set of interview questions five weeks ago. I answered them the same day. And I waited for the story that never came./p
pLate last week, I re-sent my original e-mail. After all, that first message could have been eaten by a spam filter./p
pNo reply from the editor and still no coverage on the blog./p
pI was growing ever more resentful. I mean, look at all those other things that have gotten coverage on this blog! When#8217;s my turn? So, I re-sent that e-mail again this morning. First thing this morning, in fact./p
pMid-morning e-mail check reveals a message from the blog#8217;s editor. My story#8217;s about to run. Woo-hoo!/p
h3The Two Tests/h3
pWhich leads to those Two Tests:/p
ol
listrongHow bad do you want it?/strong You#8217;d better be totally committed or else you won#8217;t keep plugging away at this project./li
listrongWhy do you want it?/strong Because it#8217;s fun! Beautiful! And you have no choice but to keep going./li
/ol
pBattling resistance and passing the Two Tests is no guarantee of success. Pressfield lets you into his personal Big Failure Club by sharing the story of his wonderful novel that flopped like a dead fish. Your project could do the same thing. Even after you go back to the proverbial drawing board and make it better than it originally was./p
h3Slay the Dragon/h3
pNow we come to the end, or as Pressfield calls it, shipping. This is when you send your beloved novel, product, or painting gets sent out into the world./p
pIt may succeed. It may fail. But you did it ? you finished a project. As Pressfield says, ?Slay the dragon once, and he will never have power over you again.?/p
pnbsp;/p
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