Profiling my resistance

A second listen to The War of Art has me thinking about all the way resistance manifests in my life.

  • Facebook, Twitter. Even when I’ve unfollowed nearly everyone, they still have ways of distracting me.
  • Worrying about getting my systems just right before executing
  • Trying to solve other people’s problems
  • Pacing around thinking about the work for hours, instead of sitting and doing the work. The pacing and thinking has always been an essential part, but… maybe they can get out of balance sometimes?
  • Getting excited about potential new project ideas instead of executing on just one longstanding idea
  • Drinking. Even one drink in the evening can sometimes be the difference between 10% energy remaining, and 0% energy.
  • Reading the news. Especially political news.
  • Chatting/corresponding with friends. This one is really tough for me to dial in. On the one hand, I’m at a life juncture where it’s incredibly important for me to get better at having friends. On the other hand, I know that one good conversation can easily eat a substantial amount of my emotional energy for the day.
  • Online window shopping for a new car, clothes, computer hardware, etc.
  • Despair
  • Anger towards family members. Nothing like irritation to use up energy while accomplishing nothing.
  • Reading newsletters/blogs/etc. that I should really just unsubscribe from
  • Rarely: shows, novels. Surely a little of this is OK? I don’t know.
  • Anxiety
  • Conversations with family members. Again, this seems like a good thing? But it often feels “easier” than doing the work, and that says something…
  • Ideation on projects that are further into my future instead of the one in front of me.
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One Comment

  1. I need to add an auto-blocker for Twitter. I’m off Facebook, but…

    Also: are you adding intentional downtime to your schedule? I know, it sounds like fantasy 🙁 But seriously, I often find my desire for alcohol, pacing, future projects, etc. is basically a rebellion from my inner animal at doing more grinding. Even a little bit of genuine “no really, no working” break can reduce the urge a *lot*.

    And if I “succeed” in making my schedule a very high percentage of highly-valuable work, I quickly find myself having used up resources I didn’t realized I even *had* limits on.

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