Review

An empowering, beautiful and poignant take on resistance – the force that creates the gap between intention and action. The final third of the book didn’t feel as practical and precise as the first two. I left the book feeling like I’d just spent two hours with a palm reader who said a bunch of stuff, some of which hit but most didn’t, and I left a little put off by the mention of higher powers and spirits – not my thing.

Key Takeaways

The 20% that gave me 80% of the value.

• All that matters is that on this day, for this session, you overcome resistance.
• Resistance is what stands between the life we live, and the un-lived life within us
• Yielding to resistance deforms our spirit → makes us less that we could be
• Resistance is invisible but it can be felt. It’s the force that prevents us from doing our work.
• Resistance is internal. Self-generated, Self-perpetuated.
• Resistance will tell you anything to keep you doing your work. It will assume any form, if that’s what it takes to deceive you.
• Resistance never sleeps, the battle must be fought anew every day
• Be ruthless with others once you make your break
• You can turn the table on resistance.
• Casting yourself as a victim is the antithesis of doing your work.
• Unplug yourself from the grid → do your work instead
• This is the despair of freedom. You are free only to the extent of your own self-mastery.
• Self-doubt can be an ally of resistance.
• Any support you get from anyone else is monopoly money → you have to do your work.
• Rationalization is the right hand man of resistance → it keeps us from feeling shame → from seeing ourselves for the cowards we are for not doing work
• If resistance couldn’t be beaten there would be no Fifth Symphony

• Commit full-time. Dedicate your life to it. Turn pro.
• Resistance hates it when you turn pro
• I know I can indulge in daily crap for a little while, but I must cut if off when the bell rings.
• You have to know how to be miserable
• Show up everyday, and stay till the end
• If you’re not going to quit, be happy. You’re where you want to be.
  • Taking the blows is the price for being in the arena. Stop complaining and be grateful.
• Be patient: understand delayed gratification
• You won’t tolerate disorder, you’re on a mission. Eliminate chaos.
• Concentrate on the technique
• Accept no excuses
• Respect resistance, don’t cave in today or you’ll be twice as likely to cave in tomorrow.
• Be prepared each day to confront your own self-sabotage. Be ready to absorb blows and to deliver them.
• You dedicate yourself to mastering technique, so you’re ready when inspiration / opportunity comes
• A professional can’t take rejection personally because to do so would reinforce resistance.
  • Nobody is the enemy but resistance.
• Humiliation, rejection and criticism are external reflection of internal resistance.
• Maintain your sovereignty over the moment!
  • No matter what happens outside your agency, you have a job to do
  • Control your reaction, don’t take it personally, don’t use it as an excuse to fail.
  • Don’t allow the actions of others to define your reality
  • Nothing matters but that you keep working
• Make up your mind, and turn pro.

• Nothing else matter except sitting down every day and trying, because when we do we’re helped by allied forces (the muse)
• Invoke the muse (Steven says a payer before work)
• He wrote ten books before he got a buyer for one.
• He remembered the feeling of finishing his first book. He felt like he’d killed a dragon that had he’d been fighting his whole life. Nobody else noticed or cared. His friend advised him to start the next one today
• Angels know their stuff, they want to help us. You have to have to make a start to communicate with them.
• If you were the last person on earth, would you still do it?
• Do it or don’t do it
• Creative work isn’t a selfish act. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it.