Every time you see the word resistance, substitute "Yetzer Hara".
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Resistance is the most toxic force on the planet. It is the root
of more unhappiness than poverty, disease, and oppression. To yield to Resistance deforms our spirit. It
stunts us and makes us less than we are and were born to be.
If you believe in G-d (and I do) you must declare Resistance
evil, for it prevents us from achieving the life G-d intended
when He endowed each of us with our own unique genius.
Genius is a Latin word; the Romans used it to denote an inner
spirit, holy and inviolable, which watches over us, guiding us
to our calling. A writer writes with his genius; an artist paints
with hers; everyone who creates operates from this
sacramental center. It is our soul’s seat, the vessel that holds
our being-in-potential, our star’s beacon and Polaris.
Every sun casts a shadow, and genius’s shadow is Resistance.
As powerful as is our soul’s call to realization, so potent are
the forces of Resistance arrayed against it. Resistance is faster
than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive,
harder to kick than crack cocaine. We’re not alone if we’ve
been mowed down by Resistance; millions of good men and
women have bitten the dust before us. And here’s the worst part: We don’t even know what hit us. I never did. From age
twenty-four to thirty-two, Resistance kicked me from East
Coast to West and back again thirteen times and I never even
knew it existed. I looked everywhere for the enemy and failed
to see it right in front of my face.
Have you heard this story: Woman learns she has cancer, six
months to live. Within days she quits her job, resumes the
dream of writing Tex-Mex songs she gave up to raise a family
(or starts studying classical Greek, or moves to the inner city
and devotes herself to tending to sick babies). Woman’s
friends think she’s crazy; she herself has never been happier.
There’s a postscript. Woman’s cancer goes into remission.
Is that what it takes? Do we have to stare death in the face to
make us stand up and confront Resistance? Does Resistance
have to cripple and disfigure our lives before we wake up to
its existence? How many of us have become drunks and drug
addicts, developed tumors and neuroses, succumbed to
painkillers, gossip, and compulsive cell-phone use, simply
because we don’t do that thing that our hearts, our inner
genius, is calling us to?
Resistance defeats us. If tomorrow
morning by some stroke of magic every dazed and benighted
soul woke up with the power to take the first step toward
pursuing his or her dreams, every shrink in the directory
would be out of business. Prisons would stand empty. The
alcohol and tobacco industries would collapse, along with the
junk food, cosmetic surgery, and infotainment businesses, not
to mention pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and the
medical profession from top to bottom. Domestic abuse would
become extinct, as would addiction, obesity, migraine
headaches, road rage, and dandruff.
Look in your own heart. Unless I’m crazy, right now a still,
small voice is piping up, telling you as it has ten thousand
times before, the calling that is yours and yours alone. You
know it. No one has to tell you. And unless I’m crazy, you’re
no closer to taking action on it than you were yesterday or
will be tomorrow. You think Resistance isn’t real? Resistance
will bury you.
You know, Hitler wanted to be an artist. At eighteen he took
his inheritance, seven hundred kronen, and moved to Vienna
to live and study. He applied to the Academy of Fine Arts and
later to the School of Architecture. Ever see one of his
paintings? Neither have I. Resistance beat him. Call it
overstatement but I’ll say it anyway: it was easier for Hitler to
start World War II than it was for him to face a blank square
of canvas.
[The War Of Art - Steven Pressfield]
