A brief recap of the Do The Work, book by Steven Pressfield
One month ago I stumbled upon a very interesting book, judging by its cover. Do the work was the title, with a small used pencil on the cover photo. It turned to be a very small and nice book that has packed in one place all the resistance points of you not getting the work done. It points directly that you're not alone, you're not the first person to "hit the wall" and no, you're not crazy. The whole book is about a project journey, no matter the nature of the project, if it's writing a book, developing a kick-ass software or building a house. All the drawback you're gonna go through and all the disappointment points you're gonna visit. It gives you a vision, a hope, that you can do the work no matter what if you are aware that those resistance points are part of the development process.
In the middle of the book, the author tries to isolate the 7 principles of the resistance. According to me, they should be sanitized in one sentence each and hang up on the wall in every office. Here are they:
There is an enemy
There is an enemy. There is an intelligent, active, malign force working against us. Step one is to recognize this. This recognition alone is enormously powerful. It saved my life, and it will save yours.
This enemy is implacable
"It will kill you. It will kill you like cancer". Its aim is not to obstruct or to hamper or to impede. Its aim is to kill.
This enemy is inside you
It comes from us. The enemy is inside you.
The enemy is inside you, but it is not you.
What does that mean? It means you are not to blame for the voices of Resistance you head in your head. If you've got head, you've got a voice of Resistance inside it.
The real you must duel the resistance you
You're the knight, resistance is the dragon. There is no way to be nice with the dragon or to reason with it or negotiate with it or beam a white light around it and make it your friend. The only possible intercourse between the knight and the dragon is a battle. The contest is life-and-death, mano a mano.
Resistance arises second
What comes first is the idea, the passion, the dream of the work we are so excited to create that scares the hell out of us. Resistance is the shadow cast by the innovative self's sun. It means that before the dragon of Resistance reared it's ugly head and breathed fire into out faces, there existed within us a force so potent and life-affirming that is summoned this beast into being, perversely to combat it. But the urge to claim came first. The urge is love. Love for the material, love for the work, love for our brothers and sisters to whom we will offer our work as a gift. The opposite of fear is love, love of the challenge, love of the work, the pure joyous passion to take a shot at our dream and see if we can pull it off.
The opposite of resistance is assistance
In every mythology, every knight/hero is assisted by some character. Sometimes it's a magic raven, sometimes it's a donkey or a star. Those characters represent the Assistance, they stand for a dream. The dream is your project, your vision, your symphony, your startup. Love is the passion and enthusiasm that fill your heart when you envision your project's completion.
The seventh principle of Resistance is that we can align ourselves with these forces of assistance to make the unmanifest manifest and ride them into battle against the dragon.
I honestly recommend this book to every student, professor, engineer
and every developer. This book is a simple reminder that we are not
alone and a guide through the painful process of making stuff. Do The
Work.
I bought the book from BookDepository, this is not an affiliate link:
https://www.bookdepository.com/Do-Work-Steven-Pressfield/9781936891375
Top comments (2)
Hello, Stevan.
Hello John.