Do the Work
Overcome Resistance and get out of your own way
Steven Pressfield
20110420
每個人的左右肩膀上，各有一位惡魔和一位天使。小惡魔常常在我們耳邊呢喃，讓我們懷疑自己能力，讓我們猶豫不敢下決定，甚至在我們已離成功不遠處，又阻止我們前進；很幸運地，我們同時有小天使，時時提醒鼓舞我們，相信自己，跟隨熱情，我們的目標和夢想就可以實現。而這本書就是在講，雖然最大的敵人往往是自己，但是我們絕對有辦法可以克服內心弱點，最終順利完成工作，達成目標。
本書作者 Steven 透過文字讓惡魔 (Resistance) 與天使 (Assistance) 現形，完整地解析 Resistance 和 Assistance 的角色與位置，以及在進行工作的過程中，我們可以怎麼處理負面能量，提升正面能量，最終達成目標。
本書思路架構清楚，內容淺顯易懂，文筆精闢簡潔，而且生動有趣，閱讀完本書，你會不禁說，「沒錯，就是這麼回事，現在我知道該怎麼做了！」，是非常值得閱讀的好書。
About This Book
This book is designed to coach you through a project from conception to finished product, seeing it from the point of view of Resistance.
We’ll hit every predictable Resistance Point along the way – those junctures where fear, self-sabotage, procrastination, self-doubt, and all those other demons we’re all so familiar with can be counted upon to strike.
0. ORIENTATION
Our Enemies
1. Resistance
The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.
2. Rational Thought
Instead, we want to work from the Self, that is, from instinct and intuition, from the unconscious.
Our Allies
1. Assistance
As Resistance is the shadow, Assistance is the sun.
2. Stay Stupid
A child has no trouble believing the unbelievable, nor does the genius or the madman. It’s only you and I, with our big brains and our tiny hearts, who doubt and overthink and hesitate.
3. Be Stubborn
Once we commit to action, the worst thing we can do is to stop.
4. Blind Faith
Our mightiest ally (our indispensable ally) is belief in something we cannot see, hear, touch, taste, or feel.
5. Passion
You may think that you’ve lost your passion, or that you can’t identify it, or that you have so much of it, it threatens to overwhelm you. None of these is true.
1. BEGINNING
Start Before You’re Ready
Our enemy is not the difficulty of the project or the state of the marketplace or the emptiness of our bank account. The enemy is Resistance. The enemy is our chattering brain, which, if we give it so much as a nanosecond, will start producing excuses, alibis, transparent self-justifications, and a million reasons why we can’t/shouldn’t/won’t do what we know we need to do.
A Research Diet
Don’t let research become Resistance. Let the ideas percolate.
Three-Act Structure
‧ Take one sheet of paper and break it into three parts: beginning, middle, and end. Act One, Act Two, Act Three.
‧ Get your idea down on paper. You can always tweak it later. Don’t overthink. Outline it fast.
‧ Start at the end with figuring out where you want to go. End first, then beginning and middle.
2. MIDDLE
We can never eliminate Resistance. It will never go away. But we can outsmart it, and we can enlist allies that are as powerful as it is.
Fill in the Gaps
Any project or enterprise can be broken down into beginning, middle, and end. Then fill in the gaps; then fill in the gaps between the gaps.
Do Research Now
Now you can do your research. But stay on your diet. Don’t stop working.
Start the actual work
One rule for first full working drafts: get them done ASAP.
The Process
Act, reflect. Act, reflect. NEVER act and reflect at the same time.
Assistance
Behind every law of nature stands an equal and opposite law. The opposite of Resistance is Assistance.
A work-in-progress generates its own energy field. You are pouring love into the work; you are suffusing it with passion and intention and hope. This is serious juju. The universe responds to this. It has no choice.
Assistance is the universal, immutable force of creative manifestation, whose role since the Big Bang has been to translate potential into being, to convert dreams into reality.
Keep Working
Momentum is everything. Keep it going.
Act/Reflect
Have a meeting with yourself or team members twice a week. Pause and reflect. “What is this project about?” “What is its theme?” “Is every element serving that theme?” “What’s missing?”
Now We’re Rolling
We’re weeks into the project now. Good things are happening. We’ve established habit and rhythm. We’ve achieved momentum.
The Wall
And then we hit the wall. Out of nowhere, terror strikes. Our fragile confidence collapses.
We’re poised at the brink of a creative breakthrough and we can’t stand it. The prospect of success looms. We freak. Why did we start this project? We must have been insane. Who encouraged us? Where are they now? Why can’t they help us?
We’re halfway, two-thirds through. Far enough to have invested serious time and money, but not far enough to have passed the crisis point, not far enough to glimpse the end. There’s no way back and no way forward.
Need to Know to Get to the other side – 7 Principles of Resistance
Principle #1: There is an enemy
Principle #2: This enemy is implacable
Principle #3: This enemy is inside you
Principle #4: The enemy is inside you, but it is not you
Principle #5: The “Real You” must duel the “Resistance You”
Principle #6: Resistance arises second
What comes first is the idea, the passion, the dream of the work we are so exited to create that it scares the hell out of us.
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.
Principle #7: The opposite of Resistance is Assistance
Providence brings forth a champion whose role is to assist the hero. All of these characters or forces represent Assistance. They are symbols for the unmanifested. They stand for a dream.
The dream is your project, your vision, your symphony, your startup. The love is the passion and enthusiasm that fill your heart when you envision your project’s completion.
We can align ourselves with these universal forces of Assistance to make the unmanifest manifest and ride them against Resistance.
Need to Know to Get to the other side – Resistance’s 2 Tests
Test #1: “How bad do you want it?”
Test #2: “Why do you want it?”
Each question has only one correct answer. The only items you get to keep are love for the work, will to finish, and passion to serve the ethical, creative Muse.
The Big Crash. Crashes are Good.
A crash means we’re at the threshold of learning something, which means we’re getting better, we’re acquiring the wisdom of our craft. A crash compels us to figure out what works and what doesn’t work, and to understand the difference.
Panic is Good
It’s a sign that we’re growing.
The Problem is the Problem. Work the Problem.
That our project has crashed is not a reflection of our worth as human beings. It’s just a mistake. It’s a problem – and a problem can be solved.
3. END
Because finishing is the critical part of any project. If we can’t finish, all our work is for nothing.
Fear of Success
Fear of success is the essence of Resistance.
Exposure
When we ship, we’re exposed. When we ship, we open ourselves to judgment in the real world. Nothing is more empowering, because it plants us solidly on Planet Earth and gets us out of our self-devouring, navel-centered fantasies and self-delusions.
Slay that Resistance once, and it will never have power over you again. And you’ll know you can beat it again. That’s a game-changer. That will transform your life.
Kudos to You
You’ve done something that millions talk about but only a handful actually perform. And if you can do it once, you can do it again.