Rule of thumb: The more important a call or action is to our soul's evolution, the Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.
Interpretation
Resistance often signifies the importance of our actions to personal growth.
Steven Pressfield's quote suggests that the level of resistance we encounter in pursuing certain actions or calls in our lives is indicative of their significance to our personal evolution. When we feel the strongest pushback or reluctance, it is often a sign that what we are trying to achieve is crucial for our development and growth as individuals.
In practice
In a motivational speech about overcoming fears, one might use this quote to encourage individuals to pursue their dreams despite the resistance they may feel.
Late at night have you experienced a vision of the person you might become, the work you could accomplish, the realized being you were meant to be? Are you a writer who doesn't write, a painter who doesn't paint, an entrepreneur who never starts a venture? Then you know what Resistance is.
It is one thing to study war and another to live the warrior's life.
The amateur believes he must first overcome his fear; then he can do his work. The professional knows that fear can never be overcome. He knows there is no such thing as a fearless warrior or a dread-free artist.
When we sit down day after day and keep grinding, something mysterious starts to happen... Unseen forces enlist in our cause; serendipity reinforces our purpose.
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... 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.
Itβs better to be in the arena, getting stomped by the bull, than to be up in the stands or out in the parking lot.
The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect. You need a temperament that neither derives great pleasure from being with the crowd or against the crowd.
Eminence without merit earns deference without esteem.
Attention is like energy in that without it no work can be done, and in doing work is dissipated. We create ourselves by how we use this energy. Memories, thoughts and feelings are all shaped by how use it. And it is an energy under control, to do with as we please; hence attention is our most important tool in the task of improving the quality of experience.
A writer must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid.
I'm not perfect. But I'll always be real
Your word is the power that you have to create
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