Sir Isaac Newton teaches that an object in motion stays in motion. An object at rest stays at rest. To bring our ideas to life the most important step is to start and create motion.
How do we begin and take this step? Start before you’re ready.
Destroying Resistance – Two Techniques
Start Anywhere
Author Steven Pressfield’s life goal is to destroy the “resistance.” As he notes in the War of Art, every creator faces the resistance: the forces plotting to stop your creation. It could be procrastination, perfectionism or writer’s block just to name a few.
In his weekly newsletter, Pressfield highlighted an essential lesson from improv theater: start anywhere.
In the improv theater world, a sketch will often begin with a single word. The theater troupe might ask the audience for ideas or will hear a single word their fellow actors utter and use that to launch in a new direction.
In our work we can begin anywhere. We don’t have to listen to Maria from Sound of Music and start at the very beginning. Spending time looking for the beginning is the resistance keeping you from starting. Instead, dive in.
As Pressfield says: “Start anywhere overcomes the tendency to perfectionism. It keeps you from dithering on the sidelines. It gets you into the swim.”
Yes, and…
In addition to starting anywhere, improv theater has one other essential rule: always say “yes, and…”.
During an improv sketch, actors are required to always say yes to suggestions. An actor might say: “Are your pants on backwards?”
“Yes, and it’s the only way to hide from that lion!”
As outlandish and ridiculous as a word or suggestion is, the actor must accept it and augment it. In our work, we have fleeting ideas, suggestions and flashes of inspiration. Accept them. Add them to your work and see what comes of them. They may still be ridiculous when you’re done, but saying yes means you are creating motion which will lead you to your best work.
Avoiding Resistance – Two Tools
We can actively destroy resistance, and we can put ourselves in a position to avoid it. Avoid the resistance by always being prepared to start. Here are two tools that help me start anytime, anywhere.
1. Evernote - the problem with writing a blog or capturing thoughts while you’re out in the world is you don’t always have access to the Internet or the pen and paper you need to capture the idea. Similarly, if you are working on a project, you may find yourself without the necessary tools, be it textbooks, supplies or your workshop.
Use Evernote to capture thoughts wherever you are. I get the most use out of the audio feature because I can dictate notes and thoughts as I’m in the car or walking with my daughter. It also captures text and pictures and can be used offline, automatically syncing the next time you’re online.
We almost all have a phone in our pocket. Use it to be prepared to create.
2. Dragon Dictation - I spend at least 4 hours a week driving. I love the time to let my mind wander and often find ideas and solutions to problems as I let my mind work on it subconsciously. Dragon Dictation converts speech to text and quickly emails, texts or tweets your message.
Evernote records my voice but Dragon converts it into text so I can use it elsewhere. Plus, it’s much faster to talk than it is to type. If your fingers are tired or you know what you want to say, use Dragon Dictation to quickly capture your brilliance.
Maintaining Motion – One Strategy
As Newton uncovered, the most important step is starting. Once we begin, it becomes easier to continue the creation process.
To make sure Newton’s law holds true for you, there is one simple strategy to maintain motion: ridiculously easy goals.
Creating goals, to-do’s, action items, takeaways and whatever else you may call them usually involves a grand vision of what you hope to complete. The idea is that if shoot for the stars you still land in the clouds – if you try to complete an array of tasks, even getting 80% done means you accomplished a lot.
It is important to have a grand vision and purpose, but creating a vision and plotting how you will achieve it is often resistance in hiding. You never start if you continually plan what you’ll do when you start.
If this sounds familiar, consider ridiculously easy goals. Goals so achievable that you are almost embarrassed to make them. Goals so basic that you have no excuse not to get it done.
Writing a set number of words a day is a common goal for authors. Maybe it’s 750, 1,000 or 3,000 words a day. What would happen if your goal was to write 100 words a day? Could you write one paragraph of anything every day? Of course. Anyone could. You probably write more words on Twitter each day.
Setting 100 words a day as your goal has a magical effect: it helps you start and continue creating. If you actually sit down and write 100 words, you most likely will write a 1,000 because the number of words is not the hard part. The sitting is the hard part.
Creating Work that Matters
Your work matters to the world. The world, however, will do its best to stop you from achieving your work. Fight this resistance.
- Start before you think you’re ready.
- Start Anywhere.
- Say yes, and…
- Sit every day.
Thanks for reading and sharing this week’s article. I would love to hear how you destroy and avoid resistance.
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