Linchpin – Seth Godin (Chapter 6: The Resistance)

March 17, 2012

Devon Sampson Business , , , , , , Leave a comment

In order to be an artist, you have to ship. The only point of starting something is to eventually finish it; as Godin puts it: “Shipping is the collision between your work and the outside world.” (103)

“Thrashing” – brainstorming and adjusting; amateurs do this near the end of a project, professionals do it early. Have the discipline to get your thrashing done early and then be stubborn near the end when it’s time to ship.

Our creativity, what the Greeks called the Daemon and the Romans called “the genius”, stems from the neocortex – the newest part of the brain.

The part of us that just wants to survive, even at the expense of our art, is our lizard brain.

The lizard brain is newer and stronger than our neocortex; when both are fully activated and pitted against each other, the lizard brain usually wins.

“The challenge, then, is to create an environment where the lizard snoozes. You can’t beat it, so you must seduce it. One part of your brain worries about survival and anger and lust. The rest of it creates civilization.” (109)

“If we go down the list of behaviors that are highly valued because of their scarcity, almost all of them are related to bringing a conscious and generous mind to the work, instead of indulging our lizard brain’s reflexes of fear, revenge, and conquest.” (112)

(After explaining how even just simple eye contact can cause gorillas to go crazy at the zoo) “Eye contact, all by itself, is enough to throw your lizard brain into a tizzy. Imagine how scary it must be to set out to do something that will get you noticed, or perhaps even criticized.”

The lizard brain loves school – he can postpone putting himself on the line in the real world, and he’s fine obeying authority figures as long as they help him survive.

“A well-defined backup plan is sabotage waiting to happen. Why push through the dip, why take the risk, why blow it all when there’s the comfortable alternative instead? The people who break through usually have nothing to lose, and they almost never have a backup plan.” (116)

In order to be creative and come up with good ideas, you need to be willing to have terrible, and even dangerously bad ideas.

Your lizard brain hates the prospect of coming up with an idea so bad that others will laugh at it. But realize that this is an inevitable part of the idea-generating process, and that this process is the only way that you can ever come up with brilliant ideas.

A sub-title Godin uses in Chapter 6: “You Don’t Need More Genius. You Need Less Resistance.”

Your resistance is always comfortable with low expectations.

The less freedom you have in a given field, the less resistance you face. This is why it’s feels so natural to do a job where all you have to do is follow instructions.

“Our economy has reached a logical conclusion. The race to make average stuff for average people in huge quantities is almost over. We’re hitting an asymptote, a natural ceiling for how cheaply and how fast we can deliver uninspired work.” (123)

As a society, we’ve tried to establish an entire economic system where one can go through the motions, give in to their resistance (by doing menial jobs), and still be supported – but it’s just not working anymore.

“Don’t listen to the cynics. They’re cynics for a reason. For them, the resistance won a long time ago.” (126)

The resistance/the lizard brain exists “to make you safe, which means invisible and unchanged.” (127)

Signs that the lizard brain is at work:
-Procrastination
-You excessively criticize the work of your peers, thus unrealistically raising the bar for your work
-You criticize anyone who is doing something differently. If they succeed, it means you’ll have to do something differently too.
-Having an emotional attachment to the status quo
-Inventing anxiety about the side effects of a new approach
-Believing that it’s about gifts and talents, not skill
-Announcing that you have neither
 

A great tactic to combat resistance is to announce it out loud: “I’m doing this because of the resistance.” The lizard brain will retreat in shame.

 
“The difference between a successful artist and a failed one happens after the idea is hatched. The difference is the race to completion. Did you finish?” (136)

Anxiety is just a pointless form of fear, it’s fear about fear. The resistance is really anxiety; real fear is a response to actual threats and it’s a perfectly healthy response.

Reality is the best antidote for anxiety.

“You can’t make a useful map when you’re busy exaggerating the downside of every option.” (139)
 

The best way to overcome your fear of creativity, brainstorming, intelligent risk-taking, or navigating a tricky situation might be to sprint. When we sprint, all the internal dialogue falls away and we focus on going as fast as we possibly can.

You can’t sprint forever. That’s what makes it sprinting. The brevity of the event is a key part of why it works. (143-144)

 
It’s easier to work downhill than uphill. So take the time to build a better platform for you to launch your ideas from – this seperates the hard work of preparation from the sometimes scary work of creativity.

The War of Art (Part 2: Combating Resistance – Turning Pro)

December 8, 2011

Devon Sampson Motivational Psychology, Spirituality , , , , Leave a comment

My notes from Part 2 of Steven Pressfield’s modern classic The War of Art.

 

It is one thing to study war and another to live the warrior’s life.
-Telamon of Arcadia

 

“Someone once asked Somerset Maugham if he wrote on a schedule or only when struck by inspiration. ‘I write only when inspiration strikes,’ he replied. ‘Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’ clock sharp.’” (79)

The Principle of Priority – you must know the difference between what is urgent and what is important, and you must do what is important first.

The first movie Steven Pressfield ever wrote was horrible and was a commercial failure. However, in retrospect Pressfield has an interesting perspective on it; “That was when I realized I had become a pro. I had not yet had a success. But I had had a real failure.” (87)

Pressfield argues that being overly emotionally invested in your work is more characteristic of an amateur than a professional. Regardless of your enthusiasm for the project, Pressfield insists that an in-it-for-the-money mindset produces the professional attitude necessary to get things done: the “lunch pail-mentality”, the “hard-hat state of mind” that shows up no matter what and slugs it out day after day.

“The professional arms himself with patience, not only to give the stars time to align in his career, but to keep himself from flaming out in each individual work.” (90)

“(The professional) respects Resistance. He knows if he caves in today, no matter how plausible the pretext, he’ll be twice as likely to cave in tomorrow.” (95)

“The professional knows that Resistance is like a telemarketer; if you so much as say hello, you’re finished. The pro doesn’t even pick up the phone. He stays at work.”

“(The professional) understands that the field alters every day. His goal is not victory (success will come by itself when it wants to) but to handle himself, his insides, as sturdily and steadily as he can.” (97)

“The student of the game knows that the levels of revelation that can unfold in gold, as in any art, are inexhaustible.” (100)

“(A professional) does not identify with (their) instrument. It is simply what God gave her, what she has to work with. She assesses it coolly, impersonally, objectively.” (101)

“We cannot let external criticism, even if it’s true, fortify our internal foe. That foe is strong enough already.” (102-3)

“Humiliation, like rejection and criticism, is the external reflection of internal Resistance.” (104)

In a situation where you are the recipient of some negative external force, Pressfield urges us to “maintain our sovereignty over the moment.” (107)

The War of Art – Steven Pressfield (Part 1: Resistance – Defining the Enemy)

December 4, 2011

Devon Sampson Motivational Psychology, Spirituality , , , , , , Leave a comment

 

The War of Art is one of the greatest self-help books of all-time. In it, Steven Pressfield characterizes the force within us that doesn’t want to get things done, the force that holds us back from reaching our potential, and gives it a name: Resistance. In Part One, Pressfield makes it his mission to explain just how deadly Resistance can be. Part Two elaborates on how we can defeat it. Part Three attempts to motivate us but gets far too spiritual and religious for my tastes. Nonetheless, despite my distaste for the final third of it, The War of Art’s first two parts contain so much motivational precision that it still ranks among the all-time great self-help books in my eyes.

Note: page citations are from the digital copy of the book.

_______________________________________________________________

“Most have two lives. The life we live and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.” (16)

 

The enemy is a very good teacher.
-The Dalai Lama

 

Any act that delays immediate gratification in favour of long-term prosperity will elicit Resistance.

Resistance does not come from outside factors, it is generated and perpetrated from within.

“Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work. It will perjure, fabricate, falsify; seduce, bully, cajole. Resistance is protean. It will assume any form, it that’s what it takes to deceive you. It will reason with you like a lawyer or jam a nine-millimeter in your face like a stickup man. Resistance has no conscience. It will pledge anything to get a deal, then double-cross you as soon as your back is turned. If you take Resistance at its word, you deserve everything you get. Resistance is always lying and always full of shit.” (26)

The more important an action is to our personal progression and evolution, the more Resistance it will elicit. This is not entirely bad – we can use Resistance as a compass towards what truly matters.

Resistance obstructs movement only from a lower sphere to a higher sphere. So if you’re working with the Mother Teresa Foundation but you decide you want to become a telemarketer, Resistance will be nowhere to be found.

Resistance is most powerful at the finish line. The danger is greatest once we approach the end. Knowing that we’re about to beat it, Resistance hits the panic button and hits us with everything it has a desperate last effort.

When you start to overcome resistance, it will recruit allies – other people’s Resistances. These other people will try to sabotage you because your success becomes a reproach to them. (m3taphysics: They have no interest in being inspired because that would force them to face reality, which means facing their own shortcomings.)

“The best and only thing that one artist can do for another is to serve as an example and an inspiration.” (37)

Resistance distracts us with cheap, easy fixes like sex (sometimes manifesting as a preoccupation with sex). The barometer is how hollow you feel afterwards; the more empty you feel, the more likely it is that your real motivation was Resistance rather than love or even lust.

“Creating soap opera drama in our lives is a symptom of Resistance.” (42)

“Sometimes entire families participate unconsciously in a culture of self-dramatization. The kids fuel the tanks, the grown-ups arm the phasers. It’s more fun than a movie. And it works: Nobody gets a damn thing done.”

“Sometimes, if we’re not conscious of our Resistance, we’ll pick as a mate someone who has or is successfully overcoming Resistance.” (46)

“If it meant nothing to us, there’d be no Resistance.” (57)

“Grandiose fantasies are a symptom of Resistance. They’re the sign of an amateur. The professional has learned that success, like happiness, comes a by-product of work. The professional concentrates on the work and allows rewards to come or not come, whatever they like.” (60)

“Any support we get from persons of flesh and blood is like Monopoly money; it’s not legal tender in that sphere where we have to do our work. In fact, the more energy we spend stoking up on support from colleagues and loved ones, the weaker we become and the less capable of handling our business.” (68)

“Seeking support from friends and family is like having people gathered around your deathbed.”

“(When you have a powerful, inspiring dream or you experience any sort of motivational epiphany), don’t talk about it. Don’t dilute its power. The dream is for you. It’s between you and your muse. Shut up and use it.” (69)

Resistance’s greatest weapon is rationalization.

“But rationalization has its own sidekick. It’s the part of us that actually believes what rationalization is telling us.” (71)

 

It’s one thing to lie to ourselves. It’s another thing to believe it.

 

However, if Resistance couldn’t be beaten, there would be no great symphonies, no great plays such as Romeo and Juliet, and no great works of architecture like the Golden Gate Bridge.