This week features Steven Pressfield, Bruce Lee and Zen buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh.
If Resistance couldn't be beaten, there would be no Fifth Symphony, no Romeo and Juliet, no Golden Gate Bridge. Defeating Resistance is like giving birth. It seems absolutely impossible until you remember that women have been pulling it off successfully, with support and without, for fifty million years.
- Steven Pressfield
Pressfield's The War of Art is a slap. Every page. And it is what I needed to get me to start this blog. He uses the term Resistance which opposes every bit of creative work we try to do.
Whether we are facing writers block, or we are procrastinating, or our inner voice tells us to chill and take it easy, or it tells us that no one is going to read this post when I hit publish - that's Resistance. Don't give in to it. It is as easy as not giving in. It is as difficult as we make it.
The point is the doing of them rather than the accomplishments. There is no actor but the action; there is no experiences but the experience.
- Bruce Lee
Effort over results. Journey over destination. Do the work. It is not about you but the work.
And the second line of the quote mostly goes over my head. I kinda sorta maybe vaguely understand what he's trying to say but I don't know enough to write about it.
If you ask a child, "Why are you eating chocolate?", the child would likely answer "Because I like it."
There's no purpose in eating the chocolate. Suppose you climb a hill and stand on top to look around. You might feel quite happy standing on the hill. There's not a reason for doing it. Sit in order to sit. Stand in order to stand. There is no goal or aim in sitting.
Do it because it makes you happy.
– Thich Nhat Hanh
I love his writing. Most meditation or Zen stuff just goes way over my head. Or is just brutally simple and complex like Bruce Lee's stuff that it takes me a while to unpack. He writes simply. It makes sense to me. I know what he's saying and guiding me towards.
Do it because it makes you happy. If there's only one piece of life advice, I think that's it.
Thanks for reading. And thank you, lovely readers, for sending a couple of quotes across. Keep them coming!