Do the work

Steven Pressfi

eld

Do Th

e Work!

64

65

What does this mean to us—the artists and entrepreneurs in the trenches?

It means that before the dragon

of Resistance reared its ugly head

and breathed fi

re into our faces,

there existed within us a force so

potent and life-affi

rming that it

summoned this beast into being ,

perversely, to combat it.

It means that, at bottom, Resistance is not the towering , all-powerful monster before whom we are compelled to quake in terror. Resistance is more like the pain-in-the-ass schoolteacher who won’t let us climb that tree in the playground.

But the urge to climb came fi

rst.

Th

at urge is love.

Love for the material,

love for the work, love for our

brothers and sisters to whom we

will off

er our work as a gift

.

In Greek, the word is

eros

. Life force.

Dynamis

, creative

drive.

Th

at mischievous tree-climbing

scamp is our friend.

She’s us, she’s our higher nature, our Self. In the face of Resistance, we have to remember her and hang onto her and draw strength from her.

Th

e 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 Number Seven: The Opposite of Resistance Is Assistance In myths and legends, the knight is always aided in his quest to slay the dragon. Providence brings forth a champion whose role is to assist the hero. Th

eseus had Ariadne when he fought

the Minotaur. Jason had Medea when he went aft

er the Golden

Fleece. Odysseus had the goddess Athena to guide him home.