"The War Of Art"

I've just started reading The War Of Art, by Steven Pressfield (Subtitled, "Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles").

The book concerns a phenomenon called "resistance", where our minds fight

...any act that rejects immediate gratification in favor of long-term growth, health, or integrity. Or expressed another way, any act that derives from our higher nature instead of our lower.

I've wrestled with - and typically lost to - "resistance" all my life.

So it was a huge "win" when I overcame a lifetime of resistance, and came out to Los Angeles to become a professional actor; I'd made little "feints" in that direction over the years, but had never made a full-on, life-altering commitment to the idea.

Another victory is currently being won on the weight-loss front (Anyone reading this who's tried to lose weight before knows what I mean about "resistance").

This blog is also a victory over the forces of resistance - The idea of making money doing something I enjoy, something I'd been doing for free for years, was very appealing. But nevertheless, it was a struggle to get from "there" to "here".

The next front in the ongoing war is theater - I want to do theater, and it would be good for me to do theater, but here I am - not doing theater.

One thing I realized recently is that it's no good to make one bold decision about your life, then sit back and relax, patting yourself on the back for the "bold decision" you made - You have to keep making those bold decisions, because resistance doesn't go away.

The "War" goes on.

And somewhere down the line, I've got a book to write, drawings to draw, and a standup routine to perform.

But since I've gotten about four hours of sleep, and I have a casting workshop at 1:00, right now I've got a nap to take...