Member-only story

1/10 Understanding Resistance: The Invisible Enemy

Dominic Medford
4 min readJun 21, 2024

AI-Generated Image

Welcome to the first instalment of our 10-part series inspired by Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art. Today, we’ll dive deep into the concept of Resistance, the unseen force that Pressfield describes as the biggest barrier to creativity and success. Understanding Resistance is the first crucial step in overcoming it.

What is Resistance?

Steven Pressfield defines Resistance as a destructive force against human creativity and ambition. In his words, “Resistance is the most toxic force on the planet.” It’s the internal enemy that arises whenever we attempt to pursue something meaningful, whether it’s writing a book, starting a business, or embarking on a new fitness regime.

The Characteristics of Resistance

Resistance is insidious and takes many forms, making it challenging to recognise and even harder to combat. Here are some key characteristics of Resistance:

1. Procrastination:

Procrastination is the most common manifestation of Resistance. It’s the voice in your head that says, “I’ll start tomorrow.” Pressfield notes, “Procrastination is the most common manifestation of Resistance because it’s the easiest to rationalise. We don’t tell ourselves, ‘I’m never going to write my symphony.’…

The author made this story available to Medium members only.
If you’re new to Medium, create a new account to read this story on us.

Or, continue in mobile web

Already have an account? Sign in

Dominic Medford
Dominic Medford

Written by Dominic Medford

Law and Political Sciences student in Australia who dabbles in writing about his thought processes in his spare time with the hope that it can be insightful.

No responses yet

Write a response