The chasm.

Part amateur and part pro.

Resistance, Amateurs and Pros

Steven Pressfield writes about Resistance and how it affects our life in his seminal book, “War of Art”. I count is as the book which has impacted my life the most.

Before reading the War of Art, I was under the impression that I am lazy (maybe I am), I procrastinate, I have self-doubt, I have bipolar disorder, I have ADHD, you name it and I have got it. I kept trying and trying and kept failing and failing. I could not look at myself anymore. Because on one hand, my mind would convince me that I am destined for great things and on the other, it would not let me sit down to even start them. It would not let me take a normal job, but it would also not let me do what I wanted to.

When I read the War of Art, I understood that these two voices are separate, even though they are coming from within me. I understood that listening to the negative voice will keep dragging me down the proverbial rabbit hole. I started not to listen to that voice. I started turning pro.

Turning Pro — First Blood

And I did succeed. There were days and sometimes weeks where I felt like a pro. I did not give into Resistance. I worked and completed stuff. It was bliss. And then, Resistance got to me again. One thing at a time. One allowance at a time.

It whispered, you have not looked at YouTube for so long, you deserve sometime to relax, no? And it felt justified. I said that I need that. And then it started. From one hour on one day, to three hours the next, to missing the entire work the next and before I knew it I became miserable again.

Then again, when I was at the other end of the spectrum, I stopped listening to Resistance again. I got up, cleaned my room, put the stuff in its place, cleaned my space for work and sat down to work. I disabled all the distracting websites (Freedom app). And again I started feeling like a pro.

The chasm and the forces

Now, I think that most of us, rather all of us are in this chasm between an amateur and a pro. Some of us are almost pure amateurs and some of us are definitely almost pure pro. How does one become a pure amateur or a pure pro?

I think the answer is habits. Let me try to explain with an example.

Let’s say I want to workout daily. Now, everyday, I have to make a decision. Do I decide to workout or do I decide not to. Generally I decide that I’ll start tomorrow, which is the same as deciding not to. Now, if I do this for 5 days straight, the tendency of not to workout becomes significantly greater than the tendency to workout. And the bigger the streak the more difficult is the change.

How to win?

That’s interesting, but that does not help our cause. We still have to decide and Resistance knows that it can beat us, because it did beat us the last 4 days.

One of the hack that I like is to minimise the time and effort and be very specific about it. So, I decided that I will workout only for 5 minutes, with a timer on, but I will do it daily. What this does is two folds. One, it reduces the activation energy. I know the playlist I will play, I keep the clothes ready, I know where I will workout and so on. Two, it gives us the satisfaction that we did workout today. 5 days of doing that, and Resistance knows that you won’t listen. It will start playing a different game, but now you have levelled up.

So, for any new challenge, take it in micro-steps. Do them for 5 days, then increase incrementally. This is very important. Because Resistance can trigger pride. And pride will bring doom. Resistance will make you feel like a king, before pulling the carpet from under your feet. Hence, it is important to stay minimal. Somedays, you might workout for a couple of hours, but you have ensure that all days you work out for 5 minutes or 2 minutes, whatever you decide. Even 60 seconds is better than 0 seconds. That’s the difference between winning and losing.

Now, back to the chasm. I have realised that there are separate activities on both sides of the chasm. There are activities that pull me higher and there are activities that drag me down. I call them the positive and the negative lists.

My positive list goes like this:

1. Brush, shower
2. Morning Meditation
3. Working out
4. Identify top 1–2 things for the day and getting them done
5. Writing 750 words on 750words.com
6. Eating as per the slow-carb diet
7. Publishing an article on Medium
8. Using the Stoic App to release stress
9. Using brain.fm to focus
10. Using Toggl to track my time
11. Finishing the chores and not to keep them pending
12. Drinking water
13. Applying hair oil
14. Evening meditation

My negative list goes like this:

1. Calling people and talking for hours
2. Ordering food from swiggy
3. Going through feeds/suggestions on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, News, IMDB
4. Bingeing on TV series
5. Reading or watching news related to Covid-19
6. Swiping right on bumble, etc.
7. Watching porn

As we can see above, the positive list is mostly mindful and the negative list is mostly mindless. Another characteristic is that the activities in the negative list mostly do not have an end-point, whereas it is very difficult to stretch any activity in the positive list.

So, here comes the challenge. The challenge is two-folds. Doing things from the positive list. And not doing things from the negative list. And they are all interrelated.

This is what the chasm looks like for me. When I spend my time doing things from the positive list and avoiding the negative list, I feel lighter and happier. When I give into the negative list, I feel miserable.

Where are we now?

Yesterday, I was listening to Seth Godin on the Tim Ferriss podcast. Among the many amazing things Seth said, one struck my nerve.

Tim asked him, how Seth manages deadlines. How does he ensures that he delivers on time, when there is no one looking over our shoulder. Generally, the answer to this question has been hacks. Putting stakes with a friend, using Stickk or Beeminder or some other device.

Seth’s answer was different.

It was a paradigm shift. He said that he decided that either he can work for someone else or he can live the career that he wants. But if he chooses the latter, he has to be the guy who meets deadlines. He has to be the guy who does not give into Resistance.

It’s a promise he made to himself and a promise that he keeps on keeping.

I hope that I can move across that chasm and keep my promise too.