My good friend and collaborator Mark McGuinness recently alerted me to a stimulating new book by Steven Pressfield called Do The Work which is about a subject dear to my heart: how to overcome Headmind when it is messing your life up.
I was doubly intrigued because Steven Pressfield once wrote a powerful historical novel about the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae called Gates of Fire - one of the very few books of that kind which had me (and my wife) in tears by the end.
Taking time off from writing fiction Steven's new, very short, book is about how to achieve your goals when you don't think you can.
The premise is simple: whenever you work on a project that is really important to you, but which is going to take time, hard work, and personal sacrifice then you are going to hit a wave of resistance. And that resistance comes not from outside but from within; your own personal version of Headmind in fact: doubts, excuses, distractions, worries, whinges, procrastination, or so-called 'low self-esteem' - in which Headmind keeps on repeating the mantra that there is no point in your doing anything very much because it is bound to end in failure.
The solution is also simple: just do it. Once you have decided that the project really is important to you then you ignore Headmind when it is trying to do you down and sabotage your goals. Specifically, you ignore the Chatterbox. Or just tell it to shut the fuck up while you get on with things.
Here are some examples from the world of Therapy:
You are working on your recovery from Depression and you have decided to get out more. The Inner Voice says 'what's the point?'. Your response: go ahead and call a friend and make that date regardless.
You are working on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and you have decided to increase your morning exercise routine to 10 minutes. Your Internal Saboteur says: 'you'll make yourself ill'. Your response: increase it to 15 minutes.
You are working on Anxiety. Your Internal Control Freak says: 'I worry that you won't be able to stop worrying because you have been a worrier all your life....'. Your response: you focus your attention on a non-worrisome activity for the next few hours.
One difference between using Steven's method on creative work, and using it on personal problems is this: in creative work you just get on with the project (for example: your next novel, or work idea, house redesign, etc.). In that way you force Headmind to get on with doing something useful.
Whereas if you are depressed, anxious, obsessional, etc., you may need to give Headmind some substitute activities to do. A good example relates to giving up drug/alcohol/cigarette/ gambling addictions. Whenever the Internal Saboteur twitters on about needing a fix/drink/fag/bet then you just do a 180 degree attention turn and go off and do something more worthwhile. My experience with my clients is that when they do this repeatedly, then over the ensuing weeks that Internal Voice will gradually dwindle away to a whisper.
There is an excellent interview with Steven Pressfield, in which he discusses the approach, on the Lateral Action site, which you can read here.
Image by permission of Fuyoh
