by Eric Payne
Is there a story you have to tell? Do you sometimes lay awake at night thinking about a business you know with certainty that you could run? Is there a script you want to write? Do you have a movie you feel the people need to see? Are you compelled by “destiny” to lose weight and create a “new you”? But then by morning it’s all the stuff of dreams and delusions brought on by insomnia. You’ve given up and begrudgingly dress for your day gig. You fall in line with the rest of society in your dutiful effort to put and keep food on the table.
Have you shared your dream with friends and family only to watch their eyes widen with disbelief or thin with that look of “this dude is buggin'”? Has pure and divine inspiration been thrashed by those who don’t share your dream and don’t dare dream themselves; those who in believing that they care for you don’t want to see you change and evolve into someone they don’t know? Or worse, are you the one doing the downplaying and the doubting, calling yourself crazy?
Everyone who has or is achieving something “great” has been quite crazy. Steve Jobs of Apple was and is crazy. Bill Gates was crazy. Lonnie G. Johnson, the African American millionaire-inventor of the Super Soaker water gun, most certainly was crazy. Barack Obama was crazy to believe that he could be the first African American President of the United States and remains crazy as he holds his office. Lamar Tyler was crazy to believe that without backing or the industry’s blessing he could create and then nationally showcase positive images of African Americans being in love and existing in healthy marriages. What is the difference between you and this short list of people who followed their dreams?
You either believe there is something wrong with being crazy or have allowed someone else to convince you of this lie.
Light That Fire Yourself
According to Steven Pressfield, author of Do The Work (The Domino Project, 2011), it is on you to light that necessary fire beneath you. Get started. Get going on that project NOW. It doesn’t have to be perfectly thought out. You don’t have to spend years researching its viability. You definitely don’t need to seek the approval of others. What you need to do is find a private space; create some time, no matter how long or short, on a daily basis and GET TO WORK. In the digital age when the ability to create products such as books, videos, music and even Internet-based business plans has existed unlike it has at any other point in history, there is no reason for you to wait on anyone else to approve or qualify the divine creativity that exists inside of you for the exact purpose of being shared with the world. In other words, you don’t need anyone else’s green light. Be your own green light.
The Enemy Defined
Pressfield calls out forces that rise up against us once the spark of creativity is ignited within us. They are as follows:
- Resistance (i.e., fear, self-doubt, procrastination, addiction, distraction, timidity, ego, narcissism, self-loathing, perfectionism, etc.)
- Rational thought
- Friends and family*
*Source: Do The Work
To dig more into the causes of being stalled in the midst of your “personal revolution” and how to overcome them you should definitely read Steven Pressfield’s 112-page common sense book, Do The Work. It’s available as a free download on Amazon.com. Learn how to fully develop that creative, dreams-to-reality-you you’ve been destined to be since birth. Get That Ball Rolling!
BMWK what do you do to overcome resistance and negative energy to get the ball rolling for the projects in your life? Please let us know via a comment below.
Follow Eric on Facebook and Twitter. He is the author of Love Notes and the forthcoming DAD: As Easy As A, B, C! and has written the articles Investing In An Emotional Letdown and the now infamous, My Wife Is NOT My Friend (on Facebook). He keeps it candid about being a man, dad and husband on his blog, Makes Me Wanna Holler.com. In his “spare time,” Eric reviews autos, tech products and writes relationship articles for Atlanta-based J’Adore Magazine.