Resistance

As my husband could tell anyone, procrastination is one of my worst tendencies. In his lecture, VC faculty member David Gifaldi described procrastination as one facet of resistance. Resistance arises from within writers and artists. Amen.

Another facet of resistance, he said, was comparing yourself to others. That's pretty hard not to do.He said if we must compare ourselves to others, compare ourselves to Emily Dickinson and Vincent Van Gogh. Dickinson wrote 1,800 poems and published 7 in her lifetime. Van Gogh sold 1 painting in his lifetime.

So how do we beat resistance? We show up. Getting my butt in the chair is sometimes the hardest part of all.

I told David G. at breakfast that I'd thought about his advice while I was running this morning. I was doing speed work on the high school track--4 x 3 laps with 1 lap recovery jog--and it wasn't going well. My legs were still dead from the hilly long run on Sunday and from climbing to the 4th floor of College Hall 3 or 4 times yesterday. My times were pathetic. I was tempted to stop, but just like bad writing days, I also have bad running days. So I persevered and finished the workout. If only I could remember that when it comes to writing.