Being Professional About Being The Real You

​I have come to know this - the more important an action is to you becoming who you are meant to be, the more difficult that action is to perform. Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art, calls this difficulty resistance.

Pressfield writes about the artist's struggle to complete meaningful work, whether it be a painting or a book or other, in the face of distractions. Distractions that seem to magically show up to keep one from completing projects this resistance doesn't want offered to the world. As if the resistance somehow knows this work will make some beautiful kind of difference.

I know this resistance as the devil, and I think it has much broader implications than art.

I believe we are all created to be someone and something. We have a design. A unique and beautiful fit in the puzzle of the world. I believe this because I have a voice inside me always pushing me to become someone just a little different than I am right now.

Not a better me. Or a more right me. Just a different me, as if always being pointed toward me.

The real me.

This is not a voice I have asked for, but one that just seems to have always been a part of me. And yet, this voice always has an opponent. An adversary.

Resistance.

The devil.

I have certainly felt this as I work to complete my memoir. A project that has long faced this adversary. The more the devil throws distractions and resistance at this project, the more I am absolutely convinced it's a project that must get into the world. I don't fully know why, but I do know it must.

I have felt this often when pursuing a healthier me. The voice inside me long ago forced me to see the me that tackles the world with the most clarity is the me who tackles the world without the influence of substance. And yet, this adversary, this resistance, this devil - is constantly dangling the lure of alcohol in front of me.

I have gained some weight lately. Not because I wanted to. And not because I don't know how NOT to. But because the resistance lately to exercise and eating the way I know I personally need to eat has shown up with the resistance of an army. A heavily armed army hell bent on total occupation of me.

And so, what do I do about this resistance - this devil - that stands between who I am and who I am meant to be?

Steven Pressfield would tell me: turn pro.

An amateur waits for inspiration. A professional builds habits that create it. When we turn pro, we stop asking how we feel and start asking what needs to be done. We stop letting our moods determine our movement.

We stop negotiating with the devil.

Pressfield warns there’s a cost to this shift. The moment you begin to take yourself seriously, others may not. Some will mock your discipline, your sobriety, your focus. Some will feel threatened by your growth, because your transformation exposes their own resistance to change. Turning pro often means walking away from those unspoken agreements to stay small together.

But is there a cost too big to pay to come in alignment with the you that you were designed to be?

I don't think so.

So whatever your resistance looks like - fear, distraction, addiction, self-doubt - meet it like a professional. Show up anyway. Do the work anyway. Trust that the voice calling you toward your real self is not your imagination. It’s your invitation.

And when you finally turn pro with your life, you’ll find that the devil no longer has to be defeated, he just gets outworked. And the devil shows up less often in spaces where he knows he'll get outworked!!