This was the most actually motivating motivational book I have ever read. It really lit a fire under me. And that is quite remarkable; normally anything remotely motivational makes me vomit. But this book, this book.

The author names and defines Resistance. The thing that holds you back from writing. The thing that is endlessly creative, endlessly stubborn, that wants nothing more than for you to not write. Or not to whatever the great important thing is that you are meant to do.

In fact, while this book is superficially about writing, this book really has nothing to do with writing, and everything to do with the fact that anything worth doing is hard. If you don’t have resistance, then that means what you’re doing doesn’t matter. Only things that really matter have resistance. For you it could be painting, founding a non-profit, raising whole and healthy children, overcoming an addiction, engineering an invention, any number of things, but one thing is certain: it will be hard.

This book is written in many chapters and each chapter is one single page. The chapters are topics or vignettes or examples, each bite-sized but powerful. It’s perfect to read one chapter a day and get yourself motivated to go write! Put your butt in the seat and do it!

I feel like this book is actually, in my experience, the single most important book for a writer. You have to name the problem and visualize the enemy in order to get focused and intentional and overcome that enemy. Before reading this book and naming that enemy, I constantly floundered with procrastinating writing. After, everything changed. Not saying I don’t have my days, but…really. It was a huge mindset shift. I plan to re-read this book every year. I also bought an extra copy and gave it to an aspiring writer friend of mine who’s going through a hard time.

Don’t do it because it’s easy, my friend…do it because it’s hard.