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Resistance, professionalism, and the Muse are main themes in Steven Pressfields the War of Art: Break through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles.\u00a0 <\/em>Pressfield takes a very easy way of writing to walk us through his own experience of resistance and how to press through this through professionalism and embracing the mystical idea of muses or angels.<\/p>\n When I read through book one on resistance, I related, a lot.\u00a0 Our own Kally Elliott said last spring \u201cButt in the seat\u201d.[1]<\/a>\u00a0 This was memorable, I looked, and it was the title of her very first blog!\u00a0 That is how much her comment resonated with me, in fact, I wrote it down and posted it on my bulletin board in front of my desk.\u00a0Some of you live on that board for me as inspiration.\u00a0 I \u201cstole like and artist\u201d[2]<\/a> as Kleon would recommend to us later in the semester.\u00a0 What both Dr Elliott and Pressfield hold in common is that most of the battle is just getting to the seat and start typing! A lot like how I approached this last blog\u2026as I face the end of the semester slog.<\/p>\n Head<\/strong><\/p>\n So, resistance is real, but I also would like to suggest that not all resistance should be pushed through without listening to the why?\u00a0 I suppose I\u2019m making a case for resistance.\u00a0 Just today in a leadership meeting at work, we were discussing how deep and too serious Chaplains seem to get when we do what we call \u201cgroundings\u201d in each of our meetings.\u00a0 (guys, we are talking poems and inspirational quotes with occasional discussions around grief, sounds reasonable, right?) Well, I was asked if we could mix it up and not be so serious all the time.\u00a0 As I like to do when being encountered with resistance, I turned to inquiry and wonder.\u00a0 I feel that sometimes the things we are resistant too are the things we need to actually listen to.\u00a0 We live in a world where we can compartmentalize and sometimes violently shove those feelings, stuff like groundings, are trying to bring to light.\u00a0 We fail to see that it is through the light we heal.<\/p>\n I also felt a little resistance myself when the author claims under \u201cResistance and Self-medication\u201d he said \u201cI once worked as a writer for a big New York ad-agency. Our boss used to tell us : Invent a disease. Come up with the disease, he said, and we can sell the cure.\u00a0 Attention Deficit Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder and Seasonal Affect Disorder.\u00a0 These aren\u2019t diseases, they are marketing ploys.\u201d[3]<\/a>\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure I followed what he was saying here, and having a child that has helped me as his mom by understanding his behavior as ADD.\u00a0 Now I understand that like a lot of things, there are a lot of over identifying and diagnosing, but it would take a lot for me to believe this is a marketing ploy.\u00a0 Did anyone else read this part?\u00a0 Did I misunderstand?<\/p>\n Heart<\/strong><\/p>\n Pressfield moved into Professionalism and how that impacts our move into producing work.\u00a0 He gave a list of what makes us professional and not an amateur. \u201cWe show up every day; We show up no matter what; We stay on the job all day; We are committed over the long haul; The stakes for us are high and real; We accept remuneration for our labor; We do not overidentify with our jobs; We master the technique of our jobs; We have a sense of humor about our jobs; We receive praise or blame in the real world\u201d.[4]<\/a>\u00a0 Not a bad summary of what it means to be a professional, I would put this in high school classes and college classes to define what it means to have a career and what employers are looking for in their workers.\u00a0 \u00a0This is the \u201cwhy\u201d we do these things of our life.\u00a0 It\u2019s one thing to give this list to future employers, but unless it sinks into the heart where passion lives, I doubt many would make it through this list for very long.<\/p>\n One might ask, how do we go from the head to the heart?<\/p>\n The Space in Between<\/strong><\/p>\n As in this book, it is suggested, that it is through the mystical or mysterious.\u00a0 While speaking on Jung and the Ego, Pressfield give the example of Tom Laughlin and how he works with those newly diagnosed with cancer.\u00a0He speaks of when the diagnosis is delivered \u201cWhat happens in that instant when we learn we may soon die, Tom Laughlin contends, is that the seat of our consciousness shifts. \u00a0It moves from the Ego to Self.\u201d[5]<\/a>\u00a0 He goes on to contend that this is how Tom helps those go into remission, by bringing healing to the self.\u00a0 I agree.\u00a0Not everyone gets cured, but I contend, that everyone can heal.<\/p>\n What I get from this book is to challenge myself and fellow doctoral students, when working through this doctorate our challenge is to go from the lofty head space and sink it into our hearts, as that is where transformation occurs.\u00a0 As Pressfield expresses, this can be done through embracing mystery.<\/p>\n Fellow students, what mystery do you embrace, or are beginning to embrace? How has the mystery of God\u2019s grace got you through this doctorate so far?\u00a0 Tell me your miracles and I\u2019ll tell you mine\uf04a<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Elliott, Kally. \u201cButt in Seat\u201d blog, January 13, 2023.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Kleon, Austin.\u00a0Steal Like an Artist: 10 things nobody told you about being creative.(<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>New York: Workman Publishing Company, 2012, 2022.)<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Pressfield, Steven. The War of Art; Break through the Block and Win your Inner Creative Battles<\/em>. (New York, Los Angeles, Black Irish Entertainment LLC, 2002) pg. <\/em>26<\/p>\n