Book Review: Do the Work!

I should have really felt more energized by reading this book, Do the Work!, by Steven Pressfield. It is basically a manifesto to fight through resistance and get your dream goal completed (be that a novel, an opera, a new business, whatever). Certainly I could use a swift kick in the pants to get busy finishing the novel I started in November. But, it just felt like a pointless pep talk. Indeed, I have already heard all these sentiments before. If there's something good that you should be doing, know that the cosmos will conspire against you and try to hold you back. Press on! Never give up! Sit butt in chair and show up! Stop worrying about whether it is good and just begin to get it down. Some progress is better than no progress at all, what happens when you're too bent on planning the progress out in detail.

Don't get me wrong. These are all good messages. I myself needed the swift kick in the pants that came in the form of Nanowrimo many years back, when I finally began finishing novels. Perhaps that is where you are. Perhaps you need this message to just get off your duff and BEGIN. To do the work. If so, I can guarantee you'll get through it quickly (the book, that is - not necessarily your goal/dream). Just, for me, it was old news rehashed.