Linchpin_ Are You Indispensable_ - Seth Godin [58]
then, hey, you're virtuous. You can proclaim victory without risk. There's not a lot to fear
when you're stuck in the dip, not a lot that can threaten your standing. You're just a
hardworking guy, doing your best; how dare someone criticize you?
The people who have experienced this and fought back--by quitting when they were
stuck--tell me that the feeling of liberation and new potential is incredible. Suddenly, they
can get back to doing the work, to making a difference, and to engaging with a
community.
The hard part is distinguishing between quitting because the resistance wants you to (bad
idea) or because the resistance doesn't want you to (great idea). The goal is to quit the
tasks you're doing because you're hiding on behalf of the lizard brain and to push through
the very tasks the lizard fears.
Is It Important Enough?
There really isn't a daemon, of course. There's only one "you," only one driver's license
per person. You are going to invent what you're going to invent, do what you're going to
do.
Van Gogh wasn't wired to paint. Paint was the medium available to him at the time. If he
had lived today, perhaps he would have marketed organic tofu. It's not predetermined that
you'll hold a paintbrush or write a symphony.
That means you have to choose your art. It's not preordained; there isn't only one art for
you.
If you pick something that's beneath you, then the resistance will win. After all, what's
the point of overcoming the pain the lizard brain inflicts if all you're doing is something
that doesn't matter much anyway? Overcoming excuses and social challenges isn't easy,
and it won't happen if the end result isn't worth it. Trivial art isn't worth the trouble it
takes to produce it.
When you set down the path to create art, whatever sort of art it is, understand that the
path is neither short nor easy. That means you must determine if the route is worth the
effort. If it's not, dream bigger.
The Internet Is Crack Cocaine for the Resistance
If you sat at work all day watching Hawaii Five-0 reruns, you'd probably lose your job.
But it's apparently fine to tweak and update your Facebook account for an hour. That's
"connecting to your social graph."
There's a big part of our psyche that wants to touch and be touched. We want to be
connected, valued, and missed. We want people to know we exist and we don't want to
get bored.
Waiting for the daemon can be boring or even frightening. So the resistance encourages
us to flee, and where better to go than to the Internet? On a day when the resistance is in
charge, I check my e-mail forty-five times. Why? Can't it wait? Of course it can, but it's
fun. Fun to hear from people I like, fun to answer questions, fun to connect. If I had to be
truthful, it's about resistance. E-mailing is fun, but it rarely changes the world.
Don't even get me started on Twitter. There are certainly people who are using it
effectively and productively. Some people (a few) are finding that it helps them do the
work. But the rest? It's perfect resistance, because it's never done. There's always another
tweet to be read and responded to. Which, of course, keeps you from doing the work.
Where did your art go while you were tweeting?
Where Do You Hide Your Brilliance?
Where do you hide your insight? You have plenty of big ideas, no shortage of
breakthroughs. A friend of mine says something really smart every day, something earthshattering once a week. And that's it. At the end of the year, he has some great blog posts
and a pile of Twitter tweets to show for it. What if he harnessed even one of those ideas
and fought the resistance hard enough to actually make something of it?
At the end of the year, he could show us a multimillion-dollar company, or a movement
that changed the world. By the end of the year, he could have leveraged a few of those
ideas into a promotion, a corner office, a parking space.
The only difference between my friend and someone