Effortless progress = a path that isn’t meant for you.

Since we were young, we’ve been taught that resistance builds across every aspect of life.

From working out with resistance bands to a learning curve that actually acts as a resistance curve if we choose to look at it this way. So, why are we mostly choosing the path of least resistance? It’s like choosing not to witness the magic of progression in our skills, which is weird, but okay.

First, it is important to understand why we might avoid resistance.

There is a certain beauty in repeating what already works. We know the results, we can commodify it and sell it, kinda like the same person wearing a different mask, and we can totally understand why some might gravitate toward this space.

It is not challenging. It’s not forcing you to create something brand new, but just to shift nuance, and there you have it - a winning product.

Or maybe it is mastering a certain skill that gives you the feeling that you might be better staying at that level? in the familiarity, being your own merchant moving forward, leading with the same skill that can’t really be questioned. A safe place, for lack of a better term.

It usually leads to this point: if you are not intimidated by your ideas, then you are probably not pushing past the edge of what you know. And that? That’s an easy route, and nothing worthy comes easily.

By now, it is clear that creative resistance is de facto evidence that you are reaching beyond your current identity.

It builds originality and forces you to create a whole new style or body of work in that thin space between what you can do and what you want to do. This is key to creative life. This is where your talent lives, in that space between ability and aspiration. As you stretch into it and go all out to test how far it can take you, that’s where you discover the new you, the all-possible you.

Not figured out yet.

As we explore this field, new formats and tools will feel awkward at first, and we’ll probably ask ourselves, “Is this really what it is, or a waste of time?”

Makes total sense, but are we surprised?

Keeping it real, you even faced resistance when you first made a track or tried to sew something. So what’s different here? Embrace it. Build something so great that it doesn’t lead to less resistance, but to a new type of resistance. And just like Jay-Z rhymed “we just dance to different drums”.

Exactly. Get ready for the new dance.

As we embrace that new dance, a whole new world opens up for the creative mind. Every challenge starts to feel like a game; an opportunity to advance the work, not something to approach with fear or endless strategizing. Instead, you can have fun with it, build it vertically, and actually enjoy the process this time.

A lot of music references today, but immediately thought of the byproduct of this approach: the confidence it gives you, all encapsulated in one bar by Kanye on The Life of Pablo (sidebar: the album turns 10 this year | “30 Hours”), where he rapped -

I remember being nervous to do Victoria's Secret
'Til I pictured everybody with they clothes off

It’s not about picturing everyone with their clothes off, but about finding something that guides you through the resistance. Everyone has their own thing, so find yours and run with it!

Confidence is built through action, and action invites resistance, it’s how the world works, and Just like Virgil said-

“The world produces waves. Surf or drown. You decide.”

Even waves are seen as resistance, until you realize that they also, part of the sea as a whole, damn, that’s deep.