The Muse Newsletter--official beginning

The Work We Were Meant to Do:

The Work We Were Meant to Do

Number One, March 23, 2025

Are you a writer who doesn’t write, a painter who doesn’t paint or a spiritual seeker who doesn’t seek?

Then you know what resistance is.

Resistance is a word I learned from Steven Pressfield which means not doing the work you were meant to do.

I know some people don’t know what that work is. Well, we ought to look into that shouldn’t we? That can take some time and soul searching. Or perhaps the work you were meant to do was staring you in the face all along and you thought it was frivolous.

That reminds me of the lady who wanted to watch Soap Operas most of the day. Now this was the time before VCR’s, streaming, or recording devices on your TV. However, one day she got a bright idea. She noted that some people didn’t have the time to watch Soap Operas, or even the one they loved. And then there were days when they needed to be away from home during that critical hour when their favorite Soap was on. They would, therefore, miss a critical plot line.

So, what did she do? She began writing brief explanations of what happened the day before. The result turned into the TV Guide.

There was some entrepreneurship in the middle there, but it was amazing that her desire minted her a fortune, the TV guide was a contribution to most every household there for a time, plus she had pulled her creativity into the act.

Resistance.

Resistance often comes before the resolve to do the work we were meant to do. We could call it procrastination, but procrastination is just putting off the work. Resistance is not embracing it. You could be a writer and put it off for years.

You think you would like to write a novel, but doubt that you could do it or be successful at it. Better to forget it, you think, but it digs at you. How I would love to paint, you think, but I am way behind on that learning curve. What about that woodworking shop that is becoming cobweb infested while you have an idea of a sculpture?

Many times, the hero resists the call, the very thing he or she knows deep in her soul that is what she ought to do.

Often the hero gets kicked out of his comfort zone before taking action. Sometimes she is forced to do it. Sometimes the hero has lost everything. After Luke Skywalk’s custodians were killed, he had nothing left, and thus he took off doing the thing he had dreamed of—becoming a Jeti.

And then along came a guide.

A woman, 65, on the design show Project Runway was working with a group of young people who thought she had been a designer for years. “I just graduated from design school,” she said. After years working in the corporate world, she asked herself what she would do if she was young. “Go to clothing design school,” she answered. Good question.

And why in the heck am I writing this newsletter?

It is driving me for some reason. They say that a teacher teaches that which they most need to learn. I want to investigate the subject of doing the work we were meant to do. I want to be successful at doing that work, and I want to share what I find.

That’s where you come in. Please join me on this adventure and share your email with me so I will know who you are.

When I read Natalie Goldberg (Wild Mind) say that with writing, we never get out of the first grade, I went, “Whew” Not that I didn’t want to get out of the first grade, but I have often lamented that I felt that way, and there was a person who understood.

Don’t we all want to be understood? Don’t we want a soft place to fall when everything seems to be crashing around us?

Goldberg says we keep returning and reinventing—that’s going back to the first grade.

Before I completed writing this installment for The Muse Newsletter, I spent a page describing all the distractions that keep me from my work—and I was itching to get to work. You know the distractions, morning clean-ups, the to-do’s. You don’t need to hear me whine—that’s for those “Morning Pages” where you can write out your gripes and cares of the day, which is another way of saying, “Sweep your house so the Muse doesn’t soil her gown when she enters.”

(Thanks Steven Pressfield)

Resistance—not doing the work we are meant to do. While not always easy, it feeds our souls.

Procrastination—putting off the work we have committed ourselves to do. Letting inertia catch up with us.

Distractions—those things that keep us away from our work.

These are challenges on our journeys.

Thanks for being here.

Tell us about your challenges. You know the adage, the holes in your underwear don’t match the holes in mine. Likewise, the holes in mine don’t match yours. In that manner, we can help each other.

Let me know if you find this newsletter something you would like to see continue. No obligation. No fee. No sharing of emails. I’m jazzed about what we will find.

“They say that motivation doesn’t last, well, neither does bathing. That’s why we do it daily.”—Zig Zigler.