Hi friends,

Happy almost-December. This year has truly flown by. As we enter the last few weeks of 2025, I look forward to sharing my annual "Lessons from..." mini-book with you soon (check out last year's here). If you're interested in reviewing the book early, press this link to be added to that list.

Today, we'll discuss November's book, The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

For December, we'll be reading Finish by Jon Acuff. My goal is to start doing weekly emails again this month. And for January, I've already decided that I'll be re-reading Atomic Habits by James Clear.

— Maneet

Weekly Discussion

This month, I decided to do a deep dive into Steven Pressfield’s nonfiction books.

It started with The War of Art, but it went on to include Do the Work and Turning Pro.

All of these books center around one core concept: “The Resistance.”

Last month, I shared an email with you describing how I’ve been struggling to keep up with this weekly newsletter and get back into a schedule with YouTube videos. I described it as feeling “resistance” toward doing creative work. When I wrote that email, I had no idea I was describing the same concept that Steven Pressfield wrote three books about. I thought it was a me-problem that I needed to solve through discipline and willpower, but it turns out resistance is a problem that all of us have. It’s not unique in the slightest.

Resistance is that feeling we all face immediately after deciding to undertake a project that requires work.

The book uses several examples to illustrate resistance, and I encourage you to read The War of Art to get a full grasp of it. For right now, I want to share my personal experience with it. For me, resistance is that force that creeps up and causes me to procrastinate doing the work I know I should be doing. It is not unique to one specific project. Every time I get excited about a new endeavor (like writing a book, or even reorganizing my office), that excitement is immediately followed by resistance. Resistance is predictable, yet unavoidable. It is there every day, waiting for me, and my job is to conquer it, or be conquered by it.

The books describe it as a dragon that must be slain.

Over and over again. Each and every day.

Seeing resistance as this separate thing that is simply part of the human experience makes it feel much less like a me-problem. In the world of therapy, there’s a concept known as externalization. It’s when therapists help clients separate the problem from the person. Instead of seeing somebody as depressed, it is reframed as somebody suffering from depression. Instead of seeing somebody as an alcoholic, it is reframed as a person suffering from alcoholism. It’s a subtle change of vocabulary, but it makes a profound difference.

We all suffer from the force of resistance.

The cure to resistance, as described by Pressfield, is “turning pro.” This concept took me a while to get my head around. He describes it as a moment in your life that you will always remember. A turning point that you make intentionally and consciously. It’s the moment you decide to fully commit to your project, craft, work, or art as a professional. He uses the term “professional” a bit differently than we’re used to. He doesn’t mean turning pro in the sense of earning money. He means it in terms of the traits a professional has toward their work.

Turning pro is about building habits that overcome resistance.

Professionals show up each day regardless of what they’re feeling. Professionals structure their days around defeating the dragon. Professionals live a simple life because they have habits in place that allow them to do what matters instead of letting resistance steer them in different directions. Professionals respect the resistance because they know how powerful it is.

Over the past month, I’ve changed my relationship with resistance.

For starters, whenever I don’t feel like working on YouTube videos, I no longer blame myself. Instead, I just say, “there’s resistance creeping up on me again.” Second, I know that resistance is tied deeply to things that are important. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be feeling it in the first place. The fact that I face so much resistance with my creative work tells me how much I love it. And lastly, I’ve begun structuring my days around conquering the dragon. I try my best to do any creative writing and video scripting early in the morning. I’ve also begun filming videos on the weekends instead of trying to squeeze it in during the week.

So far, these changes have worked well.

But I know resistance is a daily battle. There will be days when I lose. But the goal is to win the war throughout the duration of my life.

I’d love to hear from you. What are you facing resistance toward doing right now?

Weekly YouTube Video

​🎬 Kobo vs Kindle: The Real Winner Revealed​

If you’ve ever gone back and forth on whether to get a Kindle or a Kobo, this week’s video breaks it down in the simplest way possible. I walk through the biggest differences that actually matter in day-to-day reading. I’ve used every Kindle and Kobo for years, so this is a pretty honest look at what each of them gets right and wrong.

Three ways I can help you...

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📚 Check out the Presently Reading book log. It is a complete list of every book we've read in the book club since I started it.