RESISTANCE

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Early last year I set out to make a comprehensive Figma 101 course—that teaches anyone how to use Figma, even though they have no experience with it whatsoever.

“Figma 101 – learn the basics of Figma in hour with twelve 5-minute videos.”

By mid-year, I had the outline and the scripts complete. I even finished recording all twelve of the talking head videos.

But then I lost momentum. I shifted my focus to other things and avoided that absolute mountain of video editing that was before me. And it wasn’t really something that I could sub-contract out, because there was still a lot of creating that needed to be done in the form of design assets.

I wanted to present the videos in a way where the talking shots and the Figma stuff was very tightly integrated, packing as much possible value into every second of video that I could. No filler, no ums or uhs, just straight up high impact value.

I designed and coded the landing page for it and I hired Arek Kajda to make some amazing 3D art for the thumbnails of each video. The cute little images above are four of the thumbnails created by him. I'll share more of them in the next few emails.

I sent him rough sketches of what I was thinking, along with the designs of the landing page. And he absolutely knocked it out of the park.

Reminder...

I had ALL of this ready to go last year this time. But I avoided the video editing like the plague.

I should’ve just gotten started on the editing and capitalized on the moment. But I did not do that and let things get cold. I succumbed to the resistance.

BUT... fast forward to today and I’m roughly halfway done with all of the video edits and I’m excited to say that theses are some of the best videos I’ve ever made

In Stephen Pressfield’s book “The War of Art'” he talks about Resistance. It’s portrayed as an internal force that impedes creativity and progress.

He describes it as the main obstacle for artists and anyone trying to achieve their creative goals. He explains that resistance manifests in various forms like procrastination, self-doubt, fear, and distractions.

It’s a force that prevents individuals from doing their work and achieving their full potential. He emphasizes the need to recognize, confront, and overcome this resistance in order to be productive and fulfill one’s creative calling.

Here are 7 steps Pressfield gives for overcoming Resistance:

Routine and discipline are the only ways I’ve made progress on these videos. And I try very hard not to let guilt or shame drive me when the day doesn’t go my way, because some unforeseen task or interruption, or even procrastination got the best of me.

I acknowledge it and move forward. And I’m making progress.

I truly believe and I can knock the rest of these edits with another 40-60 hours of work on them. I might be able to do that in a week, but it might also take me 2-3 weeks.

The good news is, I can see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Two takeaways from all of this...