There is a force, that governs how we go about our lives; Meal deal or a nice salad? Wake up at 5:00 or snooze until 10:00. Get yet another outfit or just stay content with the clothes we have? Go to work, building your dreams or help build the dreams of someone else?

There is no place in ourselves where it cannot venture — from our accounting to our health, it is always present. It’s a cockroach dressed like Jiminy Cricket, sitting on our shoulder and whispering: “Just eat the damn BigMac, you’ll start your diet tomorrow.”

In his book The War of Art, Steven Pressfield describes this force as resistance, but it had names even before plumbing was invented. The original Hebrew term sâtan is derived from a verb meaning primarily “to obstruct, oppose”. And if used with the definite article (ha-satan), it means the heavenly accuser himself — the devil. 

But you have Apep in Egypt and Erebus in Old Greece, too. And it only makes sense for him to be older than christianity, right?

The Obstructor has been around since the dawn of man, whispering and lightly influencing each and every decision our ancestors made, and he is still going strong. 

When you don’t really feel like it and decide 5 min before going running that you’ll rather go tomorrow, he’s there. When you then persuade yourself that going tomorrow is actually better because of wether, schedule, something about your spouse … he’s there too. 

And he is absolutely there when the alarm goes off and you decide to “just close your eyes for a sec” the very next day. He practically invented the snooze button on your phone, calling up Steve when he was still going strong and told him that if there is no snooze button on the iPhone on launch, he’s telling everyone in Silicon Valley that you don’t need to be a dick to people to create an empire.

That’s how dedicated he is.

The question therefore is: What can we do when this immortal, supernatural force is exploiting our weaknesses and curating our demise? And for all of you atheists (like me), how can we make ourselves believe anecdotes like these and actually take them seriously?

It is really, really hard to go at it alone. But there is a trick that simplifies the process immensely. It is in fact so simple, it made the inventor of the cure one of the biggest names in our society and his products have been gathering a cult following for decades.

It’s even universal; works for painters the same as it does for musicians, even actors and actresses can use it. Hell, even bankers, busboys and businessmen can — it just works every single time:

The secret?

Just do it.