War of Art, The

Warning: Very long review. This book has helped me multiple times. In The Art of War, Sun Tzu coined the famous phrase ‘know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster.’ In The War of Art, Steven Pressfield launches into a similar discussion. In the first section we will discover our enemy: Resistance. The second section discusses our means for combat: Turning Pro. In the third and final section we will see that the battle is between our Self and our Ego. Resistance – Defining the Enemy. This is the first of 3 sections Pressfield shares with us on what he considers to be the enemy of the creator. Resistance is an internal force, the ‘enemy within.’ Defined as self-sabotage, resistance usually manifests as avoidance, procrastination, or inaction caused by fear which creates paralysis. Resistance, according to Pressfield, is invisible, insidious, implacable, internal, impersonal and universal. He elaborates on each of these adjectives (and more), unafraid to use a clever metaphor or simile to illustrate a point. For example, in the section ‘Resistance is infallible, Pressfield writes: “Like a magnetized needle floating on a surface of oil, Resistance will unfailingly point to true North-meaning that calling or action it most wants to stop us from doing.” Pressfield goes on to point out Resistance in its many guises: the way peers may be recruited as allies of Resistance when an artist starts to conquer Resistance; the people around her “begin acting strange…they are trying to sabotage her” because they are experiencing Resistance of their own. They may begin to feel guilty for not trying to reach their own potential To make themselves feel better, they pressure her either directly or indirectly to backslide. In my case, I have a couple of people who point out how hard I work, don’t I need to take some me time? That sort of thing…. Resistance also encourages the artist’s tendency to quit at 99%, procrastinating work in order to not face completion of their work. Completion opens our work up to our peers for review and examination of others. He states that Resistance has no power of its own, only power it receives from our fear. Any one reading it will be able to identify where Resistance has dug it’s claws in at one time or another with many of his examples and definitions. I want to point out that nowhere in his book does Pressfield address the Resistance we also face via the internet, email, Facebook, etc. In one section he mentions completely missing Watergate because he was too busy writing. Apparently he is able to focus on his work so strongly these things that distract many of us have no appeal to him. The second section covers: Combating Resistance – Turning Pro. According to Pressfield, there’s no mystery about turning pro. You just make the decision and by an act of your will it is so. By turning pro, Pressfield is talking about the ideal of becoming a professional, a mindset. You make a decision to sit down and do your craft, or exercise, or whatever, NO MATTER WHAT. No matter what tries to distract you and stop you, you keep going until the day is done. You are professional in your dedication and behavior. “An amateur plays for fun, a professional for keeps.” The amateur lets a cold or minor distractions stop him. The professional knows he needs to do the work, and then get better. The amateur thinks he can quit anytime it gets tough and go back to something else. The professional doesn’t want to quit every time he hits a problem, he has discipline and determination to steady him. Turning pro means basically to prepare a work discipline and follow it. To paraphrase Pressfield’s definition: A pro shows up every day no matter what, stays on the job all day, and is in it for the long haul. For the pro, the stakes are high. Pros accept payment for their work (even if they don’t always make an income). Pros also master the technique of their work, have a sense of humor about their jobs, and receive real-world praise or blame. He explains the hangovers and colds and other things as excuses we use to deflect ourselves from our purpose and from fulfilling our call. An added benefit, if you really love what you do, you will be like a child who looks up from their activities to be surprised to find that it’s time for supper. Also, Pressfield makes a point that we are not to get our identity from the thing we are trying to create. You are still you. Your work should be work, not you. Aside from your calling, your life’s work, you should have an identity that stands alone. If you only have an identity in whatever you are trying to create, you leave yourself vulnerable to the attacks that will come. You will take it all personally and it should never be that way. Your work is what is being attacked, and you should be able to stand back and defend it objectively. Do not over invest your emotional well being in your success or failure. I think this is a common mistake made. You, Inc. – Pressman also brings up the benefits of making yourself a corporation. Even if you only think of yourself in this way it can reinforce the idea of professionalism in your work because it separates the artist-doing-the-work from the consciousness-running-the-show. I love his idea of having status meetings with himself. In corporate America, we have a status meeting every Monday morning, decide on a plan of action and who will take care of what part of that plan, then divvy out the assignments, type it up and distribute it to the various participants. He has one of those meetings with himself every Monday. He sits down and goes over his assignments, decides when to be responsible for what, and types it up and distributes it to himself. Sometimes as Joe-blow he is too intimidated to go out and pimp himself, but as Joe-blow Inc, he enjoys the pimping. He’s not him anymore. He’s Me, Inc. This third and final section talks about the muses and identifies the cause of Resistance through the Self and the Ego. Muses, angels, demons, geniuses, an input from the collective unconsciousness, all these Pressfield calls our allies, “equal and opposite powers…counterpoised against [Resistance].” These allies join us when we make the shift from being an amateur to a professional. In the second section, he heavily stresses professionalism. He states the most important thing about art is work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying. “When we sit down day after day and keep grinding…The muse takes note of our dedication. She approves…we becomes like a magnetized rod that attracts iron filings. Ideas come.” Following this simple but powerful truth, Pressfield talks about the day he finished his first book. He finally wrote, The End. He received this sage advice from his friend Paul: “Good for you. Start the next one today.” In my words: don’t stop now, you finally have a work ethic that is producing your art. Now: Ego and Self, and the battle between the two. Resistance has its seat in Ego. The Ego is that part of the psyche that believes in material existence, is concerned with its own preservation and comfort, with stasis and the physical, material world. The Ego likes things the way they are. It likes to be in control. The Self, according to Pressfield, is where we grow from. This is where our dreams and ideas come from. When we meditate or pray, this is the part of ourselves we are seeking. Self is our deepest being. Why does the Ego hate the self? According to Pressfield, its …”…because when we seat our consciousness in the Self, we put the ego out of business.” The Ego hates it when the creator sits down to create, whether it’s a book, a painting or an exercise routine. Ego hates to lose control, and tries to cripple Self. It hates creators because they are pathfinders to the future. Pressfield ends the book with a simple call to action: listen to your Self and take action in order to find out what you were meant to do. Once you figure it out, do it like a professional. If you don’t explore and utilize your gifts, you hurt yourself and everyone around you. If you do, great; you’re sharing your gifts with the world. Pressfield uses humor and a confident, competent demeanor in what he shares. He’s been there and done this, and wants to share the rewarding fruit he has to show for it, to encourage us to seek that fruit for ourselves. He wants us to be able to overcome our enemy, Resistance, and flourish with our own muses. We all encounter Resistance in one form or another (fear of failure, fear of success, procrastination, avoidance, distraction, etc.). This book is an extremely easy read, and was very encouraging to me personally. I would highly recommend it for anyone facing any new project in their life. You will be surprised by the things this book reveals to you, and you will also see yourself represented in more than one situation Pressfield shares. Steven Pressfield defines the enemy, offers a strategy for overcoming it and shows us the beautiful fruit we can have as a result of our labor: A completed work, a job well done. Eventually success. It all started for him when he was finally able to write: The End.

I was introduced to Steven Pressfield by happening upon his Killing Rommel: A Novel . As a fan of military fiction, I moved on to other of his novels and marvelled at Pressfield's talent. Somewhere along the line I came across mention of "The War Of Art" and being a chronic procrastinater thought it worth the few dollars to read what Pressfield had to say on the subject. I doubt that this or any other book can by itself move anyone away from procrastination or, as Pressfield puts it more accurately, overcoming "Resistance". Pressfield looks squarely at the writer and the problems of putting words down. "Resistance", as Pressfield calls it, is fear. He breaks the book into three sections. The first is "Resistance: Defining the Enemy". In this he identifies Reseistance as fear in its endless manifestations. Pressfield demonstrates clearly that he is no stranger to the amorphous thoughts that keep the writer from writing. In fact, reading this section is kind of creepy since Pressfield seems to have gotten inside my brain. The second section is "Combatting ResistanceA: Turning Pro". Here, Pressfield lectures the reader in gentle, but very firm, ways to put attack Resistance head-on, to simply get on with it, to do what the inner you is directing the outer you to do. Easier said then done, though Pressfield gives as a good set of instructions. The third section is where Pressfield will alienate a lot of people because they are so thoroughly modern that they don't understand what Pressfield is talking about. In Book Three "Beyond Resistance: Higher Realm", Pressfield talks of muses, angels, higher intelligences and even uses the dreaded "G" word. For so many people today, who have no knowledge of history and mythology and carry their militant atheism as a badge of belonging, these words will make them cross themselves in fear and loathing. An actually intelligent agnostic or atheist (the former personified by Albert Einstein) would understand Pressfield. He is not telling anyone to go to a house of worship and kneel in prayer, but rather expressing the same sense of amazement Aristotle and so many other ancients did at the mystery of creative expression. Where do ideas come from? Where does the spark of unique, original artistic expression come from? It is here that Pressfield distinguishese between mere hack and true creative artist. Pressfield can answer the question of where creativity comes from any better than you or I, so he falls back upon angels and muses. Why not? As Joseph Campbell, in particular, has shown us, humans want answers and when answers are not immediately forthcoming, they will create them. Thus Pressfield, in a most satisfying way, tells us to open our selves to the muses and angels - the forces we do not understand - and let our creative thoughts out, rather than keep them inside because of fear, Pressfield's "Resistance". This is an excellent, original and inspiring book that every writer or otherwise creative person should read at least once and than keep at hand for when they next encounter the "Resistance". Jerry

Je ne sais pas pourquoi je n'avais jamais entendu parler de ce livre avant, il devrait être obligatoire à l'école. Je fais à présent partie d'un groupe fermé de gens qui sont en train de métamorphoser leur vie pour le mieux et nombre d'entre eux à lu ce livre et le classe n°1 dans leur collection. C'est bien écrit mais simple et direct. Facile mais profond. Succint mais instruit. Dès les premières pages on est absorbé, fasciné et empli d'espoir, puis de certitude : je VAIS vaincre cette Résistance, cette peur insensée. Vous êtes angoissé ? Déprimé ? Vous avez tendance à ne rien foutre ? A perdre du temps ? Ce livre démistifie, explique, et détruit ces résistances, et donne des clés concrètes pour vaincre. Je recommande fortement. Vous vous devez bien cela.

Was uns C.G. Jung über den Schattenarchetypen erzählen konnte, kann uns Pressfield über die Tiefen des kreativen Daseins berichten. Dieses Buch ist nicht nur spezifisch auf den blockierten Künstler ausgerichtet. Es werden auch Menschen, die ihre Lebensträume vor sich herschieben, was daraus gewinnen können. Kenne deinen inneren Feind, denn gegen das eigene Ego kann man sehr gut vorgehen. Das macht ungefähr 2 / 3 des Buches aus. Dann gibt es aber noch den 3. Abschnitt; da kommen dann das höhere Selbst und Lösungsstrategien ins Spiel und überhaupt hilft einem ja (wie immer) das gesamte Universum, wenn man es nur lässt - das hat die vorangehende Rezensentin, die diesem Buch nichts abgewinnen konnte, wohl nicht mehr an sich ran gelassen. Wer "Der Weg des Künstlers" von Julia Cameron mochte, aber keine Lust auf die darin enthaltenen Aufgaben hat und sich lieber in englischsprachigen, verbalen Ergüssen ob Tragik und Komödie des (Künstler-)daseins suhlt, als tiefgehend an sich zu arbeiten, der ist mit diesem Buch bestens bedient. Ich war es - und werde bei Bedarf mal wieder drin blättern, denn Selbsterkenntnis hilft. (Ich glaube, "Der Weg des Künstlers" hat mir noch mehr geholfen; das nur so am Rande und für die, die an sich arbeiten wollen.) Dieses Büchlein tuts auch. Kleine Happen (oder Bisse) - große Wirkung. Die Botschaft "lass das Große Ganze durch dich hindurch arbeiten" à la Cameron steckt hier auch drin, allerdings in einer ruppigeren, abgespeckteren, "in your face" Version, da einem an den meisten Stellen des Buches der Spiegel vorgehalten wird. - Und diese Art der Selbsterkenntnis kann sehr effizient sein! Fazit: Man blockiert sich stets selbst, ist immer selbst schuld, und man könnte diese ganze negative Energie genauso gut konstruktiv nutzen. Alles bestens.

Ok. I read or heard about this book enough times to be intrigued and I went and read it. And yeah, I get it. It's not what I'd usually consider would appeal to me, but it did. A great deal actually. Just a few underlines, but very powerful ones. I'm not too keen on the machoesque undertones, but nothing to really trip over. Just a stylistic choice. The message comes through loud and clear. And it's one worth hearing.

The package arrived with no problem, the book is full with reflections on how to turn pro as an artist or creative and get working on your craft.

If you’re battling procrastination, this is the motivational book for you. In succinct, easy-to-follow chapters, Pressfield urges readers to overcome procrastination and self-doubt in order to pursue their creative goals with commitment and courage. He advocates for adopting a disciplined, professional mindset to help break through mental barriers and unlock creative potential. Highly recommended for writers or artists struggling to complete their creative projects. But really, anyone facing challenges to complete a long-term project will find the book’s core message both helpful and empowering.