ABOUT BOOK
In The War of Art, author Steven Pressfield helps you identify your inner creative battles against fear and self-doubt and offers advice on how to win those battles. An inspirational book for anyone who’s had trouble realizing their passion, it offers an examination of those negative forces that keep you from realizing your dreams, and shows how you can defeat your fears to achieve your creative goals.
ABOUT AUTHOR
Steven Pressfield is a best-selling author of historical fiction and nonfiction books, including Gates of Fire, Tides of War, The Legend of Bagger Vance, and Do the Work.
Learn how to overcome your fears to realize your greatest dreams
Have you ever felt that you were meant to do something great, like write a novel, direct a film or start a charity? Do you find yourself waking up every day and thinking about your goal, but then just shrugging and putting it off until tomorrow?
That’s not you actually planning to begin tomorrow: that’s the so-called resistance blocking you from realizing your full potential. Resistance is a negative force that opposes any creativity and keeps us from fulfilling our dreams.
This book will help you identify and understand the ways in which resistance – right now – is preventing you from working toward what you truly desire. It offers important advice on defeating resistance so you can realize your dreams, do what you were truly meant to do and set a great example for others who dream.
1) How failure – like a ruined film or manuscript – can actually help you as you pursue your dreams
2) How the hierarchies of which you are a part work to stifle your creativity, and
3) How Oprah Winfrey created America’s most popular morning talk show in a matter of months.
KEY POINTS
1) A mental force called resistance opposes all our endeavors, and affects everyone
2) Resistance keeps us from becoming who we’re meant to be, unless we use it to our advantage
3) The best way to fight resistance is to be a professional, and treat your dream like a full-time job
4) Being a professional means knowing yourself and your craft.
5) A professional defeats resistance by being organized, patient and boldly facing adversity
6) There are positive mental forces we can use to counteract resistance
7) Professionals battle against hierarchies to achieve their goals
8) Professionals commit themselves to a certain territory where they work to achieve their goal
BOOK SUMMARY
Whether your creative goal is artistic, like writing a novel, or business-oriented, like managing a start-up, you’ll have to face negative forces that oppose your creativity. Defeating these forces is necessary to achieving your highest goals. You can do this by learning to identify these forces and then overcoming them through hard work and persistence.
KEY TAKE AWAY
Feel fear? You’re on the right track!
Many people feel fear when they undertake a creative project. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that this fear is a sign that you should give up. Instead, understand that fear is a natural reaction to the possibility of doing what you love. So rather than give up, think of that fear as an indicator that you’re on the right track with your project, and keep pushing on!