Steven Pressfield (born September 1943) is an American author of historical fiction, non-fiction, and screenplays.
If you're are paralyzed with fear it's a good sign. It shows you what you have to do.
It's one thing to lie to ourselves. It's another thing to believe it.
You have never tasted freedom, friend, or you would know it is purchased not with gold, but steel.
To yield to Resistance deforms our spirit. It stunts us and makes us less than we are and were born to be.
A cavalryman's horse should be smarter than he is. But the horse must never be alowed to know this.
We must do our work for its own sake, not for fortune or attention or applause.
The critic hates most that which he would have done himself if he had had the guts.
The professional is acutely aware of the intangibles that go into inspiration. Out of respect for them, she lets them work. She grants them their sphere while she concentrates on hers.
The song we’re composing already exists in potential. Our work is to find it.
The Principle of Priority states (a) you must know the difference between what is urgent and what is important, and (b) you must do what’s important first.
The last element in drama is high stakes. War, of course, is life and death - survival, not only for the story's characters, but often for the society itself. That's why I'm drawn to stories that are built around wars, even if they're not technically "war stories. "
If we were born to overthrow the order of ignorance and injustice of the world, it’s our job to realize it and get down to business.
Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember our rule of thumb: The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it. Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance. Therefore the more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul. That's why we feel so much Resistance. If it meant nothing to us, there'd be no Resistance.
Right now with blogs and the flood of internet access, a multitude of aspiring writers think they're ready for prime time. They're not. Be great. Read. Write. Bust your ass. Learn and find your voice. As hard as you think it is, it's a hundred times harder.
Its [Resistance] aim is to shove us away, distract us from doing our work.
Sometimes, when we're terrified of embracing our true calling, we'll pursue a shadow calling instead. That shadow career is a metaphor for our real career. Its shape is similar, its contours feel tantalizingly the same. But a shadow career entails no real risk. If we fail at a shadow career, the consequences are meaningless to us. Are you pursuing a shadow career?
Turning pro is a mindset. If we are struggling with fear, self-sabotage, procrastination, self-doubt, etc. , the problem is, we're thinking like amateurs. Amateurs don't show up. Amateurs crap out. Amateurs let adversity defeat them. The pro thinks differently. He shows up, he does his work, he keeps on truckin', no matter what.
Art is a war - between ourselves and the forces of self-sabotage that would stop us from doing our work. The artist is a warrior.
Artists are modest. They know they're not doing the work; they're just taking dictation.
The best and only thing that one artist can do for another is to serve as an example and an inspiration.