I picked up this title at a book exhibition in India. It was totally random. I was scanning through a pile of books and happened to pick this one. It wasn’t on my TBR list. The name Steven Pressfield read familiar but I wasn’t able to recall why. I browsed the book anyway. It was for 250 Rupees so I didn’t think twice before buying it.
The subtitle for the book - Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles, piqued my interest and I gulped this 160 odd page book over a weekend.
Part 1 is about Resistance and how it is preventing you from creating art.
Part 2 is about turning pro and how creating is to be treated as a professional than as a hobby.
Part 3 is about letting your muse guide you to create your art. Not really worry about the art but the craft. Becoming a medium for the divine.
I loved the first two parts, but part 3 dives into the divine, it was a bit difficult for me to digest it. To get clarity on part 3, I listened to every Steven Pressfield podcast I could get my hands on. 6 podcasts later I feel better than day 1.
It is a solid book for any creatives struggling with the actual creation.
Below is a list of notes I took on the things I found interesting in the book.
What is talent?
The innate power to discover the hidden connection between two things - images, ideas, words - that no one else had ever seen before, link them, and create for the world a third, utterly unique work.
What separates the wannabe writers from the pros?
Pros know that the easy part is to write, the hard part however is to sit down to write. What keeps them from sitting down is Resistance.
Hitler and Resistance
When Hitler was 18, he moved to Vienna to study. He had applied to the Academy of Fine Arts and then later to the School of Architecture. But Hitler isn’t famous at all for his art. Because Resistance beat him. As Stephen Pressfield says, “It was easier for Hitler to start World War 2 than it was for him to stare at a blank square of canvas.”
The enemy is a very good teacher - Dalai Lama
What does Resistance feel like?
It cannot be touched, it cannot be heard, it cannot be seen, it cannot be smelled. It can only be felt. It is a repelling force, an negative energy field with one goal. To distract us from our work.
What activities elicit Resistance?
Anything that declines the allure of instant gratification and accepts the long term growth, health, or integrity.
Procrastination vs Resistance?
Procrastination is how we believe in the story we tell ourselves. It is a manifestation of Resistance. We never say, “I’m not going to write my symphony.” Instead we say, “ I am going to write my symphony, I’m just going to start tomorrow”.
Why do we pick partners who are sorted?
It is easier to endow our partner with the power that we wish we had but are afraid to act upon. Maybe we believe their power will rub off on us to help us achieve our dreams, having them as models. But is it love? If we are the one hoping that our partner has overcome Resistance or in the process of overcoming Resistance, shouldn’t we face our own failures instead of riding on the coattails of our partner? And if we the one who the partner looks up to, shouldn’t we encourage our partner to let their own light shine.
How does Resistance use its sidekick rationalization?
Telling ourselves reasons on why not to do the work. Presents you with solid justifications on why you cannot do the work. But it is one thing to lie to yourself and another to actually believe it. Some of them maybe true but there is always a way to beat it.
Why does Resistance hate you turning pro?
The root for the word "amateur" is in Latin 'amator' which means 'lover'. Someone who pursues his calling out of love. But an amateur does not love his game enough. If he did, he would not pursue it as a sideline, distinct from his real “vocation”. The professional dedicates his life “full-time”. That is why Resistance hates it when you turn pro.
What does it mean to be a pro?
Show up everyday
Show up no matter what
Stay on the job all day
Committed over long haul
Stakes are high and real
Accept remuneration for the work
Don’t over identify with the job
Master the technique of the job
Have a sense of humor about the job
Receive praise or blame in the real world.
Why play for the money?
The pro even though he accepts money for the work, he does it for the love. The payoff for doing the work is not money, it is that playing the game produces the proper professional attitude. Too much love can be a bad thing, loving the game too much can he freezes in action.
What does the pro know about deadlines?
Resistance uses the over-enthusiasm of the amateur against himself. It know the amateur will commit an over ambitious and unrealistic timeline for the completion. It knows that the energy is impossible to sustain in the long run, and the amateur will give up eventually.
As Tim Ferriss says, do less than you think you can do.
The pro steels himself for the long haul. He knows he is the tortoise and not the hare. Arming himself with patience.
Art vs Craft
The professional focuses on the technique, the craft rather than the art. She focuses on the things that she can control. Instead of mastering the WHY, she masters the HOW. She doesn’t wait for inspiration. She lets the Gods do their thing as she is aware there is some level of intangibles associated that are beyond her control. Instead of being paralyzed by thinking about it too much, she shuts up and get to work.
That doesn’t mean that technique is a substitute for inspiration, but mastering the technique will deliver a fuller arsenal of skills when inspiration comes.
How does Resistance do to prevent us from publishing?
It uses the fear of rejection against us. Because fear of rejection isn’t psychological it is biological, that tribes enforced obedience by using the threat of expulsion.
How does the pro fight here?
She doesn’t take it personally. Detaches the work from the self, so any fear of rejection is about the work being rejected and not the self. She uses the criticism to improve and grow her work instead of taking it personally and being bogged down by it.
What happens when you sit down and do your work everyday?
A process is set in motion. Unseen forces come to your aid. Power concentrates around us. The Muse takes a note of our dedication. She approves. Ideas come. Insights accrete.
What is the job of the Muse?
The Muses were 9 sisters, all daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne. Their job was to inspire the artists. Each one of them responsible for a different art. The Greeks personified the mysterious forces that bought inspiration from the higher realms. They believed that the gods take an interest in the human affairs, and intercede for good or ill in our designs.
Beethoven and the Muse
Eternity is in love with the creations of time - William Blake
The beings in the higher spheres of existence who are the eternals, love the creations that are made by the mortals, who have limited time. Since they are interested what humans create. They help and nudge to produce these creations. Whispering inspirations to artists.
The Fifth Symphony already existed in the higher sphere. It existed as a figment of potential. But it needed someone to bring it to life. The Muse whispered it to a million ears. But only Beethoven got it. He made the Fifth Symphony “a creation of time”.
Ego vs Self
Ego is the part of our psyche that takes care of business in the real world. Self is our deepest being, where the dreams and intuitions come from. Ego and Self are two opposing forces. Ego drives the Resistance, Self drives the creation. The Self wishes to create, to evolve. The Ego likes the things as they are.
The impulse that leads an artist towards creation, is about evolving. The Ego hates this. So the Ego hates it when the writer sits down to write. It produces Resistance and attacks the artist.
What is the ultimate fear?
Fear is the food for Resistance. The fear that if we follow our heart we would become bankrupt, fear of poverty, fear that if we fail we’ll go back to the where we started. Fear of being ridiculed. Fear of launching into the void. And so many more. But the Mother of all fears that beats all of them.
FEAR THAT WE WILL SUCCEED.
That we can become the person we sense in our hearts we truly are. If we embrace our ideas, we must prove worthy of them.
What are we put on this pale blue dot for?
When children are born into this world, they do not land as an empty hard drive ready to be programmed by the world. Instead, they already have a pre-programmed personality and identity connected to their soul.
Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we are already are and become it.
Territory vs Hierarchy
Hierarchy is when individuals define themselves by the rank within a hierarchy ( a hen in a pecking order, a wolf in a wolf pack). Territory is when the an individual is defined by connection to a territory (a home base, hunting ground, turf). Hierarchical is the default setting for humans.
Who is a hack?
A hack is someone who creates art based in what the market is looking for, instead of what is in her heart. Like a politician who consults the polls before he takes a position.
A writer who is scared to write what she thinks is interesting afraid that her audience won’t like it, is a hack.
What are the qualities of a territory?
In football, the home ground is a team’s territory where they know they will have the maximum support. Half of the games in a season are played on this ground, so it is familiar. You have the home advantage. Old Trafford is the territory for Manchester United.
For an artist.
Territory provides sustenance
It sustains without any external input.
It can only be claimed alone.
A territory can only be claimed by work:
When Arnold Schwarzenegger hits the gym, he’s on his own turf. He’s put years of sweat to claim it.
A territory returns exactly what you put in:
What you deposited, you get back, dollar for dollar.
How to know if your orientation to work is territorial?
Ask yourself the question, if you were the last person on Earth, would you still do it?
If you’re all alone on the planet, a hierarchical orientation makes no sense. There’s no one to impress. So if you still pursue that activity, congratulations. You're doing it territorially.
What is the artist’s duty to the world?
Whether you are a writer or a painter or a scientist, you were put on this planet to do that thing. If you were meant to write the next big novel, or paint the next Mona Lisa, or to cure cancer. By not doing it you hurt yourself, you hurt the people around you, you hurt the planet.
Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention. It’s a gift to the world. Don’t cheat the world of your contribution. Give the world what you’ve got.
PS: I give in to the Resistance everyday. I have tried to publish a newsletter edition every week, and that I will write everyday. But then I do not do it. I have perfect rationalized reasons - excuses- on why I do not do it. But like Steven says, “ The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more resistance we will feel towards pursuing it.” Although I have some wins against the Resistance on other fronts of life. The Resistance to writing is an everyday battle.