Book Review: The War of Art
Think about what you do in a day of work — what your primary profession is. Now, listen to these items I’m about to say, carefully, and see if you are one of the these. You could be a writer, a painter, a musician, a film-maker, an artist, a designer, an entrepreneur, a person on a diet, a person working towards spiritual advancements, a gym-goer, a person trying to get rid of a bad habit or addiction, a student, an educator, or a person about to take a major commitment of the heart — like the decision to get married, or to have a child, you get my point.
I am almost sure that your main profession — what you do in a day of work — was in that list I just called out.
And if so, I am also pretty confident, that you, have faced resistance in getting to work.
This piece is going to be a review of the book “The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield.
As you may have realised from the introduction to this episode, the book is all about understanding resistance, realising the effects of creative blocks, and overcoming them, by becoming true professionals. You see, we have all faced some kind of rut, or block — “writer’s block”, “painter’s block”, “designer’s block” — basically, if you can name a creative profession, it has a block associated with it.
And we often make the mistake of thinking that this resistance is external — for example, my work environment is so noisy, or, my boss is the worst, or, my job is so boring nowadays, or even, the weather’s not good today.
No, resistance is completely internal — it is self-generated and self-perpetuated. And this very resistance will resort to any means to keep you from doing your work.
So how do we conquer this beast? Well, if you can cut off its food supply, it’ll starve to death right? Right — and what is that which resistance feeds on? It’s fear. Resistance has no strength of its own.
The more you can master your fear, the faster you can kill these internal demons.
Now, you might have a question — isn’t this resistance, the same as procrastination? Well, you’re partly right.
Procrastination is one of the most common manifestations of resistance.
And why so?
Well, procrastinating on something makes it so much more rational doesn’t it? You don’t tell yourself “I’m never going to write that blog.” Instead, you tell yourself, “I am going to write that blog, I’m just gonna start tomorrow.” So easy for the moment, but what happens later?
We feel guilty, we feel unhappy, we feel like hell, we hate our lives, and our selves. Take this farther, and you have clinical depression, aggression, dysfunction, and self-destruction — waiting to usher you into their wide open arms.
Our life, YOUR life does not have to be this way.
If you think that you need to overcome this fear, and only then you can work properly — you’re thinking like an amateur. In reality, you’ll never get anywhere thinking like this. You need to realise that you can never overcome the fear. Every time David Blaine walks out to do a death-defying magic trick, he is shaky and nervous. Every time MKBHD uploads a new YouTube video, he is nervous about its performance.
But, there is no such thing as a fearless warrior, or a dread-free artist. Remember, that unlike the amateur, the professional knows that fear can never be overcome. You need to face it head on.
You need to just sit down and start the work, and when you do, the fear will recede.
You’ll be okay.
And that’s what you need to become to overcome all this resistance — a professional. Not in the career-wise term that people generally use it, rather to mean that you need to love the game enough to not be an amateur. A professional loves it so much that they dedicate their entire life to it — full-time. A pro does not wait for inspiration, a pro does not linger around for motivation to strike.
Not to brag, but if you were to ask me if I write when inspiration hits me, my answer would be a “Yes”. You might think, that is amateurish. Well, my answer’s not finished — “I do write when inspiration hits me. But fortunately for me, inspiration hits me everyday at sharp 8:15AM.”
Got my point?
That is what you should come to mean when I say turning pro.
Resistance hates it when you turn pro.
We need to point out our internal obstacles, and get to work on defeating them, working through the barriers — this book by Steven Pressfield is a real gem.
The War of Art.
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