Steven Pressfield

For years when I was struggling and could never get it together, I realized that at one point that I was just thinking like an amateur.

And that if I could flip a switch in my mind and think like a professional, that I could overcome some of the things.

A professional shows up every day.

A professional stays on the job.

All day or the equivalent of all day.

A professional, as I said this before, does not take success or failure personally.

An amateur will, right?

An amateur gets a bad review, bad response of this, and they just crap out.

I don't want to do this anymore.

A professional plays hurt.

Like if Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, if they've tweaked the hamstring, they're out there.

They'll die before they'll be taken off the court.

Whereas an amateur, when he or she confronts adversity, will fold.

Oh, it's too cold out.

I've got the flu, that kind of thing.

An amateur worries about how they feel.

Like, oh, I don't feel like getting out of bed this morning.

I don't feel like really doing my work today.

A professional doesn't care how they feel.

They do it.