Steven Pressfield

And I was a bum because I hadn't learned how to do it. You know, I didn't have the confidence. I hadn't found a voice or anything like that. So work, I think, is you have to have, obviously, you have to have some talent. But Work is 90% of it, I think. You can get better. That's the good news. No matter how bad a first draft is, the ninth draft can be really good.

And I was a bum because I hadn't learned how to do it. You know, I didn't have the confidence. I hadn't found a voice or anything like that. So work, I think, is you have to have, obviously, you have to have some talent. But Work is 90% of it, I think. You can get better. That's the good news. No matter how bad a first draft is, the ninth draft can be really good.

Or no matter how bad you were when you're 26, when you're 46, you can be really good. When you look back at what you wrote at 26, you go, this is dog shit. But I'm not doing that anymore. I've learned. And I can do better. So the good news for anybody that's struggling, I think, is that work does pay off. You can get better. You can learn more. You can improve.

Or no matter how bad you were when you're 26, when you're 46, you can be really good. When you look back at what you wrote at 26, you go, this is dog shit. But I'm not doing that anymore. I've learned. And I can do better. So the good news for anybody that's struggling, I think, is that work does pay off. You can get better. You can learn more. You can improve.

Or no matter how bad you were when you're 26, when you're 46, you can be really good. When you look back at what you wrote at 26, you go, this is dog shit. But I'm not doing that anymore. I've learned. And I can do better. So the good news for anybody that's struggling, I think, is that work does pay off. You can get better. You can learn more. You can improve.

Well, you know, like the whole subject matter of The War of Art, my book, The War of Art, is about what I call resistance with a capital R, which is that... that voice in our head that tells us we're not good enough, our idea isn't good enough, we're too old, we're too young, we're too fat, we're too thin, we went to school, blah, blah, blah. And the other aspect of that is procrastination,

Well, you know, like the whole subject matter of The War of Art, my book, The War of Art, is about what I call resistance with a capital R, which is that... that voice in our head that tells us we're not good enough, our idea isn't good enough, we're too old, we're too young, we're too fat, we're too thin, we went to school, blah, blah, blah. And the other aspect of that is procrastination,

Well, you know, like the whole subject matter of The War of Art, my book, The War of Art, is about what I call resistance with a capital R, which is that... that voice in our head that tells us we're not good enough, our idea isn't good enough, we're too old, we're too young, we're too fat, we're too thin, we went to school, blah, blah, blah. And the other aspect of that is procrastination,

the susceptibility to distraction going down rabbit holes and, you know, click bait and stuff like that. And other things like perfectionism, where we'll spend all day working on one paragraph instead of moving forward. And there's a million ways that our, our, our, our ego will sabotage us, you know? And to me,

the susceptibility to distraction going down rabbit holes and, you know, click bait and stuff like that. And other things like perfectionism, where we'll spend all day working on one paragraph instead of moving forward. And there's a million ways that our, our, our, our ego will sabotage us, you know? And to me,

the susceptibility to distraction going down rabbit holes and, you know, click bait and stuff like that. And other things like perfectionism, where we'll spend all day working on one paragraph instead of moving forward. And there's a million ways that our, our, our, our ego will sabotage us, you know? And to me,

job one of any creative person is to is to acknowledge that that is you know there is an enemy and the enemy is you you know the enemy is me it's in it's in us it's there the minute we wake up in the morning it's a dragon we have to slay every morning before we even sit down to work work is that's easy compared with uh like in the war of art it says something like

job one of any creative person is to is to acknowledge that that is you know there is an enemy and the enemy is you you know the enemy is me it's in it's in us it's there the minute we wake up in the morning it's a dragon we have to slay every morning before we even sit down to work work is that's easy compared with uh like in the war of art it says something like

job one of any creative person is to is to acknowledge that that is you know there is an enemy and the enemy is you you know the enemy is me it's in it's in us it's there the minute we wake up in the morning it's a dragon we have to slay every morning before we even sit down to work work is that's easy compared with uh like in the war of art it says something like

There's a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don't know. And the secret is this. It's the writing is not the hard part. What's hard is sitting down to write. And I believe that completely. And what we all have to do in our own way, and everybody does it differently, is find some way to slay this dragon every morning. To be able to work.

There's a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don't know. And the secret is this. It's the writing is not the hard part. What's hard is sitting down to write. And I believe that completely. And what we all have to do in our own way, and everybody does it differently, is find some way to slay this dragon every morning. To be able to work.

There's a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don't know. And the secret is this. It's the writing is not the hard part. What's hard is sitting down to write. And I believe that completely. And what we all have to do in our own way, and everybody does it differently, is find some way to slay this dragon every morning. To be able to work.

Obviously, if you can't work, you can't do anything. But... The first step to that, in my opinion, is recognizing that there is this negative force. You know, you sit down at the blank page and it radiates off that blank page, right? You know, let's go to the beach, you know, let's smoke a joint, let's whatever, right? Something that the resistance is always trying to stop us from doing our work.

Obviously, if you can't work, you can't do anything. But... The first step to that, in my opinion, is recognizing that there is this negative force. You know, you sit down at the blank page and it radiates off that blank page, right? You know, let's go to the beach, you know, let's smoke a joint, let's whatever, right? Something that the resistance is always trying to stop us from doing our work.

Obviously, if you can't work, you can't do anything. But... The first step to that, in my opinion, is recognizing that there is this negative force. You know, you sit down at the blank page and it radiates off that blank page, right? You know, let's go to the beach, you know, let's smoke a joint, let's whatever, right? Something that the resistance is always trying to stop us from doing our work.