# The War of Art **Steven Pressfield** | [[Foundations]]  --- > "Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance." Every sun casts a shadow, and genius's shadow is Resistance. It's the invisible, internal force that prevents us from doing our work. Any act that rejects immediate gratification in favour of long-term growth, health, or integrity will elicit Resistance. Any act that derives from our higher nature instead of our lower. Pressfield's thesis: Resistance is an engine of destruction, programmed with one object—to prevent us from doing our work. It's a force of nature: invisible, internal, insidious, implacable, and universal. Everyone who has a body experiences it. The battle must be fought anew every day. The solution isn't complex psychology or self-help. It's turning pro. Making the decision to show up, sit down, and do the work regardless of how you feel. Simple as that. --- ## Core Ideas ### [[Resistance]] Resistance is not a peripheral opponent. It arises from within. It is self-generated and self-perpetuated. It's the enemy within. **Resistance is fueled by fear.** It has no strength of its own. Every ounce of juice it possesses comes from us. We feed it with power by our fear of it. Master that fear and we conquer Resistance. **Resistance is infallible.** It will unfailingly point to true North—meaning that calling or action it most wants to stop us from doing. Rule of thumb: the more important a call or action is to our soul's evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it. Resistance obstructs movement only from a lower sphere to a higher. It doesn't prevent you from watching television or procrastinating. It prevents you from doing your real work. **Resistance is most powerful at the finish line.** The danger is greatest when the finish line is in sight. At this point, Resistance knows we're about to beat it. It hits the panic button and slams us with everything it's got. ### [[Procrastination and Rationalization]] Procrastination is the most common manifestation of Resistance because it's the easiest to rationalise. We don't tell ourselves we're never going to write our symphony. We say we'll start tomorrow. The most pernicious aspect: procrastination can become a habit. We don't just put off our lives today—we put them off till our deathbed. > "Never forget: This very moment, we can change our lives. There never was a moment, and never will be, when we are without the power to alter our destiny. This second, we can turn the tables on Resistance." Rationalization is Resistance's right-hand man. Its job is to keep us from feeling the shame we would feel if we truly faced what cowards we are for not doing our work. Instead of showing us our fear, Resistance presents us with plausible, rational justifications for why we shouldn't do our work. **If you find yourself criticising other people, you're probably doing it out of Resistance.** When we see others beginning to live their authentic selves, it drives us crazy if we have not lived out our own. Individuals who are realised in their own lives almost never criticise others. Watch yourself. ### [[Turning Pro]] Aspiring artists defeated by Resistance share one trait: they all think like amateurs. They have not yet turned pro. The amateur plays for fun. The professional plays for keeps. To the amateur, the game is his avocation. To the pro it's his vocation. The amateur plays part-time, the professional full-time. **There's no mystery to turning pro. It's a decision brought about by an act of will.** We make up our minds to view ourselves as pros and we do it. Simple as that. What Pressfield calls Professionalism might be called the Artist's Code or the Warrior's Way. It's an attitude of egolessness and service. The essence of professionalism is focus upon the work and its demands, whilst we are doing it, to the exclusion of all else. ### [[The Professional's Code]] **A professional is patient.** The professional arms himself with patience, not only to give the stars time to align in his career, but to keep himself from flaming out in each individual work. **A professional seeks order.** He eliminates chaos from his world in order to banish it from his mind. He wants the carpet vacuumed and the threshold swept, so the Muse may enter and not soil her gown. **A professional demystifies.** A pro views her work as craft, not art. She masters how, and leaves what and why to the gods. She lets the intangibles work out of respect for them. **A professional acts in the face of fear.** The amateur believes he must first overcome his fear, then he can do his work. The professional knows that fear can never be overcome. He acts anyway. **A professional accepts no excuses.** The professional conducts his business in the real world. Adversity, injustice, bad hops and rotten calls, even good breaks and lucky bounces all comprise the ground over which the campaign must be waged. The field is level only in heaven. **A professional is prepared.** He is prepared each day to confront his own self-sabotage. The professional understands that Resistance is fertile and ingenious. His goal is not victory (success will come by itself when it wants to) but to handle himself, his insides, as sturdily and steadily as he can. **A professional dedicates himself to mastering technique.** Not because he believes technique is a substitute for inspiration but because he wants to be in possession of the full arsenal of skills when inspiration does come. **A professional distances herself from her instrument.** She does not identify with her instrument—her person, body, voice, talent. It is simply what God gave her. She identifies with her consciousness and will, not with the matter that her consciousness and will manipulate. **A professional does not take failure (or success) personally.** When people say an artist has a thick skin, they mean the person has seated his professional consciousness in a place other than his personal ego. Evolution has programmed us to feel rejection in our guts. Fear of rejection is biological. It's in our cells. But the professional cannot take rejection personally because to do so reinforces Resistance. > "The Bhagavad-Gita tells us we have a right only to our labor, not to the fruits of our labor." The professional loves her work. She is invested in it wholeheartedly. But she does not forget that the work is not her. Her core is bulletproof. Nothing can touch it unless she lets it. **A professional self-validates.** An amateur lets the negative opinion of others unman him. The professional cannot allow the actions of others to define his reality. --- ## Key Insights **The athlete knows the day will never come when he wakes up pain-free. He has to play hurt.** The part of us that we imagine needs healing is not the part we create from. That part is far deeper and stronger. The part we create from can't be touched by anything our parents did, or society did. That part is unsullied, uncorrupted, soundproof, waterproof, and bulletproof. Resistance knows that the more psychic energy we expend dredging the tired, boring injustices of our personal lives, the less juice we have to do our work. **By performing the mundane physical act of sitting down and starting to work, the professional sets in motion a mysterious but infallible sequence of events that produces inspiration.** As surely as if the goddess had synchronised her watch with his. > "Concerning all acts of initiative there is one elementary truth: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man would have dreamed would come his way." Some intelligence is at work, independent of our conscious mind and yet in alliance with it. Angels make their home in the Self, whilst Resistance has its seat in the Ego. The fight is between the two. **Editors are not the enemy; critics are not the enemy. Resistance is the enemy.** The battle is inside our own heads. We cannot let external criticism, even if it's true, fortify our internal foe. That foe is strong enough already. --- ## Connects To - [[The Courage to Be Disliked]] - shares the emphasis on separating your work from others' judgements - [[Man's Search for Meaning]] - Frankl's focus on meaning and will complements Pressfield's professional code - [[Atomic Habits]] - Clear's systems for showing up daily operationalise Pressfield's "turn pro" philosophy --- ## Final Thought Resistance is invisible but not mysterious. It's the force that prevents you from doing your real work, and it's proportional to the importance of that work. The more it matters to your soul's evolution, the more Resistance you'll feel. Turning pro is the solution, and it's simpler than you think. It's a decision of will. You make up your mind to view yourself as a professional and you do it. The professional shows up every day, regardless of inspiration, mood, or external validation. The professional sits down and works. The amateur waits for the right conditions. The professional knows that fear can never be overcome and acts anyway. The amateur takes rejection personally. The professional seats his consciousness in a place other than his personal ego and understands that the battle is internal—Resistance is the only enemy. What makes this sustainable: the professional doesn't identify with outcomes. The Bhagavad-Gita's lesson applies—you have a right only to your labour, not to the fruits of your labour. Love the work, invest wholeheartedly, but don't forget that the work is not you. Your core is bulletproof unless you let external criticism reinforce Resistance. The moment you commit, providence moves. This isn't mysticism—it's observable. By performing the mundane physical act of sitting down and starting, you set in motion a sequence of events that produces inspiration. The Muse shows up when you do.