# The War of Art — Key Concepts Extraction **Author:** Steven Pressfield **Published:** 2002 **Core Thesis:** Resistance is the enemy of creative work, and "turning pro" is the only answer. --- ## 1. The Concept of Resistance Resistance is Pressfield's all-encompassing term for the invisible, internal force that prevents us from doing our creative work, pursuing our calling, or evolving to a higher station. It is the shadow of genius — as powerful as the soul's call to realization, so potent are the forces arrayed against it. ### 1.1 Resistance's Greatest Hits (What Elicits It) Resistance strikes whenever we pursue any activity that rejects immediate gratification in favor of long-term growth, health, or integrity — anything that derives from our higher nature instead of our lower: 1. Pursuit of any creative art (writing, painting, music, film, dance) 2. Launching any entrepreneurial venture 3. Any diet or health regimen 4. Any program of spiritual advancement 5. Any fitness goal 6. Overcoming an unwholesome habit or addiction 7. Education of every kind 8. Any act of moral, political, or ethical courage 9. Any endeavor to help others 10. Any act entailing commitment of the heart (marriage, children, relationship repair) 11. Taking any principled stand in the face of adversity ### 1.2 The 20+ Characteristics and Manifestations of Resistance 1. **Resistance is Invisible** — Cannot be seen, touched, heard, or smelled, but can be felt as a repelling energy field radiating from a work-in-potential. 2. **Resistance is Internal** — Arises from within. Self-generated and self-perpetuated. We mislocate it in spouses, bosses, kids (peripheral opponents), but it is the enemy within. 3. **Resistance is Insidious** — Will tell you anything to keep you from your work. It will perjure, fabricate, falsify; seduce, bully, cajole. It is protean and has no conscience. 4. **Resistance is Implacable** — Cannot be reasoned with. It is an engine of destruction. Reduce it to a single cell and that cell will continue to attack. 5. **Resistance is Impersonal** — Not out to get you personally. It is a force of nature, acting with the indifference of rain. 6. **Resistance is Infallible** — Like a magnetized needle, it unfailingly points to the calling or action it most wants to stop. Use it as a compass: the more Resistance, the more important the act. 7. **Resistance is Universal** — Everyone who has a body experiences it. You are not alone. 8. **Resistance Never Sleeps** — Fear doesn't go away. Henry Fonda was still throwing up before stage performances at age 75. The battle must be fought anew every day. 9. **Resistance Plays for Keeps** — Its goal is not to wound but to kill. Its target is your genius, your soul, the unique gift only you can give. 10. **Resistance is Fueled by Fear** — It has no strength of its own. Every ounce of juice comes from us. Master the fear, conquer Resistance. 11. **Resistance Only Opposes Upward Movement** — It obstructs movement from a lower sphere to a higher. Work in Calcutta with Mother Teresa and want to bolt to telemarketing? Resistance gives you a free pass. 12. **Resistance is Most Powerful at the Finish Line** — The danger is greatest when the finish line is in sight. Odysseus was almost home when his men opened the bag of winds. Don't open that bag. 13. **Resistance Recruits Allies** — Others will sabotage your awakening. The closer they are, the more bizarrely they act. Your success becomes a reproach to them. 14. **Resistance Manifests as Procrastination** — The most common form. We don't say "I'm never going to write my symphony." We say "I'll start tomorrow." Procrastination becomes a habit that lasts a lifetime. 15. **Resistance Manifests as Sex / Obsession** — Sex provides immediate gratification and validation, distracting from the work. The emptier you feel afterward, the more certain it was Resistance. 16. **Resistance Manifests as Trouble** — A cheap way to get attention. We get ourselves in trouble — affairs, addictions, accidents, neuroses — because it's easier than doing the work. 17. **Resistance Manifests as Self-Dramatization (Soap Opera)** — Creating drama in our lives is a symptom. Families can unconsciously participate in a culture of self-dramatization to avoid work. 18. **Resistance Manifests as Self-Medication** — Ingesting substances to alleviate depression, anxiety, and to blot out the soul's call. Instead of self-discipline and hard work, we consume a product. 19. **Resistance Manifests as Victimhood** — Acquiring a condition lends significance. Illness becomes a shadow version of the real creative act being avoided. A victim act is passive aggression. 20. **Resistance in Choosing a Mate** — We may pick a mate who has or is overcoming Resistance, to live vicariously rather than face our own unlived life. 21. **Resistance Manifests as Unhappiness** — A low-grade misery pervades everything. Boredom, restlessness, guilt without source. Left unalleviated, it mounts to clinical depression and self-destruction. 22. **Resistance Manifests as Criticism of Others** — When we see others living their authentic selves, it drives us crazy if we haven't lived out our own. Realized individuals almost never criticize. 23. **Resistance Manifests as Self-Doubt** — Can be an ally. It reflects aspiration and love. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident; the real one is scared to death. 24. **Resistance Manifests as Fear** — The degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance. The more scared you are of a work, the more sure you can be you must do it. 25. **Resistance Equals Love** — Resistance is directly proportional to love. Massive Resistance means tremendous love. The opposite of love isn't hate; it's indifference. 26. **Resistance Manifests as Grandiose Fantasies (Being a Star)** — Fantasies about success are a sign of the amateur. The pro concentrates on the work and lets rewards come as they may. 27. **Resistance Manifests as Fear of Isolation** — We balk because we're afraid of being alone. The trick: we're never alone. The Muse arrives when we step outside the campfire glow. 28. **Resistance Manifests as the Need for "Healing"** — The belief we must complete our healing before we can do our work. The athlete knows she must play hurt. The part we create from is bulletproof. 29. **Resistance Manifests as Seeking "Support"** — Workshops and support-seeking are colleges of Resistance. The more energy we spend stoking up on support, the weaker we become. 30. **Resistance Manifests as Rationalization** — Resistance's spin doctor. It presents plausible, rational justifications for why we shouldn't work. Many are even true — but they mean diddly. 31. **Resistance and Fundamentalism** — When an individual cannot stand freedom, they retreat to the past. Fundamentalism and art are mutually exclusive. The fundamentalist's creativity is inverted — he creates destruction. --- ## 2. Turning Pro vs. Amateur Mindset ### 2.1 The Great Divide The moment an artist turns pro is as epochal as the birth of a first child. Everything changes. There is life before turning pro, and after. ### 2.2 Amateur vs. Professional | Dimension | Amateur | Professional | |-----------|---------|-------------| | Motivation | Plays for fun | Plays for keeps | | Time commitment | Part-time / sideline | Full-time / vocation | | Schedule | Weekend warrior | Seven days a week | | Root relationship | Loves art as a hobby (does not love it enough to devote his life) | Loves art enough to dedicate his life to it | | Showing up | Doesn't show up every day | Shows up every day, no matter what | | Commitment | Not committed over the long haul | Committed over the long haul | | Stakes | Illusory and fake | High and real (survival, family) | | Remuneration | Does not get paid | Accepts money for labor | | Identity | Overidentifies with art ("I am a musician") | Does not overidentify; recognizes work is not self | | Technique | Has not mastered technique | Masters technique of craft | | Humor | Has no sense of humor about failure | Has sense of humor about the work | | Feedback | Shows only to friends who say "it's wonderful" | Exposes work to real-world judgment | | Relationship to fear | Believes fear must be overcome first | Acts in the face of fear; knows fear never goes away | | Pride/Preciousness | Too good for certain jobs | Takes any assignment; mercenary attitude serves humility | ### 2.3 The Meaning of "Amateur" From Latin *amare* (to love). Conventional interpretation: amateur pursues out of love, pro for money. Pressfield reverses this: the amateur does NOT love the game enough. If he did, he would pursue it full-time, not as a sideline. The professional loves it so much he dedicates his life to it. ### 2.4 Turning Pro is a Decision There is no mystery to turning pro. It is 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. --- ## 3. The Professional Principles ### 3.1 The 10 Qualities We Already Practice at Our Day Jobs 1. **Show up every day** — Even if only because we have to. 2. **Show up no matter what** — In sickness and in health. 3. **Stay on the job all day** — Body remains at the wheel. 4. **Committed over the long haul** — Always part of the labor force. 5. **Stakes are high and real** — Survival, family, eating. 6. **Accept remuneration** — Work for money, not for fun. 7. **Do not overidentify with the job** — We are not our job descriptions. 8. **Master the technique** — Learn the craft. 9. **Have a sense of humor** — Don't take it all so seriously. 10. **Receive real-world praise or blame** — Genuine feedback, not kid gloves. ### 3.2 The 15+ Virtues of the Professional 1. **Patience** — Understands delayed gratification. The ant, not the grasshopper. Knows any job takes twice as long and costs twice as much. The Iditarod, not the sixty-yard dash. 2. **Order** — Eliminates chaos from his world to banish it from his mind. The carpet vacuumed, the threshold swept, so the Muse may enter. 3. **Demystifies** — Views work as craft, not art. Concentrates on technique. Leaves *what* and *why* to the gods. The amateur overglorifies the mystery. 4. **Acts in the Face of Fear** — Knows there is no such thing as a fearless warrior. Henry Fonda puked and went onstage anyway. 5. **Accepts No Excuses** — Respects Resistance. Knows if he caves today, he'll be twice as likely to cave tomorrow. Resistance is like a telemarketer; don't say hello. 6. **Plays It As It Lays** — Conducts business in the real world. The field is level only in heaven. Adversity, injustice, bad hops are all part of the campaign. 7. **Is Prepared** — Prepared at a deep level to confront self-sabotage. Mentally ready to absorb blows and deliver them. 8. **Does Not Show Off** — Style serves the material, not the ego. Doesn't grandstand. 9. **Dedicates Himself to Mastering Technique** — Apprentices himself to those who came before. Builds the full arsenal so when inspiration comes, he's ready. 10. **Asks for Help** — Tiger Woods has a teacher. The pro revels in instruction. The amateur thinks he knows everything. 11. **Distances from Instrument** — Stands at one remove from body, voice, talent. Does not identify with the instrument. Madonna employs "Madonna." 12. **Does Not Take Failure (or Success) Personally** — Seats professional consciousness outside personal ego. The Bhagavad-Gita: right only to our labor, not its fruits. 13. **Endures Adversity** — Lets birdshit splash on the slicker. Core is bulletproof. Dues PD. 14. **Self-Validates** — Doesn't let negative opinions unman him. Maintains sovereignty over the moment, like Tiger Woods after the camera click. 15. **Recognizes Limitations** — Gets an agent, lawyer, accountant. Can only be professional at one thing. 16. **Reinvents Himself** — Shucks outworn incarnations. The Muse may have more than one job for us. 17. **Is Recognized by Other Professionals** — A gun recognizes another gun. --- ## 4. The Muse / Inspiration Theory ### 4.1 The Higher Realm (Book Three) Pressfield posits that there exist higher planes of reality — timeless, placeless, spaceless — from which arise our lives, our work, and our art. These spheres are trying to communicate with ours. - **Resistance has its seat in hell**; **Creation has its home in heaven**. - Heaven is not just a witness to our work, but an eager and active ally. - When we sit down day after day and keep grinding, something mysterious happens. Power concentrates around us. The Muse takes note. We become like a magnetized rod attracting iron filings. Ideas come. Insights accrete. ### 4.2 The Muse - The Muses are nine sisters, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (Memory): Clio, Erato, Thalia, Terpsichore, Calliope, Polyhymnia, Euterpe, Melpomene, Urania. - Each Muse is responsible for a different art. - Socrates (in *Phaedrus*): "The third type of possession and madness is possession by the Muses. When this seizes upon a gentle and virgin soul it rouses it to inspired expression..." - The artist is the servant of the Muse. The artist does not create from himself; he takes dictation. - Pressfield invokes the Muse before every writing session — the Invocation from Homer's *Odyssey* (T.E. Lawrence translation). ### 4.3 Angels - Pressfield believes in angels — they work for God, their job is to help us, wake us up, bump us along. - Angels are agents of evolution. Kabbalah: above every blade of grass is an angel crying "Grow! Grow!" - When we make a beginning, the membrane cracks. Angel midwives congregate around us to assist as we give birth to ourselves. ### 4.4 The Self vs. The Ego | The Ego Believes | The Self Believes | |-----------------|-------------------| | Death is real | Death is an illusion; soul endures | | Time and space are real | Time and space are illusions | | Individuals are separate | All beings are one | | Self-preservation is the predominant impulse | Love is the supreme emotion | | There is no God; only the physical exists | God is all there is | - **Angels make their home in the Self**; **Resistance has its seat in the Ego**. - The Self wishes to create and evolve. The Ego likes things just the way they are. - The Ego produces Resistance and attacks the awakening artist. ### 4.5 The Master Fear: Fear of Success The deepest fear is not failure but success — that we actually possess the talent, the guts, the capacity. That we will pass through a membrane and become estranged from all we know. The payoff: we wind up in space, but not alone. We tap into an inexhaustible source of wisdom and find truer friends. ### 4.6 Blake's Vision "Eternity is in love with the creations of time" — William Blake. Pressfield interprets this: the Fifth Symphony already existed as potential in a higher sphere. It needed Beethoven to bring it into physical being. The Muse whispered in his ear. Eternity (God, pure consciousness) takes joy in what time-bound beings bring forth. --- ## 5. Actionable Techniques ### 5.1 Daily Practice - **Show up at the same time every day.** Somerset Maugham: "I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o'clock sharp." - **Put in the hours.** Pressfield works 4-5 hours per day until he starts making typos. When he hits diminishing returns, he stops. - **Don't judge.** How many pages? Are they any good? Doesn't matter. All that counts is that you overcame Resistance for this session. ### 5.2 Invocation and Ritual - **Say a prayer to the Muse** before beginning work. Pressfield uses the Invocation from Homer's *Odyssey* (T.E. Lawrence translation). - **Create a ritual** — lucky boots, lucky sweatshirt, specific workspace. The ritual signals to the psyche that it's time to work. - **Make a beginning.** Goethe: "Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it. Begin it now." ### 5.3 Structure and Systems - **Think of yourself as a corporation** (You, Inc.). Separate the artist from the will-and-consciousness running the show. Have corporate stationery. Hold Monday morning status meetings with yourself. - **Principle of Priority:** Know the difference between urgent and important. Do what's important first. - **Eliminate chaos** from your world to banish it from your mind. Order your physical space so the Muse may enter. - **Use a tape recorder** on walks after work — insights come when the surface mind empties. ### 5.4 Mindset Techniques - **Adopt the lunch-pail mentality.** A mercenary, a gun for hire. This purges pride and preciousness. Resistance loves pride. - **Learn how to be miserable.** Like a Marine, take pride in enduring isolation, rejection, self-doubt, despair, ridicule, contempt, and humiliation. - **Play hurt.** The athlete knows he will never wake up pain-free. The part we create from is bulletproof. - **Act territorially, not hierarchically.** Do the work for its own sake, not for what it can do for your standing. - **Ask:** "If I were the last person on earth, would I still do this?" ### 5.5 Handling Resistance's Tactics - **Use Resistance as a compass.** The more Resistance you feel toward an action, the more important it is for your soul's evolution. - **Don't seek support** from friends and family. It's Monopoly money. The only support that matters is internal. - **Don't talk about the work** before it's done. Talking dissipates the power. - **Don't open the bag of wind** — be most vigilant at the finish line. - **Blow critics off.** They are unconscious mouthpieces of Resistance. Envy-driven criticism is the supreme compliment. - **Don't take rejection personally.** Editors are not the enemy. Resistance is the enemy. ### 5.6 The Core Formula > **Sit down every day and do the work. Nothing else matters.** When we do this, something mysterious starts to happen. Heaven comes to our aid. Unseen forces enlist in our cause. This is the other secret that real artists know: showing up is the magic. ### 5.7 The Supreme Virtue **Contempt for failure.** By confining attention territorially to our own thoughts and actions — the work and its demands — we cut the earth from beneath the enemy. ### 5.8 The Ultimate Frame From the *Bhagavad-Gita*: do the work and give it to God. Do it as an offering. Purged of hope and ego, fix your attention on the soul. We are servants of the Mystery, put on earth to act as agents of the Infinite. --- ## Summary / Takeaway > **"The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying."** Resistance is the dragon guarding the gold. Turning pro is the only weapon that works. The professional shows up every day, accepts no excuses, acts in the face of fear, and does the work for its own sake. When you do this consistently, the Muse arrives. Eternity opens a portal into time — and you're it.