. Whether you’re an artist, writer, or entrepreneur, this book will help you get on track with your creative ambitions. Understanding the key passages from the book will help you grasp the main concepts of the book and apply the lessons to your own life.
“We must do our work for its own sake, not for fortune or attention or applause.”
When you look outward instead of inward, you stop doing the work for the sake of the work. You approach every connection through the lens of how it can enhance your position. And worst of all, you become a hack.
A hack is someone who shapes their art to improve their ranking within the hierarchy. You write, paint, or develop your ideas based on what you believe people want to see and will accept. You become afraid of creating what is in your heart because you fear it won’t be received well. You force yourself to travel down an unauthentic path, and you and the work suffer.
You might achieve financial success as a hack because American culture loves a good panderer. But you’ll have sacrificed your muse and not fulfilled your calling. Therefore, the success will only be external and the work less than what you’re capable of.
“The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.”
The only thing you have to do to win the battle against resistance is do the work. The work is where your creative power lives. You fall into a timeless space where the rest of the world drops away. You are alone on your creative island, and only you have access to this part of yourself. The person you show the world is not the person working with your internal genius.
To reach this creative space, you must be a professional in your work, not an amateur. When you’re an amateur, you dabble in your art whenever inspiration strikes or you’re in the right mood. You’re not committed to your art, and your goals center around fun, money, and status. Resistance loves an amateur because you are easily distracted from the work.
When you’re a professional, you create art because your soul demands it. Your art is a full-time commitment, even if you aren’t getting paid. You sit down to face your art daily because it is part of who you are. You shape your life to include the work as a priority. Resistance hates the professional because you are less likely to cower to fear.
“The artist committing himself to his calling has volunteered for hell, whether he knows it or not. He will be dining for the duration on a diet of isolation, rejection, self-doubt, despair, ridicule, contempt, and humiliation.”
When you’re a professional artist, you live in a world fraught with resistance. Fear, doubt, passion, vulnerability, and struggle are present every day of your life. These feelings make you miserable, which resistance is counting on. If you feel miserable, you won’t want to dwell in that world for very long. You’ll search for ways to self-soothe or get instant gratification. But a professional understands that his world is a living hell and accepts it as part of life.
“Of any activity you do, ask yourself: If I were the last person on earth, would I still do it?”
A true artist does the work for the sake of the work. From this vantage, you also harness the energies of your higher consciousness. If you do the work for some external reward or recognition, you’re working toward a hierarchical goal. You are presuming to know more than your muse and higher mind because you think you can manipulate the work for profit. This presumption is an affront because you’re allowing your Ego to infiltrate their territory. As a result, you will receive no guidance.
“The most pernicious aspect of procrastination is that it can become a habit. We don’t just put off our lives today; we put them off till our deathbed.”
Procrastinating one day is normal. Procrastinating day after day is a habit. That habit can become a personal character flaw if you let it. You have the power every day to stop resistance in its tracks. All you have to do is take the first step toward achieving your goal. If you put that first step off again and again, you have made procrastination a lifestyle and resistance your best friend.
* Why creative people feel resistance when approaching their true work
* How to break down the wall that holds you back from reaching your potential
* How to tap into your creative power and honor the genius you were born with
Millions of life’s have been changed when they read Steven Pressfield’s book.
Great Thursday is yours!!
Bishop Duke Akamisoko
5/12/2024
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