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I misplaced the link for the button from the e-mail last week (it's fixed in the web version of the e-mail here, but I'm working on a better, refined version of the guide).
But until then, I thought I'd share some points about Steven Pressfield.
You might know him from "The War of Art" or "Turning Pro."
Apart from those two, I also read "Do The Work" and I wanted to share with you what’s the common thread in all of them.
They are about more or less the same thing.
That isn't a bad thing, it's just that the material becomes repetitive if you're reading those works back to back.
So what are they about?
There are three concepts that Pressfield summons in his work: resistance, shadow career, and the need to create.
Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do.
Remember our rule of thumb: The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.
Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance. Therefore the more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul. That's why we feel so much Resistance. If it meant nothing to us, there'd be no Resistance.
The first is connected to the force that makes it difficult for us to pursue the career we want. It wants us to behave like an amateur and not a professional who takes pride in their work.
It wants us to do everything but not the work that we're supposed to do.
Resistance camouflages in different ways like procrastination, constant distraction, or even a shadow career.
That type of career is "close enough" to the thing we always wanted to do.
A novelist might stop writing books and become a copywriter because of "good pay, and almost like writing a book."
But is it?
Is it the same type of pursuit? Or is it just a cope?
Addictions and shadow careers are messages in a bottle from our unconscious. Our Self, in the Jungian sense, is trying to get our attention, to have an intervention with us.
The last point is the need to create.
Pressfield underlines that it is important to finish open projects and to force things into being by putting words on paper.
This act is not only crucial for others to enjoy but also for yourself to make something out of nothing.
And only through doing we will actually learn, grow, and take another shot at making our "thing" work - it can be a career, a book, or even a collection of stamps from Florence, Italy.
A work-in-progress generates its own energy field. You, the artist or entrepreneur, are pouring love into the work; you are suffusing it with passion and intention and hope.
If I were to recommend one of those books to you, it would be "The War of Art."
Since I stumbled upon it a couple of years back, it has always been in the back of my mind.
The concept of resistance puts a label on that negative force.
And we know that knowing something's true name gives us a natural advantage.
Push against the things that are keeping you from pursuing your dream.
Till next time.
Love you,
Piotr