Book Club: The War of Art

Workbench
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Join me in reading Steven Pressfield’s book, The War of Art.

So although Steve and I may differ on the cause, we agree on the effect: When inspiration touches talent, she gives birth to truth and beauty. And when Steven Pressfield was writing The War of Art, she had her hands all over him.

~ Robert McKee

We’ll break the book into three pieces: The three “books” within, each of ~50 pages.

On each of the below dates, I’ll post a reply here to prompt discussion. There’s no need to wait for me though… scribble here by replying anytime…

Oct 10 — complete reading through the end of Book One: Resistance

Oct 17 — complete reading through the end of Book Two: Combating Resistance

Oct 24 — complete reading through the end of Book Three: Beyond Resistance

:calendar: Remember to subscribe to the Podcaster Community’s calendar feed to see everything that’s going on. The weekly Book Club dates will then automatically be on your calendar.

Are you committing to reading the book?
Do you have a copy?
What will stop you from engaging in discussion here?

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@craigconstantine - commit, have a copy, no barriers! Prompts and reminders recorded in all the right places :+1:

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The Work

After reading the first “book” in Pressfield’s The War of Art, I’m inspired to define, for me specifically: What is “the work?”

In a specific moment, on a specific day, when I feel that odd uneasiness, I will not try to identify the specific form Resistance is taking. Instead as Pressfield mentions on page 12:

[…] We can use this. We can use it as a compass. We can navigate by Resistance, letting it guide us to that calling or action that we must follow before all others.

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.

As a real example of my own experience, Resistance’s compass guides me towards watching sci-fi entertainment (“a harmless relaxation,” I think after working in my yard for hours). So the opposite would be to… organize and streamline my writing environment and processes so tomorrow I can write more easily! No. My hiding in preparation and perfection is just another form of Resistance.

The best way for me is to look at all the possible things I could do, rather than follow Resistance’s compass. Then boil that down to a list of positive, actionable, directions in which I can sit down and work.

In a specific moment, on a specific day, when I feel that odd uneasiness, I can glance at my list and simply do a bit of The Work.

To defeat Resistance I can simply sit down, and do a little bit of any of the following…

  • do guest outreach for podcasting
  • write the next issue of 7 for Sunday
  • write the next Open + Curious article
  • write new blog posts

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PS: I’ve listed “do guest outreach” because—for me—once I do that consistently for a few weeks, all the rest of the podcasting process follows automatically.