The War of Art summary

Is there something in life you feel you were meant to do? Maybe you want to write short stories, or design furniture? That's your calling: your greatest passion that satisfies your soul’s hunger.

We each have two separate lives, our lived and unlived lives. We live everyday in our regular life, but we have another unlived life where we have an unrealized dream.

How are you pursuing your dream? Do you try to work on it a few hours here and there? This is a mistake. Instead, try to think of yourself as constantly working on it – immersed in it, like a full-time job.

You can be quite creative in how you utilize your time for your dream, even if you still have a “regular” job. For example, Quentin Tarantino didn't go to film school but instead worked in a video rental store. He watched films at work and used his “free time” to direct small projects. Once, one of his projects was destroyed in a fire. Instead of feeling as if he had failed, Tarantino realized that even though he never got to finish the film, the project had still taught him more than any film school class could have.

Everyone feels fear and self-doubt sometimes, and this is normal. As we can't permanently eliminate these negative emotions, we must learn to constantly combat them. You can do this most effectively by knowing yourself and knowing your calling as best you can.

To learn about yourself, you must learn what your limitations are. You shouldn't expect to do everything by yourself. When you learn your limitations, you’ll know better when it will help to work with others. A good way to do this is to surround yourself with other professionals.

Let's say your dream is to write a book, and you develop the self-discipline to sit down and write every day. You'll soon realize that resistance doesn't immediately go away. In fact, resistance may even increase as you keep writing, making you doubt your passions even more. However, you can weaken resistance by being persistent and organized.

To be a professional, you must be organized and patient. The author John Updike embodied this well in his writing process. He wrote every day, but focused on pacing himself evenly through the writing process. He didn't set unrealistic goals, such as speed-writing a novel in a week.

Though everyone has to face the negative force of resistance, the good news is that there are also positive forces that help us.

Muses are one such positive force. In Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, he writes that there are nine goddesses called the Muses who inspire creativity and ideas in artists. They present ideas to dedicated artists and help them defeat resistance. In fact, Homer himself called upon them to be able to tell the story of Odysseus’ ten-year struggle to return home after the Trojan War.

Whether in the workplace, on Wall Street, in Hollywood or even in high school, everyone has had to face the structure of social hierarchies in their life. Hierarchies exist everywhere. The one thing hierarchies share is that they always oppose change, dictating a fixed place for every member of the hierarchy.

Most people define themselves in and are defined by hierarchies in their lives, and usually hierarchies are quite restrictive.

Whether it's writing a hit song or directing an Oscar-winning film, each one of us has our own specific calling. And the place where professionals work on their calling is called their territory.

For example, in the case of former Mr. Universe Arnold Schwarzenegger, body-builder, actor and politician, his territory is the gym. So how do you know where your territory is?