What is the main message of The War of Art?

The main message of The War of Art is overcoming resistance and embracing creative work.

Who is the author of The War of Art?

The author of The War of Art is Steven Pressfield.

Creativity

The War of Art Book Summary - The War of Art Book explained in key points

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The War of Art summary

Name: The War of Art
Rating: 4.2 (381 reviews)
Author: Steven Pressfield

Steven Pressfield

Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles

4.2 (381 ratings)

17 mins

Brief summary

"The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield is a motivational guide that helps you overcome creative blocks and resistance. It provides strategies and inspiration to help you unlock your full potential and achieve your artistic goals.

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Inspiration

Table of Contents

The War of Art
Summary of 8 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 8

What’s in it for me? Learn how to overcome your fears to realize your greatest dreams.

Have you ever felt that you were meant to do something great, like write a novel, direct a film or start a charity? Do you find yourself waking up every day and thinking about your goal, but then just shrugging and putting it off until tomorrow?

That’s not you actually planning to begin tomorrow: that’s the so-called resistance blocking you from realizing your full potential. Resistance is a negative force that opposes any creativity and keeps us from fulfilling our dreams.

This book will help you identify and understand the ways in which resistance – right now – is preventing you from working toward what you truly desire. It offers important advice on defeating resistance so you can realize your dreams, do what you were truly meant to do and set a great example for others who dream.

In these blinks, you’ll learn:

how failure – like a ruined film or manuscript – can actually help you as you pursue your dreams,
how the hierarchies of which you are a part work to stifle your creativity, and
how Oprah Winfrey created America’s most popular morning talk show in a matter of months.

A mental force called resistance opposes all our endeavors, and affects everyone.

Have you ever had an ambitious dream but hesitated to act on it? Maybe you wanted to write a great novel or start an innovative new business, but a certain feeling held you back?

That feeling is called resistance – it's the force that forever keeps us from realizing our dreams and accomplishing what we were meant to do.

Anything new in our routine that takes us away from the habitual will be naturally accompanied by resistance. Resistance is negative, and it always opposes change or anything new. For example, if you feel a call to start a new business, resistance will be the voice that urges you to stay at your current job and not take a risk on a project that may fail. If you want to start a new diet, resistance will be the voice that tells you, “I can always start the diet tomorrow, even if I don’t today.”

This feeling of resistance is perfectly normal. It's impersonal and universal, and it affects anyone and everyone. Resistance also doesn't discriminate between interests – you'll feel resistance if you want to do something for yourself, like diet, or something to help others, like start a charity. We need to accept that resistance is natural and stop thinking that it targets us personally.

In fact, resistance even affects people who are experienced at what they do. For example, actor Henry Fonda, even in his late age, threw up before every theatrical performance. Being an accomplished actor didn't stop him from feeling fear each time he had to go on stage.

Resistance can manifest in many ways. Fear of failure, self-doubt or procrastination are different forms of resistance. We can learn how to defeat resistance by constantly refocusing on our dreams, committing to our craft and accepting that challenging resistance is a natural and necessary part of the journey.

Resistance keeps us from becoming who we're meant to be, unless we use it to our advantage.

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.

The best way to fight resistance is to be a professional, and treat your dream like a full-time job.

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.

Being a professional means knowing yourself and your craft.

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.

A professional defeats resistance by being organized, patient and boldly facing adversity.

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.

There are positive mental forces we can use to counteract resistance.

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.

Professionals battle against hierarchies to achieve their goals.

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.

Professionals commit themselves to a certain territory where they work to achieve their goal.

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?

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What is The War of Art about?

In The War of Art, author Steven Pressfield helps you identify your inner creative battles against fear and self-doubt and offers advice on how to win those battles. An inspirational book for anyone who’s had trouble realizing their passion, it offers an examination of those negative forces that keep you from realizing your dreams, and shows how you can defeat your fears to achieve your creative goals.

The War of Art Review

The War of Art (2002) by Steven Pressfield is a powerful exploration of overcoming resistance and unlocking our creative potential. Here's why this book is worth reading:

Pressfield offers insightful observations about the inner obstacles that prevent us from pursuing our true calling, inspiring us to overcome them with courage and determination.
The book provides a practical framework for understanding and defeating the forces of resistance, encouraging us to take action and pursue our creative endeavors with relentless persistence.
Through real-life examples and personal anecdotes, Pressfield paints a vivid picture of the struggles faced by artists, writers, and entrepreneurs, making the book relatable and compelling.

Best quote from The War of Art

Most of us have two lives. The life we live and the unlived life within us. Between the two, stands resistance.

—Steven Pressfield

Who should read The War of Art?

Anyone wanting to be an artist or a professional in a certain field
Anyone interested in starting their own business
Anyone wishing to conquer fear and self-doubt in their creative life

About the Author

Steven Pressfield is a best-selling author of historical fiction and nonfiction books, including Gates of Fire, Tides of War, The Legend of Bagger Vance, and Do the Work.

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