The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles Paperback – 2 Nov. 2022

Read this after hearing about it on Joe Rogan. It’s all the stuff we already knew but were ignoring. It’s a short, to the point pep talk. It’s awesome. You should read it.

In The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, readers are treated to a refreshing take on creativity, productivity, and the pursuit of one’s passions. The author seamlessly blends advice with philosophical insights, making this book a must-read for anyone seeking to unleash their creative potential.Pressfield’s exploration of the artist’s struggle is both insightful and motivating. He argues that the greatest obstacle to creativity is resistance, which manifests in various forms such as procrastination, self-doubt, and fear of failure. By identifying and overcoming resistance, individuals can tap into their inner creativity and achieve their goals.What sets this book apart is its spiritual undertones. While Pressfield acknowledges the religious aspect of creativity, emphasizing the idea of creativity as a divine gift and artists as vessels for expressing God’s will. He also ensures that non-religious readers can find value in his words. His simple yet profound language and humorous anecdotes make the book accessible to all, regardless of their beliefs.Pressfield’s no-nonsense approach encourages readers to stop making excuses and start pursuing their dreams. With its straightforward explanations and witty tone, the book is particularly helpful for individuals struggling with procrastination, offering them the motivation and tools they need to turn their aspirations into reality.It is a thought-provoking and inspirational read that offers valuable insights into the creative process and the pursuit of personal fulfillment. Whether you’re a believer or a skeptic, this book has something to offer everyone, making it a timeless classic in the realm of self-help literature.

This is a great book. I've been able to recognize myself in everything written by the author. The author talks to artists, but the term artist has to be taken with a broad sense. He clarifies it early in the book, but don't forget it as you progress in the book. Scientists, Entrepreneurs, and potentially everybody can and should be an artist too, therefore this book targets everybody.This book arrives at the best time for me, I haven't been able to find someone who truly understands the way I feel. I was shocked when I read this : "I could not handle resistance. I had one novel nine-tenths of the way through and another at ninety-nine hundreth before I threw them in the trash. I couldn't finish them." Because it is exactly what happened to me. I was working on starting a web based venture, a web platform on which I've worked for months. At some point I was literally, nine-tenth of the way through. I estimated that I just needed 2 more weeks of work before finishing. Only 2 weeks after more than 8 months working on it ! But guess what : I never finished. I couldn't explained it.At the last minute, I decided to stop the development and begin to search for customers. It made sense, it was like a rationalization : instead of working in vain you'd rather get customers first. Then as day goes by, you see that it's difficult to get customer and you begin to think : the money will take some time to come here and you clearly need to work full-time on this. Are you really ready to do it ? And bit per bit you shift away, you become to be affected by other issues of you daily life. And one month later this project belongs to the past. You've just been lying to yourself, you've been self-defeating yourself.I didn't know it was resistance before reading the book. Procastination is a weak idea, this book is more than that. The author conceptualized everything perfectly. If you ever faced a situation where resistance has defeated you, it doesn't take long before you notice that the author has a real insight and knows what he is talking about. The strengh of this book is that the author has conceptualized this wide issue as well as the way to solve it, in an easy to read but powerful manner. The concept itself is powerful.But it's not enough, in my opinion the big strength is that while the author goes to the point, the book is not a collection of recipes. You don't find a 15 bullets points methodology to apply every morning. You find liberty, your mind is freed because you understand what's really going on. This is why this book is so great. It's very easy to do a time-management / project management book exposing some systematic method that are too be applied because they just "work". It's much more hard to write a book that try to achieve these results by talking to the mind of artists. But the results there are exponentially more powerful.Indeed artists do not follow methodologies, so when you target them, unless the word you speak are word of truth and wisdom, you are unlikely to have any impact. Luckily this is clearly the case with this book, there is no methodology but there are practical methods and a practical insight who make you understand how to defeat resistance in your unique life.Go ahead and read it now. Whether you are a painter, a writer, a man willing to start a venture, to volunteer himself… you are an artist and this book is for you. This book is massively cheap for what you'll get out it. In my case, I feel it will save me dozen of years of struggle in my life. I'm glad God wanted me to understand the bigger picture, and directed me to this book. After reading it, I'm not only happy that my life will be empowered, I'm also happy to have faced this problem because thanks to this insight I'll be able to help others.It's impossible to really help someone who tells you : "I could not handle resistance. I had one novel nine-tenths of the way through and another at ninety-nine hundreth before I threw them in the trash. I couldn't finish them." without having experienced this situation and the strength and the obscure character of this inner energy by yourself. Steven Pressfield is helping us here. Now it's time to help yourself and buy this book.

Enjoyed it. Some very interesting points about one's approach to one's art or craft. Well written and in good humour. Will likely read it again at some point.

The first half of this book is revolutionary. The concept of The Resistance and the Professional are a fresh and helpful way of looking at what we classically term "Writers Block". But as you race through the book for the practical advice on beating the resistance, it dawns on you that this golden ticket is never going to be delivered.There are enough useful gems here to justify the price (I paid 99p on Kindle) and it's a quick and inspiring read. It's a shame it devolves into nebulous philosophy at the end. But I guess the truth is, when it comes to writers block, there is no magic bullet.