The Directed Life

Notes from Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art

Date read: 12/29/2022

Big takeaways:

1. Recognize where Resistance is in your life and how it’s preventing you from accomplishing what you’d like to accomplish.
2. The battle against Resistance begins anew each day.
3. Treat your art like a professional; be even-tempered and cold about putting the work in every single day.
4. Kill the surrounding chaos and your pride; beauty will begin to unfold in your life.
5. Act territorially, not hierarchically

Robert McKee setting the tone in the forward, explaining Pressfield’s “Resistance” concept:

Pressfield labels the enemy of creativity Resistance, his all-encompassing term for what Freud called the Death Wish—that destructive force inside human nature that rises whenever we consider a tough, long-term course of action that might do for us or others something that’s actually good.

McKee in the forward outlining Pressfield’s formula for the professional:

Preparation, order, patience, endurance, acting in the face of fear and failure—no excuses, no bullshit … that first, last, and always, the professional focuses on mastery of the craft.

*Pressfield quotes from now on, unless otherwise noted

The mindset required for writing improvement after a day’s work is completed (from the section “What I Do”):

How many pages have I produced? I don’t care. Are they any good? I don’t even think about it. All that matters is I’ve put in my time and hit it with all I’ve got.

The responsibility you have for overcoming Resistance (from the section “The Unlived Life”):

If you believe in God (and I do) you must declare Resistance evil, for it prevents us from achieving the life God intended when He endowed each of us with our own unique genius. Genius is a Latin word; the Romans used it to denote an inner spirit, holy and inviolable, which watches over us, guiding us to our calling … It is our soul’s seat, the vessel that holds our being-in-potential, our star’s beacon and Polaris.

Where you will feel Resistance the most (page 6):

Any act that rejects immediate gratification in favor of long-term growth, health, or integrity. Or, expressed another way, any act that derives from our highest nature instead of our lower.

Where Resistance comes from (page 8):

Resistance is not a peripheral opponent. Resistance comes from within. It is self-generated and self-perpetuated. Resistance is the enemy within.

But Resistance is an important tool; whatever you feel most Resistance for is probably what you need to be doing. Resistance is “true North” – the call to action most important to follow (page 12).

Most of the fight is showing up every day for it (page 14):

The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day.

The power of Now (page 22):

Never forget: This very moment, we can change our lives. There never was a moment, and never will be, when we are without the power to alter our destiny.

Eliminate—trouble, destructive behaviors, people—whatever it takes to transform (page 24):

The working artist will not tolerate trouble in her life because she knows trouble prevents her from doing her work. The working artist banishes from her world all sources of trouble. She harnesses the urge for trouble and transforms it in her work.

The Ultimate Issue (page 26):

Instead of applying self-knowledge, self-discipline, delayed gratification, and hard work, we simply consume a product.

The Fix (pages 31-32):

We live in a consumer culture that’s acutely aware of this unhappiness and has massed all its profit-seeking artillery to exploit it … it is our obligation to enact our own internal revolution, a private insurrection inside our own skulls. In this uprising we free ourselves from the tyranny of consumer culture … by recognizing that we will never cure our restlessness by contributing our disposable income to the bottom line of Bullshit, Inc., but only by doing our work.

The freedom that discipline brings (also in Bird by Bird – page 37):

The paradox seems to be, as Socrates demonstrated long ago, that the truly free individual is free only to the extent of his own self-mastery.

Use fear as an instrument (page 40):

The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it … The professional tackles the project that will make him stretch. He takes on the assignment that will bear him into uncharted waters, compel him to explore unconscious parts of himself.

The truth Somerset Maugham recognized by simply showing up (page 64):

By performing the mundane physical act of sitting down and starting to work, he set in motion a mysterious but infallible sequence of events that would produce inspiration, as surely as if the goddess had synchronized her watch with his. He knew if he built it, she would come.

Be a mercenary—kill your pride (page 74):

To the gods, the supreme sin is not rape or murder, but pride. To think of yourself as a mercenary, a gun for hire, implants the proper humility. It purges pride and preciousness.

Eliminating chaos; I loved this idea of preparing your self and space like a beautiful woman is entering (page 77):

He will not tolerate disorder. He eliminates chaos from his world in order to banish it from his mind. He wants the carpet vacuumed and the threshold swept, so the Muse may enter and not soil her gown.

The approach (page 84):

The professional dedicates himself to mastering technique not because he believes technique is a substitute for inspiration but because he wants to be in possession of the full arsenal of skills when inspiration does come.

Quote from Xenophon’s The Calvary Commander that Pressfield includes and I loved (page 105):

The first duty is to sacrifice to the gods and pray them to grant you the thoughts, words, and deeds likely to render your command most pleasing to the gods and to bring yourself, your friends, and your city the fullest measure of affection and glory and advantage.

The powers of the universe approve of your increased effort (page 108):

Unseen forces enlist in our cause; serendipity reinforces our purpose … When we sit down each day and do our work, power concentrates around us. The Muse takes note of our dedication. She approves … Ideas come. Insights accrete.

Kill off your predispositions to hierarchy. Embrace operating territorially, doing the work for its own sake. (pages 150-151)

Territory is important because it’s a closed feedback loop. It is sustaining without any other inputs. We put in care, time, and effort, and receive insight and well-being back. (pages 154-155)

Confine your attention territorially—your own thoughts, actions, work, and demands. (page 160)

The ultimate path of work is the one above both hierarchy and territory (pages 161-162):

Do the work and give it to Him. Do it as an offering to God.

Creation shouldn’t be viewed as a choice; you should view it as your Divinely endowed responsibility (page 165):

You shame the angels who watch over you and you spite the Almighty, who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter farther along its path back to God. Creative work is not a selfish act … It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution.