What I've Been Reading

It is one thing to study warand another to live the warrior's life. 

- Telamon of Arcadia, mercenary of the fifth century B.C.

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield.

A hidden gem that I have missed all this years ! If you need a slap of face wake up call (and even if you don't need one), please pick up this short book.

• The more important a call or action is to our soul's evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pushing it.
• The danger is greatest when the finish line is in sight. At this point, Resistance knows we're about to beat it. It hits the panic button. It marshals one last assault and slams us with everything it's got.
• Cruelty to others is a form of Resistance, as is the willing endurance of cruelty from others.
• Creating soap opera in our lives is a symptom of Resistance.
• Instead of applying self-knowledge, self-discipline, delayed gratification, and hard-work, we simply consume a product. Many pedestrians have been maimed or killed at the intersection of Resistance and Commerce.
• People aren't sick, they're self-dramatizing. Sometimes the hardest part of a medical job is keeping a straight face. As Jerry Seinfield observed of his twenty years of dating: "That's a lot of acting fascinated".
• 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. While those who will not govern themselves are condemned to find masters to govern over them.
• The more Resistance you experience, the more important your unmanifested art/project/enterprise is to you - and the more gratification you will feel when you finally do it.
• An support we get from persons of flesh and blood is like Monopoly money; it's not legal tender in that sphere where we have to do our work. In fact, the more energy we spend stoking up on support from colleagues and loved ones, the weaker we become and the less capable of handling our business.
• The Marine Corps teaches you how to be miserable. 
• The sign of the amateur is overglorification of and preoccupation with the mystery. The professional shuts up. She doesn't talk about it. She does her work. 
• The professional conducts his business in the real world. Adversity, injustice, bad hops and rotten calls, even good breaks and lucky bounces all comprise the ground over which the campaign must be waged. The field is level, the professional understands, only in the heaven. 
• The professional is sly. He knows that by toiling beside the front door of technique, he leaves room for genius to enter by the back. 
• The principle of organization is built into nature. Chaos itself is self-organizing. Out of primordial disorders, stars find their orbits, rivers make their way to the sea. 
• The Ego produces Resistance and attacks the awakening artist. 
• If we were born to overthrow the order of ignorance and injustice in world, it's our job to realize it and get down to business. 
• The artist must operate territorially. He must do his work for its own sake. 
• The artist can't do his work hierarchically. He has to work territorially. 
• A territory returns exactly what you put in. Territories are fair. Every erg of energy you put in goes infallibly into your account. A territory never devalues. A territory never crashes. What you deposited, you get back, dollar-for-dollar.  What's your territory?
• If you're all alone on the planet, a hierarchical orientation makes no sense. There's no one to impress. So if you'd still pursue that activity, congratulations. You've doing it territorially. 

Were you put on earth to be a painter, scientist, an apostle of peace? In the end the question can only be answered by action. Do it or don't do it.  

Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It's a gift to the world and every being in it. Don't cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you've got.