Today on Acta Non Verba I’m revisiting the most notable lessons within Steven Pressfield’s book “The War of Art.” Listen in as I break down Steven Pressfield’s rise to success after 30 years of failure as well and how it led to his views on Adversity, resistance, and growth. I’ll explore what fear can tell us about our goals and how we can overcome Adversity by focusing on the things that scare us most.
You can learn more about Steven and his books here: https://stevenpressfield.com/books/the-war-of-art/
Episode Transcript:
00:32
Most of us have two lives, the life that we live and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands resistance. Resistance cannot be seen, touched, heard or smelled, but it can be felt.
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Resistance arises from within. It is self-generated and self-perpetuated. The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more resistance we will feel towards pursuing it. Steven Pressfield, The War of Art. I’m Marcus Aurelius Anderson, and this is another installment of Acta Non Verba’s Warrior Wisdom. In these solo episodes, I’ll highlight lessons from warriors past and present
01:31
from the battlefields of Italy, Greece, and Japan, to the Middle East and modern day warfare, including tactics seen today in business, society, and culture. I’ll also be sharing lessons based on my own teachings and experiences. The reality is this, the world is a battlefield, and to not master these lessons leaves you grossly ill-prepared for the adversity that you will inevitably face in the future. Today’s lesson comes from one of the most prolific writers of our time,
02:01
Steven Pressfield. Steven Pressfield’s bio reads, Steven became an overnight success as a writer after 30 years of abject failure. Now, when I read that bio during our interview, he simply laughed and said, hey, it’s true, but he is no longer an abject failure by any stretch of the imagination today. He’s written 18 books, both fiction and nonfiction, that have received worldwide and critical acclaim, not that the opinion of a critic really mattered to Steve.
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His mix of raw and real narratives combined with his creative and masterfully crafted storytelling have made a tremendous impact on millions of readers, including myself. Some of his works of fiction include Pressfield’s first book, The Legend of Bagger Vance, was published in 1995 and was made into a movie in 2000, directed by Robert Redford and starring Will Smith and Matt Damon. This book represents Pressfield’s first success as an author and put him on the map.
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Gates of Fire is about the famed 300 Spartans in the Battle of Thermopylae. This book is used as part of the curriculum taught at the U.S. Military Academy, the United States Naval Academy, and the Marine Corps’ basic school at Quantico. Some of his other works of fiction include The Tides of War, a novel about the Peloponnesian War, The Virtues of War, about Alexander the Great, and The Afghan Campaign, about Alexander the Great’s conquest in Afghanistan.
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His most recent book, which we discuss at length in the Octonon Verba interview, is A Man at Arms, a novel set in Jerusalem and the Sinai Desert in the first century AD. Some of his most notable works of nonfiction include what we’ve already talked about, probably the most famous work of nonfiction, which is The War of Art, Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles. This was considered a motivational book that investigated the psychology of creativity and how writer’s block can be cured.
03:57
This is where Pressfield’s notion of resistance first is introduced. Other nonfiction that follow in this vein include Do the Work, Turning Pro, and The Artist’s Journey. His book, The War of Art, has been cited by many authors, artists, and leaders as both pragmatic and inspirational, receiving praise from the likes of Tim Ferris, Ryan Holiday, and Rich Roll, to name just a few. The War of Art is a short essay that has only 165 pages.
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with some of those pages only having one or two sentences on them. But when trying to compile quotes to use for this episode, I found myself wanting to share literally the entire book. In addition to the opening quotes of this episode, here are some of the other powerful quotes from the War of Art regarding the force of resistance. Resistance is the root of more unhappiness than poverty, disease, and erectile dysfunction. Procrastination is the most common manifestation of resistance because
04:53
It’s the easiest to rationalize. We’re wrong if we think that we’re the only ones that are struggling with resistance because everyone that has a body experiences resistance. Cruelty is a form of resistance, as is the willing endurance of cruelty from others. Casting yourself as a victim is the antithesis of doing your work. If you’re doing it, stop. If you find yourself criticizing other people, you’re probably doing it out of resistance.
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The more scared you are of the work or calling, the more sure that you can be that you have to do it. If you’re paralyzed with fear, it’s a good sign. It shows you what you have to do. If it meant nothing to us, then there’d be no resistance. In the book, Prestl later goes on to state that if we overcome resistance, even if it’s only one time, we unlock our ability to do it over and over again in any area.
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That’s what he calls being a professional or going pro. Here are a few of Pressfield’s quotes regarding going pro. To the amateur, the game is his advocation. To the pro, it’s his vocation. His goal is not victory because success will come by itself when it wants to, but to handle himself as sturdily and steadily as he can. Resistance is a bully and has no strength on its own. Its power derives entirely from our fear of it.
06:17
There’s no mystery to turning pro. It’s a decision brought about by an act of will. We make up our minds to view ourselves as a pro and we do so, simple as that. The professional knows that if he caves in today, that he will be twice as likely to cave in tomorrow. Now, the influence of Pressfield’s work has had on me simply cannot be overstated. I read the War of Art half a dozen times before I was in the military and before I was injured.
06:46
And while I was grappling with the crippling reality of my paralysis, I faced the unflinching presence of resistance, and Pressfield’s prose came rushing back and echoed in my mind. And if you’re familiar with my TEDx or my book, The Gift of Adversity, you’ll see that there are many similarities between resistance and adversity. But in my mind, adversity is a little different. Yes, adversity is a form of resistance, but it’s a much greater, much more aggressive form of it.
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Being injured and paralyzed made me understand that what I was facing was indeed resistance, but it felt so much bigger than that. There was absolutely more gravity and significance to what I was going through. I had to come up with a stronger word than simply resistance to capture the overpowering emotions I was experiencing in those moments of suicidal depression, in those darkest parts of my mind, wondering if I was ever going to be able to walk or use my hands again.
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He capitalizes it because in his mind, it’s a force. It’s an entity, which is why I do the same with adversity. I capitalize it in all of my work as well. So if you haven’t read the War of Art or A Man at Arms, by all means grab a few copy of those and get it on Kindle, buy the physical copy, and then listen to it on Audible. They are all fantastic. This way you can have it at your fingertips whenever you go anywhere. And…
08:12
If you haven’t already listened to our two-part Octonon Verbat interview, go back and check those out as well. In part one, we clear up some of the loose ends from Stephen’s interview with Tim Ferriss. We also discuss where Stephen sees resistance in creativity and other areas of life, and how monumental resistance is often a good sign. In part two, we talk about Stephen’s new book, A Man at Arms. We also discuss the role that adversity plays in his new book, what historical figure he would like to sit down and have a conversation with.
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and Steven even turns the table and interviews me about my journey and the gift of adversity. Now, full disclosure, I must admit that I experienced resistance while writing this episode. I mean, who the hell am I to write about Prestl’s prolific work? What could I possibly say that hasn’t already been written or said probably much better and much more eloquently than I ever could? Let’s be honest, I am nowhere near the author that Prestl is.
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He’s literally experienced, learned, and forgotten more about writing and resistance than what I will ever learn in this lifetime. And yet, after all that resistance, you’re listening to the finished product right now. Thanks Steven. Because of your work and our conversations, I acted like a pro and I did the work. By facing your own resistance, you helped me overcome my own.
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and find the gift in adversity. Thus endeth the lesson. Your immediate action items from this episode, one, the Presto quote that I opened this lesson with should haunt you. He says, most of us have two lives, the life that we live and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands resistance. You have to ask yourself.
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Where are you experiencing resistance in your life? And how is this resistance stopping you from living the unlived life within you? Number two, where are you facing adversity? What weakness is adversity shining a light on for you in this very moment? Lastly, how would overcoming resistance and adversity literally change your life and the life of those around you?
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What more could you accomplish? What powers lie dormant within you? And what areas are you under-indexing the things that you are truly capable of? If you take the time to honestly reflect and meditate on these questions, the answers that you come up with will change your life forever. Until next time, live a life of actions and not words. Live a life of Acta Non Verba.
