The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles

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.

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 the single most important book any individual can read if that individual meets the following criteria: * You are deeply unhappy with your life despite feeling that you have an immense urge to create—i.e. tortured by inactivity * You are astonished by the fact that you find yourself unable to start, but don't know why * You do not have a muse in person who helps push you * You dream but do not do This is a bold claim. I shall modify it slightly: apart from the book that inspires you most—the book in which the author literally moves your hands and guides you to begin, which Dostoevsky and Tolstoy always do—this book is the most important book for any individual that fulfils the above criteria. Certainly, it is the best non-fiction book for anyone whose life is severely affected not only by the fact that they are inactive, but by the more complex state of affairs that for some individuals, the desire to create is not something they choose. Failure to meet this inner demand, which is more important to their existence than almost anything else, leads to self-destruction that is as catastrophic as it is unavoidable. It is the source of much mental illness and therefore physical suffering. That is why this book is so important: for those who are simply born to create, not creating is tantamount to suicide. This can lead to literal suicide, or the state of suicide that is living a life that makes life a punishment. This book offers the solution to this issue not only through its clear statement of the answer, but by examining what stands in the way of living in accordance with that answer. The beauty of this book is that the author has centred in on the single-most important truth, and then dramatised this truth, and this struggle, allowing you to use the power of mythology to destroy the evil that is inactivity. I refuse to name what this truth is, because thinking one knows something and being able to act on it is precisely the issue this book solves. The end result is simple: if you are or know someone who is a person who cannot live without creating (by which I mean someone whose soul was forged to create, to search within and then present that finding to others, whether in the form of literature, music, painting, film or any other creative act—not the embarrassingly generic "I am a creative" description) and that person suffers because they are unable to force themselves to create, usually due to fear, this book is the single-best thing you can read. It is short, sweet, and powerful. It explains not only the problem and the solution, but the effects of the problem. This can shed light on issues that seemed to be disconnected, but were in fact all related to the individual's refusal to act on their nature. In this sense, this book both diagnoses and cures the source of great misery for a certain type of person, and frees them to embrace what they were born to do. This book is simply essential if you are or know someone who was born to create, but does not.

I’ll be honest, this has been sitting in my reading pile for months now. I saw it referenced in an article by Tim Ferris when he was talking about ‘Tribe of Mentors’. I thought it sounded interesting and bought it on impulse. When it arrived, I thought it looked a little ‘light’ on practicalities for me and held back. War of ArtAfter a couple of focused business books recently, I decided to give this a try this weekend – and finished it in two sittings. It is a beautifully precise book, with an economy of language – but it is also engrossing and enjoyable. The War of Art describes the internal obstacles that inhibit success, collecting them together in a tangible, palpable collective which Pressfield describes as ‘resistance’. It’s an unseen, malevolent force that blocks so many people from achieving their true potential. By identifying ‘resistance’, the author also helps shape the attitude and form that the reader needs to adopt, in order to go to battle. By assuming the position of a ‘professional’, he sets you up for the fight. Fortunately, the professional is not alone in this war with resistance, in the third part of the book we read about the supportive forces we can summon to overcome our adversary. The book is written as a set of ideas, short paragraphs or vignettes that give an incredible insight into the human psyche. At turns, the book is practical and helpful and then turns more romantic – summoning muses and angels to help the struggling reader. The War of Art doesn’t just apply to artists and creators, but to anyone who feels resistance to anything. Resistance to moving on from the past, resistance to healing issues, resistance to moving onwards and upwards in any field. By defining the challenge and providing inspiration for the battle this book offers an eye=opening approach to the next steps. I highly recommend The War of Art to anyone who is looking for insight into human psychology and motivation.

The sample was very promising but the Kindle download won't download to my device or open in Kindle for PC, a shame, I was really enjoying the first chapters.

thank you! amazing product.

Many readers have used this as a handbook for their new journey into the world of art. It delves into various common problems that face people who wish to enter this realm, but who have all sorts of inner queries with leaving the social ‘herd’ where earning a traditional living once had priority. Making personal change has all sorts of inner barriers and blocks, that people first need to understand in order to overcome them. It is an American book which successfully crosses the pond because of its universal agendas and is relevant to British and other global readers. There are three main parts of the book: a) Resistance, defining the enemy; b) Combating Resistance, and finding solutions, 3) Beyond Resistance, and the higher realm. Each section has many small chapters that deal with detailed issues which could be applicable to a number of budding artists. This arrangement allows each reader to stop and think about every relevant subject before moving on. The book’s advices cannot do any potential artists any harm, but is merely a question of how much will each reader gain from it. Ultimately that depends on the reader themselves.

I came across this book having seen Steven's interview with Marie Forleo on her YouTube channel. Chances are that you already have a good idea about what this book is about so I won't repeat what others have written at length. As an arch procrastinator with an embarrassingly short attention span I found the unusual structure of this book very helpful. The chapters, for want of a better word, are very short, often just a page or two and sometimes just a paragraph. However, they feel beautifully crafted with each one putting forward its meaning both concisely and powerfully (although I do find the term "Resistance" a little broad and have found substituting the word "Familiarity" helpful). I find myself re-reading War of Art and Turning Pro quite frequently and have been through both books several times now. Each time through I seem to notice something new in the relatively few words, or maybe they are just sinking in a little more. Either way, deep down we probably already know what is being written about but it somehow helps to see it before our eyes. I find that I can pick up either book, pick a page at random and find something immediately relevant to put in the 'here and now' which is so helpful. It feels that Steven has put a lot of himself into this book in quite an authentic and revealing way. I think anyone who has, or who is contemplating putting anything creative 'out there' will recognise the bravery in that. Incidentally, I ordered War of Art and Turning Pro from Amazon at the same time and Turning Pro happened to turn up first, so I read it before War of Art. I'm glad I did. Although Turning Pro was written later and expands on Part 2 of War of Art, it feels more like a prequel. I think they are both excellent books.