Stephen Pressfield
I wanted to read this book because of a writers group I am involved in and they recommended a as an encouraging book for creatives of all types, especially writers. I was excited to dive into this book. We met once a week for a month to talk about each section of the book. It was very stimulating and made me want to fight against the Resistance that keeps me from accomplishing my goals as a writer.
Pressfield begins by describing the enemy (Resistance) that keeps us from doing our art. It is the thing that keeps us creatives from working and procrastinating. His most impactful statement in this opening section of the book described Resistance as keeping you from being the person you were created to be. Wow! What a thought. It’s true. We don’t become what we want to be because of Resistance, and then we pivot to something else that is less. He gives a plethora of examples of how Resistance keeps us from being who we really are.
In Book One, he focuses on defining the enemy of Resistance. He reminds the reader of its power and refusal to give any ground. As an enemy, it stands against any major life goals that have any lasting importance or do not give you immediate gratification. He gives many of the characteristics of Resistance. Resistance is the thing that holds us back from completing creative work. It can be found in many ways, but its chief goal is to make us procrastinate.
I like how the author describes resistance as a force that is not malevolent but indifferently distracts us at all costs. He reminds the reader that Henry Fonda was still throwing up before every performance in his old age. It directs us to the things that are most important because it offers the most resistance to those things. If you don’t want to do something, that’s resistance telling you how important that thing is.
I like how he explains that Resistance gets worse the closer we get to the finish line by talking about Odysseus and the struggles he had because he got lax toward the finish line. We have to be vigilant against this enemy. He further describes Resistance as procrastination, trouble, self-dramatization, self-medication, victimhood, and many more. Any way it can get us to not do our work is a way it wins over us.
He discusses the differences between freedom and fundamentalism. He says that both self-doubt and fear can be good for the creator because they prove the creator creates and fear means he cares about his creations. He talks about healing and Resistance, and how he had the experience of just sitting down after refusing to do his work that this set him free to feel like he could do it again.
The author is not fond of workshops for authors. He says it actually keeps them from doing their work as they focus on other authors instead of the work. He ends Book One on a positive note by telling you that resistance can be beaten.
Book Two is on combating Resistance by turning pro. He describes the professional and amateur, comparing them. He says that amateur means to love, meaning that the amateur does his art out of love while the professional does it for money. But that’s not how he sees it, and I agree with him. The professional devotes full-time to his craft.
He describes the professional writer as one who is like a hunter on the hunt. He wakes up knowing that Resistance can beat him. He describes himself as being there with his family but not really because he is already trying to figure out how to beat Resistance to do his work. He describes being miserable as an artist because it is war and only through being miserable can an artist succeed.
He talks about being a professional and how it comes in the real world of success and failure. Even failure let you know you’re truly a writer. You are too committed to your arts to give up just because of failure. You treat your heart like you treat the job you have already in which you are a professional. The same principles that apply to your job applied to your art when you are a professional.
He makes a point about the professional versus the amateur that the professional does not love the process of writing or the Muse so much that he gets distracted by it or allows it to beat him. I disagree with this true point. I understand what Pressfield is trying to say, that the professional shows up rain or shine. But it strikes me also that you do your art because you love doing it and love contributing to people’s lives through it.
He goes through a series of descriptions of the professional. He says the professional is patient, seeks order, demystifies, acts in the face of fear, accepts no excuses, plays it as it lays, prepares to face Resistance and beat it, dedicates himself to his craft, can ask for help, does not take failure or success personally, endures adversity, self-validates, recognizes his limitations, reinvents himself, and is recognized by other professionals. This is a gem in the whole book. His descriptions of the professional drive me to want to do even more against Resistance every time I go to do my art. It will challenge and encourage you.
In Book Three, Pressfield describes the “forces” which he calls “Angels” and other terms that can positively help us defeat Resistance. He explains and describes what the Muses were for the aging Greeks. I never knew this, so it was new and interesting information for me. He talks about how artists of all kinds have respected these Muses and attempted to bring them forth before their creative pursuits.
He describes the Muse as that spiritual, unearthly, heavenly thing that helps us get the ideas to start creating. Then he describes what keeps us going, that intelligence that is editing and organizing our work even as we are doing it. The author attributes this to whatever you might believe in that is helping you that is otherworldly. I have seen this happen in my own writing and everything else I creatively produce, and I attribute it to God giving me thoughts He wants others to hear and what I produce.
He talks about the importance of our dreams and how they help us understand what we are doing as we create and how important and powerful in his. I enjoyed the stories he told from his life that have to do with the force of carrying a creative work into existence. He asks the question of what we would do if we knew our lives would be over sooner than we expected, if we had some form of terminal illness like cancer. Then he talks about the psychology of that shift in our existence.
The author moves to give his definitions and understandings of the Ego and Self, the Ego being that physical part of us that is grounded in this life, and the Self being that soulless, more eternal part of us. I found these definitions and principles fascinating. He defines fear in both negative and positive outcomes. We fear the things we cannot handle but we also fear the possibilities of success.
Pressfield talks about how we are not a blank slate from the time we are born. I think I would firmly put him in the nature camp versus the nurture one. This is interesting to me because I believe God makes us who we are to be and our life is becoming who God made us to be. He discusses the difference between living in a hierarchy and living territorially, and how each affects the artist.
He talks about what a hack is in the creative world. He is firmly in the camp that an artist must work territorially rather than by hierarchy. Artists who work hierarchically are playing to the market. They may make millions but they have sold themselves out to their Muse. They haven’t written what they really thought or wanted to write. I think it’s hard to choose one or the other. I find myself coming up with the things I want to write about but asking people what they would want to know or what would interest them within that subject.
When he describes how an artist works from territory, I understand what he is saying. The artist brings forth from something other than and greater than himself a piece of beauty no one else could produce. It’s as unique as its creator. We have help in this creative process from beyond ourselves. I completely understand what he means by this. In this sense, an artist must work from territory rather than hierarchy.
He concludes the whole book by asking what kind of artist you are. He says artists are not selfish. When they create, they do it as a gift to the world. Whatever you do, you do it for others without wanting their opinion. You give it to them and let them do with it what they will.
Although Pressfield’s descriptions are sometimes overkill, I think he presents a challenge in such a way that we cannot deny the danger and power of Resistance over us. I love his adjectives. He does not hesitate to make the reader think as he uses adjectives that you may have to look up in a dictionary. But it is well worth the effort to understand exactly how he characterizes Resistance. While this book is a kick in the hands for artists, it also is an encouragement. It puts you in your place, but it makes you want to create all over again. I recommend this book for anyone who is creative, who loves to bring things into the world they didn’t completely feel they thought of themselves. This book is for you if you are procrastinator. It is for you if you dream and want to interpret those dreams into creative work you wish to give away as a gift to the world.
