The War of Art

Ever wanted to start a creative project but felt blocked?

Yeah, you me and 8 billion other people.

Steven Pressfield writes about this problem so elegantly in his book, explaining the resistance we meet and how to overcome it.

Genius.

The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more Resistance we feel pursuing it

Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator of what we must do

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. Don’t open the bag of wind (a la Odysseus)

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

Resistance is fear. But it is too cunning to show itself naked in this form because if Resistance lets us see cleraly that our own fear is preventing us from doing our work, we may feel shame at this. And shame may drive us to act in the face of fear. Resistance introduces Rationalisation, which presents us with a series of plausible, rational justifications for why we shouldn’t do our work. And insidiously, a lot of them are true. But ultimately it means diddly.

A Professional does not overidentify with his job. The amateur defines himself by it. Resistance loves this because it knows that the amateur composer will never write his symphony because he is overly invested in its success and over terrified by its failure.

The Professional understands delayed gratification. He is the ant, not the grasshopper. He knows that the job will take twice as long as he thought, and he must sustain himself throughout.

There’s no mystery in turning pro. It’s a decision brought about by an act of will.

Fear that we will succeed is the most terryifying prospect because it ejects you in one go (so you imagine) from all the tribal inclusions the psyche is wired for and has been for fifty million years. We fear discovering that we are more than we think we are. We know that if we embrace our ideals, we must prove worthy of them. We will lose our friends and family. But we will not wind up alone. We will lose friends, but we will make better and truer ones.

Eternity is in love with the creations of time - William Blake.

Higher planes of pure potential are timeless, placeless, spaceless, but long to bring their visions into being here, in this timebound, space-defined world.

The artist and the mother are vehicles, not originators. They don’t create new life, they only bear it.

We can do something hierarchically, for the tribe. We can do something territorially, for ourselves. Or we can do something for its own sake, as an offering to God.

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.

Turning Pro

The amateur fears becoming (and being seen and judged as) himself. This means being different from the other, possibly, violating the expectations of the tribe, without whose acceptance and approval, he believes, he cannot survive. By these means, the amateur remains inauthentic. He remains someone other than who he really is.

Each day, the professional understands, he will wake up facing the same demons, the same Resistance, the same self-sabotage, the same tendencies to shadow activities and ad amateurism that he has always faced. Thus, turning pro is a decision we must recommit to everyday, like the twelve-step program. One day at a time.

The monk does not meditate only to achieve enlightenment. We must practice for the sake of practice itself.

Practice is to follow a rigorous, prescribe regimen with the intention of elevating the mind and the spirit to a higher level. A practice implies engagement in a ritual. A practice may be defined as the dedicated, daily exercise of commitment, will, and focused intention aimed, on one level, at the achievement of mastery ion a field, but, on a loftier level, intended to produce a communion with a power greater than ourselves.

Practice has space, time, intention. We come to practice as warriors, students and in humility. It is lifelong. This is how the mystery can be approached with order.