Book Review: The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

Nearly all of us face difficult tasks, challenges, or projects that could create powerful results for our business, personal lives, relationships, or give us great pride in our accomplishments… but we procrastinate and deprive ourselves and the world of those accomplishments.

If you need a kick in the ass to finally get something done in your business, the War of Art will do it and you can even knock out this read on a Saturday afternoon.

Steven Pressfield’s book, “The War of Art”, was written through the lens of a writer, or a creative person, struggling to complete his piece of work.

He failed to put pen to paper to finish his book.

Pressfield tells us that a great majority of people in creative spaces struggle with procrastination, perfectionism, or what he calls, “resistance”.

“Resistance” is a force inside of us that tells us to procrastinate, we aren’t ready yet, we haven’t done enough research, we aren’t good enough, or we need a break.

I often see resistance when it comes to working IN my business instead of ON my business. Resistance does not want me to work on longterm projects, search for new tools to create results for clients, and it certainly doesn’t want me to drum up new business.

Pressfield tells us to fully embrace fighting resistance as a part of our art.

In order to fight resistance, we must “turn pro”.

The author even goes as far as to instruct us to consider ourselves a corporation.

Have a board meeting with yourself on Sunday evening and ask yourself what you failed to accomplish, what must be done this week, and create a process for getting it done.

Pro’s do not allow the busyness of the day get in the way of their goals.

Pro’s find systems and build processes for getting things done.

I originally heard about The War of Art via comedians Joey Diaz and Joe Rogan.

Rogan and Diaz found the book helpful to write more jokes and work on their comedy sets instead of procrastinating and fearing what others may think.

Pressfield also discusses a “life lived vs a life dreamed about”. It would be a shame if neither of these comedians turned pro and deprived the world of their talents.

The War of Art was written mostly for artists and creative types. However, I think anyone in marketing, sales, or anyone in a leadership role will find the book to be a good kick in the ass to get to work on something they’ve been procrastinating on.

Tim Bertram
651–356–2455
Tim@optimizeconsultingllc.com