PNTV: The War of Art by Steven Pressfield (#136)

You're listening to Optimize with Bryan Johnson. More wisdom in less time.

Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to Philosopher's Notes tv. Today we've got another great book, the War of Art. We also have a new chalkboard. Pretty excited about it. So, the War of Art. Yesterday we did Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield. Today we're doing his War of Art. Break through the blocks and win your inner creative battles. Now, this was the first book in a series of three on creativity, the War of Art, do the Work and then Turning Pro. It's a fantastic book. If you do anything creatively and you've ever felt what he calls resistance, AKA fear, AKA that stuff that gets in the way, then I think you'll love this book. We've got the Philosopher's Note, which will be our guide. I've pulled out five of my favorite big ideas. We'll start with number one, Throwing up. What does throwing up have to do with the War of Art? Quite a bit. Pressfield tells us. There are no fearless warriors is the basic idea here. When you are engaged in the War of Art, when we're trying to live at our highest potential, we are going to experience resistance. We are going to experience fear. Now, the difference is the amateur, which we are going to talk about in a second. The amateur thinks they need to get rid of all their fear put before they do the work. The pro knows that the fear will always be there. It's not about getting rid of the fear, it's about feeling it and then doing what needs to get done. He tells the story of Henry Fonda, who used to throw up before every stage performance. The guy was 75 years old, one of the best actors in the world, and he threw up before every performance. In another note, we did a note on another book called Overachievement, John Elliot talks about the fact that Bill Russell, one of the greatest athletes ever, the only athlete to win an NCAA championship, a gold medal in an NBA championship, or a professional championship in the same year. Bill Russell, hall of Fame basketball player, amazing guy, one of the best ever. And guess what? He had a little problem as well. He'd throw up before every game. He'd throw up. Then what would he do? He. He'd get to work, he'd do what needed to get done. That's how a pro shows up. That's how we win the War of Art. Not by thinking that we need to get rid of the fear completely before we can do our work, but realizing it's just there. Now, what needs to Be done. Huge idea. Second big idea in winning the war of art is we need to focus on the work and let the byproduct of that be our results. Most of us, when we're in amateur mode, amateur hour style, are constantly obsessing about the results and then we don't do the work. We're sitting here planning and planning and planning and obsessing and dreaming and visualizing and we aren't showing up and doing the work. So Pressfield's all about the work. We're going to talk about that at the end here as well. Show up, do the work, turn pro. Let the results take care of themselves. Let the results be byproducts of you just crushing it day in and day out.

Huge idea.

We're going to talk about that a lot tomorrow. We're going to talk about the process being primary in a book called With Winning in Mind, which is going to be great. We want to focus on the process. Focus on the things that you need to do to be masterful in your craft and quit obsessing so much about the results. Let the results be byproducts. Huge idea. That's the second one. Third big idea is true love. True love. Let's bust out. Little chalk. True love. Alright, we've got broken piece of chalk. We've got an amateur. Now, the word amateur comes from the Latin word to love. But Pressfield says we've got it wrong. The amateur doesn't love what they do enough. If you loved it enough, you would turn pro. Professional loves what they do so much, they dedicate their entire lives to their craft. True love. He's being willing to turn pro. So if you're sitting there and you've got something you're passionate about, you know it's your calling. You know what your greatest gifts are and how you want to give them to the world and you kind of sort of do it on the weekend or as a hobby or whatever. Think about how you can structure your life where you officially go pro, you officially win the war of art, the battle of resistance, and you truly fall in love as the pro. Huge idea. Amateur versus the pro. True love. You're willing to give your life to your work. That's a huge weight. Takes a ton of courage. You don't need to wait until you got it all figured out. How can you navigate that path? Big, big step. Not for everybody, but a big idea. Criticism. Big idea number four criticism. Two parts to this. One, other people criticizing you and your work as an artist. And two, you criticizing people about their work. We'll start with the critics. So whenever we do anything, we're going to have people who are going to be in the peanut gallery telling us how we could do it better. Awesome. That's just how it is now.

Sometimes they're going to be able to.

Give you some good feedback other times. And a lot of the time they're really projecting their own issues into what you're doing. Which is interesting because the people who tend to criticize the most are the ones who haven't expressed themselves too much. Marcus Aurelius says, why would I care what someone thinks of me when they don't even like themselves? If someone doesn't even like themselves, why would I concern myself about what they think of me? Like yourself? Then you can give me feedback on me. But the reality is people who truly like themselves, who are truly expressing themselves creatively, get how hard it is to create. And they're not going to be the ones kind of raining on your parade. They're going to be encouraging us and giving us opportunities to grow and feedback that's really empowering, but not critical, not petty and cutting us down. There's a great line. I think Brene Brown shared it, either in daring greatly or the gifts of imperfection. Her friend Scott Stratton, one of the leading marketing guys out there, says, ignore the critics. You are not a jackass whisperer. You're not a jackass whisperer. Let it go. Do your work now. That's part one of the critics side of things. The criticism side of things part, part two is you criticizing other people. So just as we know the people who are criticizing us probably don't like themselves too much, at least in that moment when they're criticizing us. It's the same with us when we find ourselves criticizing other people. Look in the mirror and see where you aren't expressing yourself critically. And rather than criticize other people for their work, look inside and see what you could be doing to more fully creatively express yourself. The There is always a perfect correlation. When I am most critical with people in my life, it's when I haven't done the things that I said were important to me. The way to solve it is not to try to fix them. Criticize them into perfection or criticize myself into perfection. It's to do the work. So notice that. Are you criticizing people? Stop doing that. Get to work on what's up with you. Turn pro. Be nice. Encourage people. Ignore people who are getting all up in your business. So that's the fourth Big idea. The fifth one and final one. Nine o'. Clock. Nine o'. Clock. We've got a little awesome passage here from Somerset Mom. Pressfield tells us someone once asked Somerset mom if he wrote on a schedule or only when struck by inspiration. I write only when inspiration strikes. He replied, only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately, it strikes every morning at 9 o' clock sharp. Every morning at 9 o' clock sharp. The point here is we need to do the work. We need to show up day in and day out. Nine o' clock sharp. I write only when inspiration strikes. Thankfully, it strikes at 9am sharp every morning. Pressfield is big on summoning our muse. And you can only do that when you show up consistently. Nine o' clock sharp, or whatever it is for you. For me, it's basically 4am I go to bed super early, I get up early. That's when I'm most ready to do my best work. Super early in the morning, whether I'm inspired or not, I show up. And what's amazing is simply the act of showing up is like an invitation, a summons, Pressfield says, to the muse to do its work through us. So we just need to show up. That's a hallmark of a professional who truly loves what they're doing as they show up again and again and again and again and again. So there you go. Quick look at the war of art. So much more in this book. I hope you enjoyed these handful of big ideas. And if you're feeling it, get the book throwing up. There are no fearless warriors. We all have that surge. It's how we interpret it, what we do with it, and ultimately the fact that we just need to do our work. We're feeling excited. We care about what we're up to. Just do the work. Don't wait until you're fearless to step up and do what needs to get done. Work and byproducts. We want our results to be byproducts of showing up diligently, patiently and persistently. Maddie Clark Sharp. True love. Amateur versus pro. The pro truly loves what they're up to. They're willing to give their lives to it, day in and day out. Huge distinction. Criticism. Other people criticizing us, us criticizing other people. Notice when you're criticizing people you're not on. Get on your game and just let the critics do their stuff. You're not the jackass whisperer. Get back to work. Nine o' clock sharp. That's when inspiration strikes. Just show up day in and day out. Invite the muse to channel through you and do the work. You're there to do the war of art. Let's win it. Let's battle resistance. Let's turn pro. Hope you enjoyed. What was your favorite big idea, what idea kind of resonated the most and how can you apply that in your life more consistently? Starting today, get on that. Hope you enjoyed.

Look forward to sharing more with you soon.

Have another awesome day. See ya.

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