Steven Pressfield: I'm superstitious. I keep mum while I'm working on...

The opposite of fear," Dienekes said, "is love.

Steven Pressfield

opposites said

Anything that draws attention to ourselves through pain-free or artificial means is a manifestation of Resistance.

Steven Pressfield

pain attention mean

The athlete knows the day will never come when he wakes up pain-free. He has to play hurt.

Steven Pressfield

pain athlete hurt

Persian envoy "our arrows will black out the sun..." Dienekes of the Spartans.."Good, then we'll fight in the shade.

Steven Pressfield

arrows black fighting

The hero wanders, the hero suffers, the hero returns. You are that hero.

Steven Pressfield

return suffering hero

Late at night have you experienced a vision of the person you might become, the work you could accomplish, the realized being you were meant to be? Are you a writer who doesn't write, a painter who doesn't paint, an entrepreneur who never starts a venture? Then you know what Resistance is.

Steven Pressfield

entrepreneur writing night

Contempt for failure is our cardinal virtue.

Steven Pressfield

contempt cardinals virtue

It may be that the human race is not ready for freedom. The air of liberty may be too rarefied for us to breathe... The paradox seems to be, as Socrates demonstrated long ago, that the truly free individual is free only to the extent of his own self-mastery. While those who will not govern themselves are condemned to find masters to govern over them.

Steven Pressfield

race self air

It is a commonplace among artists and children at play that they're not aware of time or solitude while they're chasing their vision. The hours fly. The sculptress and the tree-climbing tyke both look up blinking when Mom calls, 'Suppertime!'

Steven Pressfield

mom artist children

We come into this world with a specific, personal destiny. We have a job to do, a calling to enact, a self to become. We are who we are from the cradle, and we're stuck with it.

Steven Pressfield

destiny self jobs

Many pedestrians have been maimed or killed at the intersection of Resistance and Commerce.

Steven Pressfield

pedestrians commerce resistance

These scars on my body,” Alexander declared, “were got for you, my brothers. Every wound, as you see, is in the front. Let that man stand forth from your ranks who has bled more than I, or endured more than I for your sake. Show him to me, and I will yield to your weariness and go home.” Not a man came forward. Instead, a great cheer arose from the army. The men begged their king to forgive them for their want of spirit and pleaded with him only to lead them forward.

Steven Pressfield

cheer brother kings

As artists and professionals, it is our obligation to enact our own internal revolution, a private insurrection inside our own skulls. In this uprising we free ourselves from the tyranny of consumer culture.

Steven Pressfield

uprising skulls artist

Someone once asked Somerset Maughham if he wrote on a schedule or only when struck by inspiration. "I write only when inspiration strikes," he replied. "Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o'clock sharp.

Steven Pressfield

inspiration writing morning

These are not easy questions. Who am I? Why am I here? They're not easy because the human being isn't wired to function as an individual.

Steven Pressfield

function individual easy

Evolution has programmed us to feel rejection in our guts. This is how the tribe inforced obedience, by wielding the threat of expulsion. Fear of rejection isn't just psychological; it's biological. It's in our cells.

Steven Pressfield

tribes rejection cells

Next morning I went over to Paul’s for coffee and told him I had finished. “Good for you,” he said without looking up. “Start the next one today.

Steven Pressfield

coffee writing morning

Nothing is as empowering as real-world validation, even if it's for failure.

Steven Pressfield

empowering validation real

If you're are paralyzed with fear it's a good sign. It shows you what you have to do.

Steven Pressfield

paralyzed shows fear

No matter how great a writer, artist, or entrepreneur, he is a mortal, he is fallible. He is not proof against Resistance. He will drop the ball; he will crash. That’s why they call it rewriting.

Steven Pressfield

entrepreneur artist work

I'm superstitious. I keep mum while I'm working on something.