Be too dumb to quit and too stubborn to back off.
STEVEN PRESSFIELDDon’t cheat the world of your contribution. Give it what you’ve got.
More Steven Pressfield Quotes
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There’s a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t, and the secret is this: It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance.
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Those who will not govern themselves are condemned to find masters to govern over them.
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Don’t prepare. Begin. Our enemy is not lack of preparation. The enemy is resistance, our chattering brain producing excuses. Start before you are ready.
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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.
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Stay stupid. Follow your unconventional crazy heart.
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A child has no trouble believing the unbelievable, nor does the genius or the madman. It’s only you and I, with our big brains and our tiny hearts, who doubt and overthink and hesitate.
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The professional respects his craft. He does not consider himself superior to it. He recognizes the contributions of those who have gone before him. He apprentices himself to them.
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The professional does not wait for inspiration; he acts in anticipation of it.
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The Principle of Priority states (a) you must know the difference between what is urgent and what is important, and (b) you must do what’s important first.
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When we sit down day after day and keep grinding, something mysterious starts to happen… Unseen forces enlist in our cause; serendipity reinforces our purpose.
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When we see others beginning to live their authentic selves, it drives us crazy if we have not lived out our own.
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The Spartans say that any army may win while it still has legs under it; the real test comes when all strength is fled and the men must produce victory on will alone.
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Do you love your idea? Does it feel right on instinct? Are you willing to bleed for it?
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The best and only thing that one artist can do for another is to serve as an example and an inspiration.
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Resistance is greatest just before the finish line.
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The artist cannot look to others to validate his efforts or his calling. If you don’t believe me, ask Van Gogh, who produced masterpiece after masterpiece and never found a buyer in his whole life.
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What finally convinced me to go ahead was simply that I was so unhappy not going ahead.
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We fear discovering that we are more than we think we are… That we actually have the guts, the perserverance, the capacity… because, if it’s true, then we become estranged from all we know.
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The amateur tweets. The pro works.
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Resistance by definition is self-sabotage.
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We will have to choose between the life we want for our future and the life we have left behind.
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Don’t prepare, do. Don’t let Resistance sucker you into wasting months on background, foundation, planning. All that can come later.
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Playing the game for money produces the proper professional attitude. It inculcates the lunch-pail state of mind that shows up for work despite rain or snow or dark of night and slugs it out day after day.
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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.
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Every sun casts a shadow, and genius’s shadow is Resistance.
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The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.
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