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The professional does not wait for inspiration; he acts in anticipation of it.

Steven Pressfield

The amateur believes he must first overcome his fear; then he can do his work. The professional knows that fear can never be overcome. He knows there is no such thing as a fearless warrior or a dread-free artist.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Artist Believe Fear Freedom Professional Warrior Work
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.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Reality Resistance Secret Writing
The best and only thing that one artist can do for another is to serve as an example and an inspiration.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Artist Best Inspirational Service
Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Life Live Resistance Stand
We will have to choose between the life we want for our future and the life we have left behind.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Choice Future Life Ourselves
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 Personal Stuck World
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.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Art Contribution Himself Professional Recognition Respect Superior
Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Imagination Job Life Ourselves Philosophy Time
I wrote in the War of Art that I could divide my life neatly into two parts: before turning pro and after. After is better.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Art Better Division Life Myself War Writing
Slay that dragon once, and he will never have power over you again.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Fantasy Fight Inspirational Win Yourself
It’s better to be in the arena, getting stomped by the bull, than to be up in the stands or out in the parking lot.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Action Better Brave Park Place Stand
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.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Artist Believe Effort Inspirational Life Production
Resistance by definition is self-sabotage.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Definition Destruction Myself Resistance
As all born teachers, he was primarily a student.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Born Himself Learning Student Teacher
Always attack. Even in defense, attack. The attacking arm possesses the initiative and thus commands the action. To attack makes men brave; to defend makes them timorous.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Attack Brave Defense Man Possession
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.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Brain Enemy Preparation Production Resistance Start Yourself
When we see others beginning to live their authentic selves, it drives us crazy if we have not lived out our own.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Authentic Beginning Crazy Drive Live Ourselves See
The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Art Day Exception Important Try Work
The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Call Scare Work
This man has conquered the world! What have you done?” The philosopher replied without an instant’s hesitation, “I have conquered the need to conquer the world.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Deep Hesitation Man Myself Need Philosophy World
What finally convinced me to go ahead was simply that I was so unhappy not going ahead.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Happiness Myself Simplicity
Stay stupid. Follow your unconventional crazy heart.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Crazy Heart Stay Stupidity Yourself
Courage is inseparable from love and leads to what may arguably be the noblest of all warrior virtues: selflessness.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Argue Courage Separate Virtue Warrior
Research can become Resistance. We want to work, not prepare to work.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Preparation Research Resistance Work
The most pernicious aspect of procrastination is that it can become a habit. We don’t just put off our lives today; we put them off till our deathbed.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Aspect Bed Death Habit Live Ourselves
Put your ass where your heart wants to be.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Heart Hustle Inspirational Motivational Yourself
Defeating Resistance is like giving birth. It seems absolutely impossible until you remember that women have been pulling it off successfully, with support and without, for fifty million years.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Born Defeat Impossible Resistance Success Support Time

The professional does not wait for inspiration; he acts in anticipation of it.

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The professional does not wait for inspiration; he acts in anticipation of it.

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