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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.

Steven Pressfield

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.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Difference Important Principle Urgent Yourself
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
To yield to Resistance deforms our spirit. It stunts us and makes us less than we are and were born to be.
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Born Limitation Ourselves Resistance Spirit Worth
Stay stupid. Follow your unconventional crazy heart.
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Crazy Heart Stay Stupidity Yourself
The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Confidence Death Reality Scare Wild
Don’t cheat the world of your contribution. Give it what you’ve got.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Cheating Contribute World Yourself
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.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Day Force Mystery Purpose Start
Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Resistance Work Yourself
Seeking support from friends and and family is like having people gathered around at your deathbed. It’s nice, but when the ship sails, all they can do is stand on the dock waving goodbye.
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Bed Death Family Friendship Goodbye People Seek Support
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
Our greatest battle is to become ourselves, in the face of adversity.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Adversity Battle Face Greatness Ourselves
The amateur tweets. The pro works.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Amateur Effort Master One Liner Work
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
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.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Attitude Day Game Mindset Night Play Production Professional
The professional tackles the project that will make him stretch. He takes on the assignment that will bear him into uncharted waters, compel him to explore unconscious parts of himself. Is he scared? Hell, yes. He’s petrified.
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Exploration Himself Professional Project Water
Those who will not govern themselves are condemned to find masters to govern over them.
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Government Master
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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Capacity Discover Fear Perseverance Thinking
A cavalryman’s horse should be smarter than he is. But the horse must never be allowed to know this.
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Animal Home Man Smart
Fear doesn’t go away. The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day.
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Artist Battle Code Day Fear Live Necessary Warrior
Courage is inseparable from love and leads to what may arguably be the noblest of all warrior virtues: selflessness.
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Argue Courage Separate Virtue Warrior
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
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
The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.
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Call Scare Work
The more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul.
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Enterprise Fear Feeling Growth Important Ourselves Soul
We will have to choose between the life we want for our future and the life we have left behind.
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Choice Future Life Ourselves
The last thing we want is to remain as we are.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Be Yourself Original Reality
It’s one thing to lie to ourselves. It’s another thing to believe it.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Believe Lying Ourselves

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 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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Popular Authors

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