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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

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
Resistance by definition is self-sabotage.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Definition Destruction Myself Resistance
Long-term, we must begin to build our internal strengths. It isn’t just skills like computer technology. It’s the old-fashioned basics of self-reliance, self-motivation, self-reinforcement, self-discipline, self-command.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Basic Build Computer Discipline Motivational Strength Technology
Every sun casts a shadow, and genius’s shadow is Resistance.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Genius Resistance Shadow Sun
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.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Capacity Discover Fear Perseverance Thinking
We feed it [Resistance] with power by our fear of it. Master that fear and we conquer Resistance.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Feed Food Resistance
When we’re living as amateurs, we’re running away from our calling – meaning our work, our destiny, the obligation to become our truest and highest selves.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Amateur Call Live Meaning Run True Work
Resistance is not a peripheral opponent. Resistance arises from within. It is self-generated and self-perpetuated. resistance is the enemy within.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Enemy Resistance Rise Rival
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
The amateur tweets. The pro works.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Amateur Effort Master One Liner Work
Put your ass where your heart wants to be.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Heart Hustle Inspirational Motivational Yourself
Don’t cheat the world of your contribution. Give it what you’ve got.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Cheating Contribute World Yourself
The last thing we want is to remain as we are.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Be Yourself Original Reality
The professional loves her work. She is invested in it wholeheartedly. But she does not forget that the work is not her.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Herself Investment Love Professional Work
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
The critic hates most that which he would have done himself if he had had the guts.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Action Brave Criticism Hate Himself
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 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
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
Do you love your idea? Does it feel right on instinct? Are you willing to bleed for it?
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Blood Feeling Ideas Inspirational Love Right Yourself
Research can become Resistance. We want to work, not prepare to work.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Preparation Research Resistance 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
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.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Believe Big Children Doubt Heart Hesitation Mad Man Myself Thinking Trouble
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
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.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Enterprise Fear Feeling Growth Important Ourselves Soul
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.
STEVEN PRESSFIELD

Alone Army Legs Man Production Strength Victory Win
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

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.

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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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