The War of Art

The problem it solves

Most people who run a business can name the one task they keep avoiding. It might be the sales calls, the new product, the difficult conversation or the writing that would make them known. The knowledge is there, but the action is not. Pressfield's book explains why and gives the thing a name. As he puts it, "It's not the writing part that's hard. What's hard is sitting down to write."

His claim is that the delay is not a time problem or a skill problem. It is a pattern with a consistent shape, and once you can recognise it, you can stop treating it as a message about your ability.

What changes in how you work

You stop negotiating with yourself. When you feel the pull to check email, tidy the desk or do more research before you start, you call it Resistance and do the work anyway. The recognition takes the sting out of it.

You also read fear differently. Pressfield says the more scared you are of a task, the more sure you can be that you have to do it, and he treats self-doubt as a sign of aspiration, not proof of a lack of talent. And you start to treat the work as a daily habit and not a mood. Somerset Maugham, he says, joked that inspiration struck him every morning at nine. That is the book's idea of turning pro: set the hours, sit down and begin.

When to read it, and when not to

Read it when you are stuck on something that matters and cannot say why. It takes a couple of hours and works best when you have one piece of work in mind.

It is written for creative work, so the language about the Muse and the artist can feel odd in a business setting, and the third part moves into spiritual territory with angels and a higher realm. I'd treat that part as optional. A few passages, on medication and on unhappiness as Resistance, go further than I would trust, so read them as his opinion. And it is not a book of tactics: there are no templates for sales, planning or pricing, only a way of getting to the desk.

How it connects to running and growing a business

Pressfield lists the launching of any entrepreneurial venture among the activities that most reliably set off Resistance, along with diets, education and any act of courage. So it applies directly to the owner who keeps circling a launch.

The professional's habits are also close to a playbook. Same hours, same first task, a tidy workspace, a clear order of work and a view of the job as craft are all things you can write down, hand to a colleague and review. And his distinction between a territory and a hierarchy is a decision test: are you making this choice for what you think matters, or for how it will look to others? Logging the reason behind a big decision, and checking later which of the two it was, makes that visible.

Pressfield argues that everyone who tries to do something that matters meets an opposing force, which he calls Resistance. It shows up as procrastination, distraction, fear and rationalisation, and it is stronger the more important the work is. The book is organised in three parts, which the foreword by Robert McKee describes as defining the enemy, turning pro and the higher realm. Its examples come from writing, art and sport, but the argument applies to starting a business or to any work you keep postponing. It was published in 2002.

Book One: Defining the Enemy

The first part names Resistance and describes how it behaves. Pressfield opens with his own daily routine and a plain claim: the real difficulty of writing is not the writing but sitting down to do it. He builds a way of thinking in which the thing you most want to do is the thing you most avoid.

The Unlived Life and Resistance's Greatest Hits

Most of us have two lives, he says, the life we live and the unlived life within us, and between the two stands Resistance. He lists the activities that set it off, from creative work and entrepreneurial ventures to diets, education, acts of courage and commitments of the heart. What they share is that each rejects immediate gratification in favour of long-term growth. A few of the claims are extreme, but the list is memorable.

The Traits of Resistance

Resistance is invisible and internal, even though it seems to come from outside. It is insidious, implacable, impersonal and infallible. It never sleeps and plays for keeps. It only opposes movement in one direction, from a lower to a higher sphere, so if you are drifting toward something easy, it stays quiet. It is strongest at the finish line. The rule of thumb is: "The more important a call or action is to our soul's evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it." That makes Resistance a compass, since it points to what you must do. It can also recruit allies, such as friends and family, who feel your progress as a reproach.

The Many Faces of Resistance

Pressfield catalogues the forms it takes: procrastination, sex and other quick gratification, trouble, self-dramatisation, self-medication and victimhood. Criticism of other people is another one, because those who are living their own lives rarely criticise. Self-doubt and fear are indicators: the more fear a task brings, the more it matters. Resistance is directly proportional to love, so the opposite of love is indifference. He also writes about isolation, seeking support and rationalisation as forms of avoidance.

Book Two: Turning Pro

This part opens with a promise that Resistance can be beaten, and the method is to turn pro. The amateur plays for fun, part-time and on the weekend, while the professional plays for keeps and shows up every day. Pressfield says the moment he turned pro divided his life into before and after. The key move is sitting down at the same time every day and doing the work, whatever your mood, with the belief that inspiration follows action.

A Professional Is...

A series of short portraits describes the habits of a pro. A professional is patient and treats the work as a long race, not a sprint, seeks order, sees the work as craft and not mystery, acts in the face of fear instead of waiting for it to disappear, accepts no excuses and plays it as it lays. A pro is prepared, does not show off, masters technique, asks for help and distances herself from her work, so that she does not take failure or success personally. A pro endures adversity, validates herself and reinvents herself over time.

Book Three: The Higher Realm

The last part leaves the practical and turns to inspiration. Pressfield describes saying a prayer to the Muse before he sits down to write, and argues that when we show up daily, power gathers around us and ideas come. He splits the psyche into the Ego, which clings to material life and keeps things as they are, and the Self, where he places angels and the urge to create. The fight, he says, is between the two.

Territory versus Hierarchy

Individuals define themselves either by rank in a hierarchy or by attachment to a territory. A hack, he says, is a writer who second-guesses the audience and asks what the market wants, not what he himself thinks is worth doing. The artist must work from a territory, doing the work for its own sake. His test is to ask whether you would still do it if you were the last person on earth. He ends by arguing that we have a right to our labour but not to its fruits.

What to do with it

• Name the one task you are avoiding and write down a specific start time for it tomorrow.
• Sit down at that time every day for a fixed period, whatever your mood, and stop when the time is up.
• Treat fear about a task as a signal of its importance, and do that task before anything else on your list.
• Remove one source of trouble or distraction from your working hours, such as drama you create for yourself or constant interruptions.
• Before you ship, expect a last wave of doubt and set a release date anyway.