The lowdown: Learn to identify and defeat your inner creative battles against self-doubt with The War Of Art summary.
If you have ever dreamed big and shrugged it off and decided to start tomorrow?
That resistance is stopping you from achieving your hopes and dreams.
In The War Of Art, we look at how you can bust through that resistance and realize your dreams.
- Audible Audiobook
- Steven Pressfield (Author) – Steven Pressfield (Narrator)
- English (Publication Language)
- 04/04/2019 (Publication Date) – Black Irish Entertainment LLC (Publisher)
The main takeaways from the book are:
- We all have the mental force of resistance
- Take your dream as a ‘full-time job’ with a professional mindset to overcome resistance
- Be patient, and boldly face adversity
Lesson One: We all have the mental force of resistance
If you have ever had a crazy-ambitious dream and not acted on it, you’re not alone.
The reason is, to actually act on our dreams we need to break out habitual patterns. And our mind HATES that.
Which, makes sense when you think about it. Your brain wants to convserve energy and the best way it can do that is to complete things you already do on auto-pilot.
This resistance can be self-doubt, fear and procrastination are all forms of resistance.
Letting resistance defeat you holds you back from achieving what you can, and eventually being truly happy.
But, don’t worry, resistance effects everyone. Which, I feel is incredibly comforting.
Lesson Two: Take your dream as a ‘full-time job’ with a professional mindset to overcome resistance
Treat your dream like you’re a professional at it.
I don’t mean that you have to quit your day job.
Take movie director Quentin Tarantino for example. He dreamed of being a film director but he didn’t go to film school. Instead, he was an employee at a video rental store (remember those?!).
Tarantino watched movies at work and directed side projects in his spare time and was completely professional in his mindset.
Even when one of his small film projects was completely destroyed in a fire, Tarantino saw it as a learning opportunity. The professional mindset and attitude that Tarantino had to his craft is a reason why he is so successful.
However, even if your day job doesn’t align completely with your dream job, there are ways you can bring part of what you do into what you want to do. You just need to find it.
Lesson Three: Be patient, and boldly face adversity
If you thought resistance only hit when you start a new project, you’re sadly mistaken. Resistance, like a fine wine (or me 😉), matures with age.
To battle the ongoing resistance, you must be patient and face your adversity head-on.
By learning to focus on the process instead of the result, you’ll ensure that your work is of your best standard. It is kinda like the sports cliche of ‘one game at a time’. If you focus on one game at a time, the result (a winning season) should take care of itself.
However, you will still face some adversity along your way. In these times it is important to make sure you don’t let resistance take over.
Your inner resistance is waiting for an opportunity like adversity to show it’s ugly head.
Take Oprah for example. In the 80s, talk shows were mostly hosted by white men. Therefore a talk show hosted by a black woman was met with quite a lot of skepticism. Oprah also wanted to focus on the guest’s emotions and personal lives, which was different to the cookie-cutter shows that were produced prior.
Instead, Oprah pushed through and was able to bring forward a lot of social issues and completely change media in the 21st century.
My Personal Takeaway
I often battle with resistance in my businesses. It can be something that gets the better of me from time to time. However, this book gives a few great insights on how to overcome it.
Put it into action
Next time you’re scared of failure in your business, take this is as a sign that you’re on the right track. That fear means that you’re growing.
You should consider buying this book if…
This book is perfect for anybody who constantly struggles with their self-doubt, and those who want to start a business.
Or, read our other business book summaries.
You should also check out..
a Swedish university student, marketing professional, and life-long learner. Here at BookSummaryClub I summarize my favorite non-fiction books into easily digested posts. Hope you like what you’re reading!
🤙 Your Next Step… 🤙
Head across to one of the following pages for more goodies
🍕 Read our Blinkist review and become a member of Blinkist. Read or listen to 3000+ full version quality summaries!
🍕 Read our list of the best business books of all time
🍕 Read some more of our book summaries
🍕 See our top book summary apps