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Nor am I "leading" in any way that the military manuals would recognise or commend. I'm just slogging miserably beside the others. But we are one, each giving his all. I catch a second wind, and I feel my brothers-in-arms catch theirs too. By"
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Steven Pressfield |
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Our greatest fear is fear of success.
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Steven Pressfield |
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2402ef9
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When we experience panic, it means that we're about to cross a threshold. We're poised on the doorstep of a higher plane.
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Steven Pressfield |
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Resistance knows that the amateur composer will never write his symphony because he is overly invested in its success and overterrified of its failure.
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Steven Pressfield |
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Sometimes entire families participate unconsciously in a culture of self-dramatization. The kids fuel the tanks, the grown-ups arm the phasers, the whole starship lurches from one spine-tingling episode to another. And the crew knows how to keep it going. If the level of drama drops below a certain threshold, someone jumps in to amp it up. Dad gets drunk, Mom gets sick, Janie shows up for church with an Oakland Raiders tattoo. It's more fun..
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Steven Pressfield |
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The hack is like the politician who consults the polls before he takes a position. He's a demagogue. He panders. It can pay off, being a hack. Given the depraved state of American culture, a slick dude can make millions being a hack. But even if you succeed, you lose, because you've sold out your Muse, and your Muse is you, the best part of yourself, where your finest and only true work comes from. I
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Steven Pressfield |
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ba49537
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Man is weak, greedy, craven, lustful, prey to every species of vice and depravity. He will lie, steal, cheat, murder, melt down the very statues of the gods and coin their gold as money for whores. This is man.
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Steven Pressfield |
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Here's another test. Of any activity you do, ask yourself: If I were the last person on earth, would I still do it? If
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Steven Pressfield |
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d2b60ed
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The danger is greatest when the finish line is in sight. At this point, Resistance knows we're about to beat it. It hits the panic button. It marshals one last assault and slams us with everything it's got.
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Steven Pressfield |
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08c7d2b
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The professional arms himself with patience, not only to give the stars time to align in his career, but to keep himself from flaming out in each individual work. He knows that any job, whether it's a novel or a kitchen remodel, takes twice as long as he thinks and costs twice as much. He accepts that. He recognizes it as reality. The
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Steven Pressfield |
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daac5e5
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What we get when we turn pro is we find our power. We find our will and our voice and we find our self-respect. We become who we always were but had, until then, been afraid to embrace and live out.
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motivation
professional
authors
creativity
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Steven Pressfield |
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8dc0d57
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What are we trying to heal, anyway? The athlete knows the day will never come when he wakes up pain-free. He has to play hurt.
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Steven Pressfield |
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Improvisation is not a wild scramble at the last minute. You are not pulling plans out of thin air. Improvisation is the payoff of scrupulous preparation and drill.
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Steven Pressfield |
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Last of terror's stages, Selene had tutored Europa and me, is busyness.
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Steven Pressfield |
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When we conquer our fears, we discover a boundless, bottomless, inexhaustible well of passion.
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Steven Pressfield |
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Do it or don't do it.
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Steven Pressfield |
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I must carry on--for my mates, for England, for Rose and for our child. The alternative is unthinkable. With this, I understand the perverse logic of war and the true tragedy of armed conflict. The enemy against whom we fight are human beings like ourselves, individuals with whom each of us might have been friends except for the deranged fictions of nation, doctrine, race and religion, and whom now we must murder (as they seek to murder us)..
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Steven Pressfield |
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b55d086
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Because the most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.
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Steven Pressfield |
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It is one thing to study war and another to live the warrior's life. -- Telamon of Arcadia, mercenary of the fifth century B.C.
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Steven Pressfield |
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If you take Resistance at its word, you deserve everything you get. Resistance is always lying and always full of shit.
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Steven Pressfield |
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We master the technique of our jobs.
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Steven Pressfield |
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The sign of the amateur is overglorification of and preoccupation with the mystery.
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Steven Pressfield |
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e565351
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We unplug ourselves from the grid by recognizing that we will never cure our restlessness by contributing our disposable income to the bottom line of Bullshit, Inc., but only by doing our work.
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Steven Pressfield |
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El-Masri lies under gravel and shingle, with no part of him visible aboveground except his left hand
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Steven Pressfield |
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Ignorance and arrogance are the artist and entrepreneur's indispensable allies. She must be clueless enough to have no idea how difficult her enterprise is going to be--and cocky enough to believe she can pull it off anyway.
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Steven Pressfield |
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fc01a5f
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A nation is born in blood and purchases with blood its right to stand in the ranks with other nations.
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Steven Pressfield |
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ca916e1
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Resistance. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's easier to endow our partner with the power that we in fact possess but are afraid to act upon. Maybe it's less threatening to believe that our beloved spouse is worthy to live out his or her unlived life, while we are not. Or maybe we're hoping to use our mate as a model. Maybe we believe (or wish we could) that some of our spouse's power will rub off on us, if we just hang around it long enough. Thi..
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Steven Pressfield |
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That fearsome emotion that animates the female in all-female groups (called outere in Amazon and gynekophoitos in Greek)
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Steven Pressfield |
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Who profits from a king's fidelity save generations a thousand years unborn, and which of his works will they recall at that remove, or care?
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Steven Pressfield |
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005b5a1
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Theseus overturned this by a single stroke: he moved the sessions outdoors, to the hill of the Pnyx, where the people could attend and observe their betters. What a revolution this affected! Before,
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Steven Pressfield |
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6b61eb9
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The artist must be like that Marine. He has to know how to be miserable. He has to love being miserable. He has to take pride in being more miserable than any soldier or swabbie or jet jockey. Because this is war, baby. And war is hell.
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Steven Pressfield |
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8aec6b8
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Some heavy shit is coming down, brothers, and we're going to go through it.
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Steven Pressfield |
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Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it. Begin it now.
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Steven Pressfield |
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8f4a57e
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Leonidas's and Dienekes' quips draw the individual out of his private terror and yoke him to the group.
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Steven Pressfield |
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Crazy,' says Paddy Mayne, 'is our business.
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Steven Pressfield |
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The power to take charge was in my hands; all I had to do was believe it.
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Steven Pressfield |
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Remember, the Muse favors working stiffs. She hates prima donnas. To the gods the supreme sin is not rape or murder, but pride.
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Steven Pressfield |
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f9c9ecb
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The warrior culture, on the other hand, values cohesion and obedience. The soldier or sailor is not free to do whatever he wants. He serves; he is bound to perform his duty.
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Steven Pressfield |
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I, on the other hand, believe that the source of creativity is found on the same plane of reality as Resistance.
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Steven Pressfield |
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c3baa32
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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.
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Steven Pressfield |
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710bd4a
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any act that derives from our higher nature instead of our lower. Any of these acts will elicit Resistance.
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Steven Pressfield |
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d9b9acb
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I once worked as a writer for a big New York ad agency. Our boss used to tell us: Invent a disease. Come up with the disease, he said, and we can sell the cure. Attention Deficit Disorder, Seasonal Affect Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder. These aren't diseases, they're marketing ploys. Doctors didn't discover them, copywriters did. Marketing departments did. Drug companies did. Depression and anxiety may be real. But they can also be Resis..
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Steven Pressfield |
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bec51f0
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Once we commit to action, the worst thing we can do is to stop. What will keep us from stopping? Plain old stubbornness. I like the idea of stubbornness because it's less lofty than "tenacity" or "perseverance." We don't have to be heroes to be stubborn. We can just be pains in the butt. When we're stubborn, there's no quit in us. We're mean. We're mulish. We're ornery. We're in till the finish. We will sink our junkyard-dog teeth into Resi..
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Steven Pressfield |
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90575a4
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You're supposed to learn that things that you think are nothing, as weightless as air, are actually powerful substantial forces, as real and as solid as earth.
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Steven Pressfield |