Book Review: The War of Art - Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
Steven Pressfield is an American author, of historical fiction and non-fiction, and screenplays.
He is a graduate of Duke University and served in the U.
S.
Marine Corps.
His professional experience covers the gamut - from bartending to school teacher, to screenwriter, to his first published book in 1995.
His avid interest in military history and mythology are evident throughout this 162 page book.
The book title, The War of Art - Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles, is intriguing, and the front and back covers are appealing.
Steven divides the book into three parts, defining resistance, combating resistance and beyond resistance.
He uses personal stories to illustrate his points and provides points of encouragement when you, the reader, get stuck in a rut in your journey toward success.
In some areas, I had a flash-back to a book written in an entirely different style in the 1990's by Peter McWilliams, called Do It! Let's Get Off Our Buts, illustrating the cause and effect of procrastination on living a rewarding life.
Steven uses masterful titles, such as The Magic of Making a Start, to illustrate his points and refreshingly shows us his failures with a sense of humor and insight.
He clearly points out the relevance of fear to resistance, especially fear of our own success.
He succinctly addresses the road to professionalism with a memorable quote from Somerset Maugham who stated quite simply that he wrote only when inspiration struck and fortunately it struck every morning at nine o'clock sharp.
Steven also illustrates how to combat the negatives of old relationships with gaining new ones, with those who truly support us, as we move forward.
His discussion of the relationship of mythology and spirituality to success was the one area however that I felt needed more clarity.
His principles, illustrations, and conclusions are thought-provoking, intuitive, and support his premise that we can truly break through our own resistance and achieve our dreams.
This is a book to high-light, write notes in the margins, and dog-ear, all of which suggest multiple reads and learning something new each and every time.
He is a graduate of Duke University and served in the U.
S.
Marine Corps.
His professional experience covers the gamut - from bartending to school teacher, to screenwriter, to his first published book in 1995.
His avid interest in military history and mythology are evident throughout this 162 page book.
The book title, The War of Art - Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles, is intriguing, and the front and back covers are appealing.
Steven divides the book into three parts, defining resistance, combating resistance and beyond resistance.
He uses personal stories to illustrate his points and provides points of encouragement when you, the reader, get stuck in a rut in your journey toward success.
In some areas, I had a flash-back to a book written in an entirely different style in the 1990's by Peter McWilliams, called Do It! Let's Get Off Our Buts, illustrating the cause and effect of procrastination on living a rewarding life.
Steven uses masterful titles, such as The Magic of Making a Start, to illustrate his points and refreshingly shows us his failures with a sense of humor and insight.
He clearly points out the relevance of fear to resistance, especially fear of our own success.
He succinctly addresses the road to professionalism with a memorable quote from Somerset Maugham who stated quite simply that he wrote only when inspiration struck and fortunately it struck every morning at nine o'clock sharp.
Steven also illustrates how to combat the negatives of old relationships with gaining new ones, with those who truly support us, as we move forward.
His discussion of the relationship of mythology and spirituality to success was the one area however that I felt needed more clarity.
His principles, illustrations, and conclusions are thought-provoking, intuitive, and support his premise that we can truly break through our own resistance and achieve our dreams.
This is a book to high-light, write notes in the margins, and dog-ear, all of which suggest multiple reads and learning something new each and every time.