I don’t remember how I learned about this book. All I know is that it sat in my Libby holds from March 2023 until last month. When I first added it, I was something like 282nd in line. Periodically, I toyed with the idea of taking it off my list. I also thought that perhaps it was less crazy to just buy it.
I’m glad I didn’t.
There is nothing wrong with this book. The content matches the blurb on the cover. However, as in the case with at least fifty percent of the self-help and life-tip books I read, this one could easily be summed up into a snappy ten minute summary. Look it up. I’m sure there are countless Medium articles that do just that.
Steven Pressfield is an author who got his first big hit at fifty-two when he sold his book, The Legend of Bagger Vance, which was subsequently turned into a popular film. In The War of Art, he tells his story and the lessons he’s learned through years of trial and error, success and failure.
One thing I appreciate about this book is that to Pressfield, he was only able to achieve success and, perhaps more importantly, appreciate this success, after many failures. He never regards himself as a failure, but he recounts his many brushes with success and how he adjusted his techniques to learn what worked, what didn’t, and how to apply these lessons for the next time.
While none of this sounds new, he clearly explains his many setbacks (most of them self-inflicted), his various careers, and how he became faster and better as he learned and adapted.
My main gripe about this book is, again, my main gripe about most books of this sort. It repeats the same lesson again and again and again. This book could have been shorter by half. It didn’t need a new heading per page, followed by two paragraphs of supporting evidence. This looks like padding because it is.
To save you some time, here are the main takeaways I got from this book.
1. If you want to make something, you cannot skip the work. You have to make yourself sit down, day after day after frustrating day, and write or paint or rehearse, etc…
The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.
― Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
2. You cannot wait for the conditions to be right. You either do the work or you don’t.
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.
― Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
3. The key to your success is experiencing failure, sitting with it, and evolving as a result of it.
The amateur has not mastered the technique of his art. Nor does he expose himself to judgment in the real world. If we show our poem to our friend and our friend says, “It’s wonderful, I love it,” that’s not real-world feedback, that’s our friend being nice to us. Nothing is as empowering as real-world validation, even if it’s for failure.
― Steven Pressfield, The War of ArtThat was when I realized I had become a pro. I had not yet had a success. But I had had a real failure.
― Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
4. Do not create your art for others. Create what you want, how you want, without worrying about or attempting to cater to others. Create the work that brings you joy and makes you whole.
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, The War of Art
