279 - The War of Art - Part 2

0:00Welcome to part two of The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. No, it's not The Art of War by Sun Tzu. It's The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. On Friday, I did a video where I talked about reading this book. I don't read a lot of books, as I mentioned, but this one was suggested by Joe Rogan, so I figured I would give it a read. It's kind of right up my alley in that on some pages, it's just simply a paragraph, which made for a quick read. But I wanted to do two things. One, tell you that I think this would help you a lot in terms of procrastination, being disciplined, getting stuff done. But also, I talk a lot about what tools are available to be used.

0:52And one of those tools is ChatGPT. So I want to give you an example of what ChatGPT gave me back when I asked it the question, can you list the important lessons and actions I can take to implement The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield? So here's what it said. Most important lessons. Understand resistance and recognize that resistance is the primary obstacle to creativity and achievement. It manifests itself as procrastination, self-doubt, fear, and various forms of self-sabotage. We've talked about all of those. Two, professionalism over amateurism. Pressfield emphasizes the importance of turning pro, which means showing up every day, committing fully to the craft, and not taking failure or rejection personally.

1:43Again, something we've talked about. Three, the role of discipline. Discipline is crucial for overcoming resistance. Having a routine and set of habits that support your creative work can help you maintain momentum. We've talked about using the Ivy Lee method and office hours every day. Four, embrace fear. Fear is a compass showing you where you need to go. The more scared you are of a worker calling, the more certain you can be that you need to pursue it. The concept of territory. Understand the difference between hierarchical and territorial motivations. Boy, that's a mouthful. Territories are domains where you can nurture your creativity without external validation, whereas hierarchies depend on the opinion of others.

2:33So, boiling that down, just where you feel good about your achievements and you don't need other people to tell you you're doing great. The higher realm, a little mystical here. Pressfield discusses the idea of connecting with the muse or a higher creative power, suggesting that this connection is vital for transcendent work. Okay, a little erudite there. The actions to implement the lessons. This is the second piece of what I asked it. And these are good. Identify your resistance. Keep a journal or log where you can write down the ways in which resistance manifests itself in your life. Awareness is the first step to overcoming it.

3:19Absolutely. You've got to recognize what the problem is to fix it. Two, set a daily routine. Dedicate specific times of the day to work and stick to them rigorously. Treat your creative work with the seriousness of a professional job. Again, I mentioned this a few minutes ago, but office hours. setting office hours and sticking to them just like you would in a job. Number four, use fear as a guide. Whenever you feel afraid of pursuing a project, recognize this as an indication that it's important to you. Challenge yourself to tackle the projects that scare you. Number five, find your territory.

3:57Identify activities and practices where you feel most at home and productive and spend more time in those territories to nurture your creativity. As an example, set up an office. Make that a place in which you do work, and you recognize when you're in that, you're going to do work. Six, seek inspiration. Regularly engage with inspiring materials, whether books, art, music, nature. Allow those experiences to fuel your connection with your creative source. I would also encourage you to think about the situations like affirmations and things that when you look at them, they remind you of why you're doing this business acquisition journey.

4:44Okay. Seven, practice self-compassion. Be kind to yourself when you face setbacks or resistance seems overwhelming. Acknowledge your efforts and persist despite the challenges. Or as I would say, recognize you're going to fail your way to success. Eight, connect with the community. Surround yourself with the support of individuals who understand and encourage your creative journey. Sharing your struggles and successes with the community can provide additional motivation and perspective. so remember too that you typically become the five people you spend the most time around so think carefully about that and then lastly in just summary implementing these lessons and actions requires consistent effort and self-reflection by doing so you can gradually overcome resistance and unleash your creative potential so this was a good read short read hope that you will take the time after that video on Friday and this podcast today to think about those things and more importantly implement those things.

5:48I think one of the biggest takeaways is the idea of being a professional. There are days you are not going to want to do this. There are days that you are going to want to do this and on the days that you would rather roll over and continue to sleep rather than get up and get at it. Just say, okay, I'm a professional. Even when I don't feel like doing it, I do it anyway. If nothing else, I go through the motions. As Jocko said in a podcast I recently suggested that you listen to. Even when you don't feel like it, you get through and do the motions. Okay, hopefully that helps. That is the intent of the videos that I do in the podcast to give you actionable items that you can put into action right now and get you closer to achieving your goal.

6:40So I hope you do that. Go over to brucewhipple.com. They're free conversation starters. And if you do not know the steps, which is really important, look at the Acquisition Advantage Boot Camp. And those, I go through the steps. It's the latest one that I've done. Really important. I had someone yesterday that wanted to join group coaching, and I said, I looked, he had not been through that, and I said, I make it a prerequisite for group coaching to go through that boot camp, and the reason is so that you understand the steps, and I don't have to go through and teach you those at the expense of people that are in that group that already know those things.

7:20so again those things would help you but action discipline understanding your why those are all critical to this process