The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle by Steven PressfieldMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Another short book that is so good I am tempted to quote the whole thing. I recommend that you get hold of this and read every word. I will indulge in four quotes from just the first section to give you a sense of what Pressfield offers. P 6: "...any act that rejects immediate gratification in favor of long-term growth, health or integrity...that derives from our higher nature instead of our lower...will elicit Resistance." P 26: "When we drug ourselves to blot out our soul's call, we are being good Americans and exemplary consumers...what TV commercials and pop materialist culture have been brainwashing us to do...Instead of applying self-knowledge, self-discipline, delayed gratification and hard work, we simply consume a product." P. 33: "We're wired tribally, to act as part of a group. our psyches are programmed by millions of years of hunter-gatherer evolution. We khnow what the clan is; we know how to fit into the band and the tribe. What we don't know is how to be alone. We don't know how to be free individuals." P. 36-7: "The humanist believes that humankind, as individuals, is called upon to co-create the world with God. That is why he values human life so highly...the truly free individual is free only to the extent of his own self-mastery. While those who will not govern themselves are condemned to find masters to govern over them."
So go forth, govern thyself and create something!
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