thewarofart.jpgLast week a Buena Vista friend of mine was kind enough to lend me a book as I left for my most recent trip. I am highly enthusiastic to tell you all that it is a fine read - well worth the easy 163 pages. The only great disappointment to me about this book was that the copy I read from was not mine to underline.

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield is a very enlightening and quite entertaining book for anyone who has ever had even the smallest inkling to create something new or to step out on a limb of any sort. Beyond the obvious issues of procrastination and lack of discipline, this book introduces you face to face with what Pressfield refers to as your ego and your Muse. It puts the creative process in what are to me fresh and new terms. Ideas I wish I had come across years ago. Pressfield labels our biggest creative foe as Resistance. He states,

Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance…. To yield to Resistance deforms our spirit. It stunts us and makes us less than we are and were born to be.

Powell’s Books refers to it as,

“… a no-nonsense pep talk for creative types stuck twiddling their thumbs. He outlines the symptoms of Resistance and details a strategy to banish it. No psycho-babble. No loony tunes. Just practical and succinct advice on achieving success in your creative field.”

Even if you do not consider yourself to be creatively inclined, it seems to me that Resistance is something we all could benefit from moving beyond. It’s well worth the read.

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