Title Do the Work
Author Steven Pressfield
Year Published 2014
Kind of Book Creative Process/Productivity
How strongly I recommend it 10/10
My Impressions Great book for anyone working on a creative project. The book likens the creative process of a project to the hero's journey. There is oftentimes a call to adventure, a refusal of the call ie. Resistance to doing the work, a dark night of the soul halfway through the project when things are at there bleakest, and resistance and struggle at the very end of the project when you must slay the dragon once and for all (by shipping the project).
Date Read circa early 2021
Practical Takeaways
Read it fast; then read it again and take notes
Let the thing you are resisting the most be an indicator that that is the thing most important to your soul's evolution
Let go of the need to control & Put your faith in the source, the mystery, the quantum soup
Prepare yourself to make new friends as you become unblocked A: your current friends are invested in you as you are
Be clueless enough to have no idea how difficult the enterprise is going to be- and cocky enough to believe you can pull it off
Don't think. Act (we can always revise and revisit once we've acted. But we can accomplish nothing until we act)
Do quit. Be mean, mulish and ornery
Start before you're ready
Don't prepare. Begin
Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it- W.H. Murray
Only allow yourself to read three books on the subject you're starting. No more. No underlining, no highlighting (Let the unconscious do its work)
Work. Don't prepare to work
Swing for the seats
Don't let research become resistance
Outline it fast. Now. On instinct
Discipline yourself to boil down your story/business plan etc into a single page
Be willing to bleed for your work
Just get your idea down on paper (you can always tweak it later)
Start at the end.
Write the end first. Then the beginning. Then the middle
Figure out where you want to go; then work backwards from there
Answer the question "What is this about?"
Don't underestimate resistance
Never do research in prime worktime
Never do research instead of working. (do it before or after) (research can be fun. It can become resistance)
Get your working draft down on paper ASAP. Don't worry about quality
Get to the end of your rough draft as if the devil himself were breathing down your neck and poking you in the butt with his pitchfork
Liberate yourself from what you think the work "ought" to be or "should" be like
Stay stupid. Follow your unconventional, crazy heart
Record ideas the minute they come to you
Forget rational thought. Play. Play like a child
Figure out what your idea wants to be and then bring it into being
No days off. Work every day (your birthday, Christmas, doesn't matter)-Stephen King
Figure out how much time you can spend on your craft every day and then for that interval close the door and don't let ANYBODY in
Keep working. Keep working. Keep working
Don't judge what you wrote too soon ("sometime on Weds I'll read something that I wrote on Tuesday and I'll think 'this is crap. I hate it and I hate myself.' Then I'll re-read it Thursday and it has become brilliant)
Keep asking yourself of your project "What is the damn thing about?"
Keep refining your understanding of the theme; keep narrowing it down
As soon as you figure out the theme of the play, write it down on a thin strip of paper and scotch-tape it to the front of your computer. After that nothing goes into the play that isn't on theme-Paddy Chayefsky
Ask yourself what's missing in your work. Then fill in the void
Things to check at the door when creating
Your ego
Your sense of entitlement
Your impatience
Your fear
Your hope
Your anger
The only thing you can keep while creating is your love for the work and your will to finish
When you experience panic, stick with it (it means you are about to cross a threshold)
Ship it
Finish it. Drive the steak through the monster's heart
Graciously take a few blows (that is the price for being in the arena)
Slay the dragon once and he will never have power over you again (once you've beaten him you'll know how you can beat him again.)
Once you've finished. Start again. Before you're ready
Big Ideas
It takes a ton of courage to finish a projects and show it to the world
If you overcome resistance one (and ship your finished project) then resistance will never have power over you again
Any act that rejects immediate gratification in favor of long-term growth contains resistance
It is fear talking when you tell yourself
"You're too young"
"You're too old"
"You're too inexperienced"
"You've got no credentials"
The more important a call or action is to our soul's evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it
Resistance is inside of you
But
Resistance is not you
A project you're working on is like a hero's journey
Call to adventure
Refusal of the call
The belly of the beast
When you experience panic in the middle of a project is the indication that you are about to cross the threshold into the unknown
Resistance is strongest at the finish (right before you are about to ship/perform etc.)
The thing you are resisting the most is the most important thing for your soul's evolution
Research can often be a symptom of resistance (ie. Procrastination out of fear)
Unknown Terms
Resistance: fear, self-doubt, procrastination, addiction, distraction, timidity, ego and narcissism, self-loathing, perfectionism
Exposure (mountaineering): a term in mountaineering where there is nothing but thin air beneath you