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The song we’re composing already exists in potential. Our work is to find it.

Steven Pressfield

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Steven Pressfield
Age: 81
Born: 1943
Born: September 1
Author
Novelist
Screenwriter
Writer
Port-of-Spain
Composing
Potential
Exists
Already
Song
Find
Work

More quotes by Steven Pressfield

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The artist and the mother are vehicles, not originators. They don't create the new life, they only bear it. This is why birth is such a humbling experience. The new mom weeps in awe at the little miracle in her arms. She knows it came out of her but not from her, through her but not of her.
Steven Pressfield
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The athlete knows the day will never come when he wakes up pain-free. He has to play hurt.
Steven Pressfield
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The professional does not permit himself to become hidebound within one incarnation, however comfortable or successful. Like a transmigrating soul, he shucks his outworn body and dons a new one. He continues his journey.
Steven Pressfield
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Fear doesn't go away. The battle must be fought anew every day.
Steven Pressfield
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Resistance by definition is self-sabotage.
Steven Pressfield
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The artist committing himself to his calling has volunteered for hell, whether he knows it or not. He will be dining for the duration on a diet of isolation, rejection, self-doubt, despair, ridicule, contempt, and humiliation.
Steven Pressfield
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On the field of The Self stand a knight and a dragon. You are the knight. Resistance is the dragon.
Steven Pressfield
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The most pernicious aspect of procrastination is that it can become a habit. We don't just put off our lives today we put them off till our deathbed.
Steven Pressfield
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It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write.
Steven Pressfield
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Fear doesn't go away. The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day.
Steven Pressfield
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It is one thing to study war and another to live the warrior's life.
Steven Pressfield
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It's one thing to lie to ourselves. It's another thing to believe it.
Steven Pressfield
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Nothing is as empowering as real-world validation, even if it's for failure.
Steven Pressfield
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Artists are modest. They know they're not doing the work they're just taking dictation.
Steven Pressfield
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Anything that draws attention to ourselves through pain-free or artificial means is a manifestation of Resistance.
Steven Pressfield
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As all born teachers, he was primarily a student.
Steven Pressfield
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The more you love your art/ calling/ enterprise, the more important its accomplishment to the evolution of your soul, the more you will fear it and the more Resistance you will experience facing it.
Steven Pressfield
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When a novelist or screenwriter is looking for a subject, the element he's seeking is conflict. Conflict makes drama. Conflict produces great characters and memorable scenes. So war is a natural topic.
Steven Pressfield
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Turning pro is a mindset. If we are struggling with fear, self-sabotage, procrastination, self-doubt, etc., the problem is, we’re thinking like amateurs. Amateurs don’t show up. Amateurs crap out. Amateurs let adversity defeat them. The pro thinks differently. He shows up, he does his work, he keeps on truckin’, no matter what.
Steven Pressfield
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In other words, any act that rejects immediate gratification in favor of long-term grown, health, or integrity. Or, expressed another way, any act that derives from our high nature instead of our lower. Any of these will elicit Resistance.
Steven Pressfield