Quote

The sign of the amateur is overglorification of and preoccupation with the mystery. The professional shuts up. She doesn't talk about it. She does her work.

Steven Pressfield

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Steven Pressfield
Age: 81
Born: 1943
Born: September 1
Author
Novelist
Screenwriter
Writer
Port-of-Spain
Professional
Sign
Mystery
Talk
Doesn
Doe
Shuts
Work
Amateur
Preoccupation

More quotes by Steven Pressfield

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F@*# self-doubt. I despise it. I hold it in contempt, along with the hell-spawned ooze-pit of Resistance from which it crawled. I will NEVER back off. I will NEVER give the work anything less than 100%. If I go down in flames, so be it. I'll be back.
Steven Pressfield
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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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Fear doesn't go away. The battle must be fought anew every day.
Steven Pressfield
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Slay that dragon once, and he will never have power over you again.
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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Nothing is as empowering as real-world validation, even if it's for failure.
Steven Pressfield
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The Kabbalah describes angels as bundles of light, meaning intelligence, consciousness. Kabbalists believe that above every blade of grass is an angel crying Grow! Grow! ... I believe that above the entire human race is one super-angel, crying Evolve! Evolve!
Steven Pressfield
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Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work.
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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I am going to write my symphony I'm just going to start tomorrow.
Steven Pressfield
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The professional loves her work. She is invested in it wholeheartedly. But she does not forget that the work is not her.
Steven Pressfield
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Playing the game for money produces the proper professional attitude. It inculcates the lunch-pail state of mind that shows up for work despite rain or snow or dark of night and slugs it out day after day.
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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We show up. We do our best. Good things happen.
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
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When we are succeeding - that is, when we have begun to overcome our self-doubt and self-sabotage, when we are advancing in our craft and evolving to a higher level - that's when panic strikes. When we experience panic, it means that we're about to cross a threshold. We're poised on the doorstep of a higher plane.
Steven Pressfield
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Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.
Steven Pressfield
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Resistance is experienced as fear the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance.
Steven Pressfield
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If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist? chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.
Steven Pressfield
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The part we create from can't be touched by anything our parents did, or society did. That part is unsullied, uncorrupted soundproof, waterproof, and bulletproof. In fact, the more troubles we've got, the better and richer that part becomes.
Steven Pressfield