Last Book of the Year - The War of Art
I can hardly believe that 2007 has come to a close. It has been an amazing year of sharing with you all - everyday this year! I'm so proud to have blogged for 365 days in a row. I would love to give props to Becker for inspiring me to do so and showing me that it was possible. I'll be spending the rest of the week on formalizing my goals and making changes to the activities in my life that are holding me back. I've got many new ideas I'll be sharing with you in 2008. I'd like to thank you for spending a part of your day with me:) I'll keep pourin' the joe as long as you keep drinkin' it in.
I just finished this book last night. (ps -I far exceeded the 12 books I wanted to read in 2007)
Break Through Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative BattlesEvery day we wake up, and, whether we know or appreciate it, we wage an invisible war against an unquenchable foe. This unseen enemy stands between the life we live and the unlived life within us. Fall victim to it as most do and mediocrity is your course. Overcome it and your glory will be the success and accomplishment that can only come with living your Unlived Life. Let world-renowned novelist and fellow warrior Steven Pressfield arm you to overcome this "Resistance" and live your ... Unlived Life!
Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.
Have you ever brought home a treadmill and let it gather dust in the attic? Ever resolved on a diet, a course of yoga, and then quit on it? Are you a writer who doesn't write, a painter who doesn't paint, an entrepreneur who never starts a venture? Then you know what Resistance is.
Resistance is the most toxic force on the planet. It is the root of more unhappiness than poverty, disease, and dysfunction. Resistance is faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, harder to kick than crack cocaine. We're not alone if we've been mown down by Resistance; millions of good men and women have bitten the dust before us. And here's the biggest problem: We don't even know what hit us. I never did. From age 24 to 32, Resistance kicked my ass from East Coast to West and back again 13 times, and I never even knew it existed. I looked everywhere for the enemy and failed to see it right in front of my face.
Look into your own heart. Even though you've only read a few paragraphs unless I'm crazy, right now a still, small voice is piping up, telling you as it has 10 thousand times, the calling that is yours and yours alone. You know it. No one has to tell you. And unless I'm crazy, you're no closer to taking action on it than you were yesterday or will be tomorrow. You think Resistance isn't real? Resistance will bury you!
You know, Hitler wanted to be an artist. At 18 he took his inheritance, 700 kronen, and moved to Vienna to live and study. He applied to the Academy of Fine Arts and later to the School of Architecture. Ever see one of his paintings? Neither have I. Resistance beat him. Call it overstatement, but I'll say it anyway: It was easier for Hitler to start World War II than it was for him to face a blank square of canvas.
