The War of Art

my takeaways from Steven Pressfield’s book

Howdy Friends, 

Happy Tuesday! I’ve still not worked on my “Episode 1” since the weekend. Yesterday was focused on actual business building activities then Monday evenings are devoted to our company meetings, from 7pm to 9pm Central we’re tuned in to the leaders of our game, staying current and plugged in. I considered opening Final Cut and working on the video after our meetings, and honestly I did a little bit, but that’s a creative project that’s requiring a good bit of mental bandwidth – I kinda need to “get lost” in it a bit and didn’t want to stay up late on a work night.  And, to be completely honest, I’m making it too damn important in my own head – that’s one of my boobie traps – but at least I’m aware of it LOL. 

I’m posting this old video (from 2013) to my shiny new 2021 blog for a few reasons. 

The conversation this book has with it’s readers is 100% relevant to one of the primary purposes of this “Getting Better” blog here. 

The fact that I had this conversation with the author of this book (by reading the book, I don’t know the author) in 2000 frecking 13 and it’s 2021 and I’ve yet to “win that war” is quite interesting. Makes me think of the meaning of the word “problem”. A problem, from what I understand, is a Gift. The word means something like “to throw forth” and if we bother to break down the word we can see the opportunity in it. “Pro” is about advancement, growth, good, etc. “Blem” is the root of “blemish” or mark. The idea is a “pro-blem” is offered as a “good mark” on our life’s story. It’s meant to be used as an opportunity to ponder and make a change of some kind, to learn, grow and expand from that thing we’ve identified as a “problem” or something “not wanted”. Really understanding what we don’t want (via having a problem) can help us gain clarity and understand what we do want. Problems can be eye openers, if we’re willing to open our eyes. And if we’re not willing, that’s okay too LOL because life is sure to offer us more experiences/opportunities for our “problem” to get in our face again and remind us there’s a growth opportunity here.

So, if we have a perpetual problem in our life’s story… well maybe that’s because there’s something there for us and we can resist the growth opportunity if we’re scared to grow but “Same song, different verse, a little louder, a little worse” is a line I heard on a podcast years back on (Unity Online Radio) I wish I could remember who to credit that line to but it’s a line that stuck with me. The point of that is whatever we’re being offered is for our “soul’s evolution” (as this author describes) and we’ll experience that pro-blem until we decide to face it and grow. Then that level of problem will no longer be ours. Congrats, you’ll get new problems next. But isn’t that more exciting than dealing with the same damn problem for a decade? Or a lifetime?   

Anyway, I’ve got to get to work. Enjoy the show and don’t forget to subscribe to the blog here. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

-MSW

Click here for the link to Randy’s blog post about Steven Pressfield’s book. 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *