#642: Steven Pressfield on Going from Truck Driver to Bestselling Novelist, Overcoming Self-Sabotage, Building Momentum, Dancing with the Muse, Turning Pro, and Letting Your Underground River Flow
The Tim Ferriss Show
Tim Ferriss: Bestselling Author, Human Guinea Pig
4.6 • 17.4K Ratings
🗓️ 13 December 2022
⏱️ 91 minutes
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Summary
Brought to you by MasterClass online video lessons taught by 180+ of the world’s best, Athletic Greens all-in-one nutritional supplement, and Eight Sleep’s Pod Pro Cover sleeping solution for dynamic cooling and heating.
Steven Pressfield (@SPressfield) was 52 years old before his first novel was published. Since then, he has written the million-sellers Gates of Fire and The War of Art, as well as The Legend of Bagger Vance, A Man at Arms, and many others. His newest book, the memoir Govt Cheese, is about those years before that first publication. It is coming out on December 30th, and you can pre-order signed copies here.
Please enjoy!
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This episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens. I get asked all the time, “If you could use only one supplement, what would it be?” My answer is usually AG1 by Athletic Greens, my all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in The 4-Hour Body in 2010 and did not get paid to do so. I do my best with nutrient-dense meals, of course, but AG further covers my bases with vitamins, minerals, and whole-food-sourced micronutrients that support gut health and the immune system.
Right now, Athletic Greens is offering you their Vitamin D Liquid Formula free with your first subscription purchase—a vital nutrient for a strong immune system and strong bones. Visit AthleticGreens.com/Tim to claim this special offer today and receive the free Vitamin D Liquid Formula (and five free travel packs) with your first subscription purchase! That’s up to a one-year supply of Vitamin D as added value when you try their delicious and comprehensive all-in-one daily greens product.
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This episode is also brought to you by Eight Sleep! Eight Sleep’s Pod Cover is the easiest and fastest way to sleep at the perfect temperature. It pairs dynamic cooling and heating with biometric tracking to offer the most advanced (and user-friendly) solution on the market. Simply add the Pod Cover to your current mattress and start sleeping as cool as 55°F or as hot as 110°F. It also splits your bed in half, so your partner can choose a totally different temperature.
For a limited time, Eight Sleep is offering my listeners up to $450 off their Sleep Fit Holiday Bundle, which includes my personal favorite, the Pod 3 Cover. Go to EightSleep.com/Tim to get the exclusive holiday savings. Eight Sleep currently ships within the USA, Canada, the UK, select countries in the EU, and Australia. That’s EightSleep.com/Tim
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This episode is also brought to you by MasterClass! With MasterClass, you can learn from the world’s best minds—anytime, anywhere, and at your own pace. With more than 180 classes from a range of world-class instructors, that thing you’ve always wanted to do is closer than you think.
MasterClass’s cinema-quality lessons give you unparalleled access to renowned instructors, who share everything from how to execute specific techniques to insights about their craft that can be translated across many fields and disciplines. This holiday, give one annual membership and get one free! Go to Masterclass.Com/Ferriss today.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode is brought to you by 8th sleep. My god, am I in love with 8th sleep. |
| 0:04.7 | Good sleep is the ultimate game changer, more than 30% of American struggle sleep. |
| 0:09.9 | And I'm a member of that sad group. Temperature is one of the main causes of poor sleep, |
| 0:14.7 | and heat has always been my nemesis. I've suffered for decades, tossing and turning, |
| 0:19.5 | throwing blankets off, putting them back on, and repeating ad nauseam. But now, |
| 0:23.7 | I am falling asleep in record time faster than ever. Why? Because I'm using a simple device |
| 0:29.6 | called the Pod Pro Cover by 8th sleep. It's the easiest and fastest way to sleep at the perfect |
| 0:35.9 | temperature. It pairs dynamic cooling and heating with biometric tracking to offer the most advanced, |
| 0:41.0 | but most user friendly solution on the market. I pulled all of you guys on social media about the |
| 0:47.6 | best tools for sleep enhancing sleep, and 8th sleep was by far and away the crowd favorite. |
| 0:55.5 | I mean, people were just raving fans of this. So I used it and here we are. Add the Pod Pro Cover |
| 1:01.0 | to your current mattress and start sleeping as cool as 55 degrees Fahrenheit or as hot as 110 |
| 1:06.5 | degrees Fahrenheit. It also splits your bed in half, so your partner can choose a totally different |
| 1:11.0 | temperature. My girlfriend runs hot all the time. She doesn't need cooling. She loves the heat. |
| 1:16.4 | And we can have our own bespoke temperatures on either side, which is exactly what we're doing. |
| 1:21.8 | Now for me, and for many people, the result 8th sleep users fall asleep up to 32% faster, |
| 1:28.0 | reduce sleep interruptions by up to 40% and get more restful sleep overall. I can personally |
| 1:33.6 | attest to this because I track it in all sorts of ways. It's the total solution for enhanced |
| 1:37.8 | recovery, so you can take on the next day feeling refreshed. |
| 1:41.4 | And good news. 8th sleep has launched the next generation of the Pod. The new Pod 3 enables more |
| 1:46.7 | accurate sleep and health tracking with twice the number of sensors. It's just a smoother, |
| 1:52.3 | better experience that delivers you the best sleep on earth. At least that has been true for me. |
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