E83 - Steven Pressfield: Win The WAR of ART & Unlock Your Creative Potential
Know Thyself
André Duqum
4.8 • 658 Ratings
🗓️ 13 February 2024
⏱️ 96 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Steven Pressfield, author of “The War of Art” shares how to tap into your creativity and unlock your full potential as an artist. He discusses the source of inspiration, sharing how he views ‘the Muse’ and how we can fine tune ourselves to tap into it more. He unpacks how to find your voice as an artist and know yourself through each piece of work.
He discusses the #1 thing that keeps creators from achieving their potential: fear. Explaining that fear is a sign that we’re on the right path, and how we can transform this fear into a masterpiece.
Him and André also discuss what distinguishes an amateur from a pro, balancing business and creativity, and our responsibility as artists to share our work.
André's Book Recommendations: https://www.knowthyself.one/books
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Timecodes:
0:00 Intro
2:04 The Responsibility of Sharing our Art
4:55 Discovering Ourselves Through Creativity
9:33 The Muse: Tapping into the Source of Inspiration
15:52 Finding Your Creative Voice
19:16 Facing Off With Resistance & Fear
27:30 The Art That Surprises You
28:53 Why Talent Doesn’t Matter
30:22 How to Get Out of Your Own Way
34:25 Why We Secretly Fear Success
41:22 Finding Courage to Follow Your Dreams
50:10 Destiny vs Free Will
52:48 Feeling Lost? Here's How to Find Your Way
55:11 How Steven Struggled His Way to Success
1:03:55 When "the Lightening" Strikes
1:06:13 Go From Amateur to Pro
1:11:34 Selling & Marketing Your Artwork
1:17:22 Refining: Reducing A Piece to it’s Maximum
1:19:11 Prayer to the Muse: Setting Intentions for Creating
1:23:01 The Daily Pressfield: A Guide to Completing Great Work
1:30:54 Does the Self Doubt Get Easier?
1:31:54 Why We Must Share our Art
1:33:09 Dharma and Creativity
1:34:50 Conclusion
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Steven Pressfield is the author of The Legend of Bagger Vance, Gates of Fire, Tides of War, Last of the Amazons, Virtues of War, The Afghan Campaign, Killing Rommel, The Profession, The Lion's Gate, The War of Art, Turning Pro, Do the Work, The Warrior Ethos, The Authentic Swing, An American Jew, Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t, and The Knowledge.His debut novel, The Legend of Bagger Vance, was adapted for screen. A film of the same title was released in 2000, directed by Robert Redford and starring Matt Damon, Will Smith and Charlize Theron.His father was in the Navy, and he was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in 1943. Since graduating from Duke University in 1965, he has been a U.S. Marine, an advertising copywriter, schoolteacher, tractor-trailer driver, bartender, oilfield roustabout, attendant in a mental hospital and screenwriter. His struggles to earn a living as a writer (it took seventeen years to get the first paycheck) are detailed in The War of Art, Turning Pro, The Authentic Swing, Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t, and The Knowledge.There's a recurring character in his books, named Telamon, a mercenary of ancient days. Telamon doesn't say much. He rarely gets hurt or wounded. And he never seems to age. His view of the profession of arms is a lot like Pressfield's conception of art and the artist:"It is one thing to study war, and another to live the warrior's life."
Steven’s New Book “The Daily Pressfield”: https://stevenpressfield.com/books/the-daily-pressfield/
Website: https://stevenpressfield.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/steven_pressfield/
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Know Thyself
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We find out who we are through the works we produce. And to me, those works have always surprised me. |
| 0:08.0 | For at least 30 years, I was struggling as a writer, kind of beating my head into the wall and getting better and learning things, |
| 0:15.0 | but never being able to actually tap into something that really felt like I'd hit something real. |
| 0:23.5 | What it really is, is I've been attacking this like an amateur. |
| 0:29.2 | There's a secret that real writers know, that wannabe writers don't know, and the secret is this. |
| 0:32.7 | Fear of success is the greatest fear. |
| 0:37.3 | The idea that we really do have talent, I mean, that's a really scary thing. Because if that's true, |
| 0:38.7 | then the onus is on us to do it. Ask yourself, what am I most afraid of? And that's the one you should do. |
| 0:46.4 | Once we get into the creative flow, unseen forces come to our aid. Things that we couldn't do on |
| 0:52.5 | Tuesday, we can do on Thursday. After a while, you start |
| 0:56.6 | to say to yourself, where do ideas come from? That voice in our head that tells us, you know, |
| 1:02.1 | we're not good enough, our idea isn't good enough, we're too old, we're too young, we're too fat, |
| 1:06.3 | we're too thin. Job one of any creative person is to acknowledge that there is an enemy and the enemy is you. |
| 1:19.2 | Hey everyone, welcome back to the Know They Self podcast. Today we have the privilege of |
| 1:23.6 | sitting down with an individual who is a best-selling author of multiple nonfiction and |
| 1:28.4 | fiction works. And most notably, some books that have been impactful for me are The War of |
| 1:33.8 | Art, Turning Pro, and why no one wants to read your shit. This podcast is going to be very supportive |
| 1:40.3 | for musicians, artists, writers, content creators, really anybody who uses their creative |
| 1:46.8 | energy, which is all of us in some capacity. And we're going to be reflecting on how to unlock |
| 1:52.7 | our creative potential, what it means to become self-actualized and fulfilled in that regard and |
| 1:57.7 | so much more. So Stephen Pressfield, thanks for being here. |
| 2:00.4 | Thanks for having me, Andre. It's a real pleasure to be here. Yeah. Where I want to start is this quote from Jesus. It says that if you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you. |
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