Steven Pressfield: Talent is a Bullsh*t

The Chase Jarvis LIVE Show

Chase Jarvis

Celebrity, Art, Career, Creativity, Money, Entrepreneurship, Self-improvement, Education, Careers, Writing, Interview, Investment, Influencer, Business, Photography

4.8 • 641 Ratings

🗓️ 18 October 2023

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, Steven Pressfield shares his insights on overcoming resistance and pursuing creative endeavors. An acclaimed author known for his works in fiction, non-fiction, and screenwriting, he gained recognition with his debut novel "The Legend of Bagger Vance" and his historical fiction novel "Gates of Fire." But for me, his groundbreaking book “The War of Art” impacted me like no other.

During the conversation, we dive deep into the concept of resistance and how it hinders our creative pursuits. Pressfield discusses the challenges of sitting down to create and the negative force that radiates off the keyboard. He shares his personal strategies for combating resistance, including the importance of turning pro and acting like a professional.

Some highlights we explore:

The secret that real writers know about the difficulty of sitting down to write
The distinction between amateurs and professionals in creative pursuits
Overcoming adversity and self-doubt to continue creating
The concept of "Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be" and its impact on creative work

Enjoy!

Transcript

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0:00.0	The act of not pursuing your dream, of not following where your soul wants to take you,
0:05.4	is not without cost.
0:07.6	You don't get away free from that.
0:09.6	That force that's inside you that wants to be born and wants you to give birth to it,
0:15.2	if you don't give birth to it, it doesn't just go away.
0:18.9	It goes into other channels, and those channels are negative channels, and it will't just go away. It goes into other channels and those channels are negative
0:22.3	channels and it will start to work against you and be worse and worse and worse. It's not like
0:29.4	just a luxury to live out your dream or your calling. It's an imperative. Hello and welcome to
0:36.6	another episode of the show.
0:37.8	You just heard from a legend.
0:40.3	That was the one, the only Stephen Pressfield.
0:44.3	If you are for some reason not familiar with Stephen Pressfield's work, he is a best-selling
0:50.8	author of lots of books in both the fiction and the nonfiction categories.
0:56.7	Gates of Fire, the legend of Bagger Vance, Tides of War, the Lions Gate.
1:02.1	But he is specifically a legend in my mind because he has written a handful of books on creativity in particular.
1:10.2	A legend and a couple of legendary
1:14.3	titles. The War of Art. If you are not familiar with this book, this is like add it to
1:21.4	your by list immediately run out. Get it. Also turning pro, do the work. These are amazing titles from an amazing author.
1:33.5	And today we get to talk to them as a replay because I'm going to give you a little insight here.
1:39.4	I was stuck. It was blocked. Every once in a while, when I'm stuck or blocked, I turn to this particular
1:47.0	show and individual characters, smart people that I've had on the show, I listened to that
1:53.0	episode as a mechanism to get unblocked, and I just re-listen to the legend Stephen Presfield
	...

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