The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles

I saw some 1-star reviews; while everyone’s entitled of an opinion, I seriously doubt those reviews. This book is masterful at explaining complicated matters and great at sticking to the core problem without diverging to multiple fields. A couple of pages about fundamentalism is something I completely disagree with. Aside from that, the book actually helps break free from the shackles of idleness.

Worth buying, read it 2-3 times already..

Loved the book, thats it

Unfortunately this book was a big disappointment… can’t believe that someone actually wrote that and published it and can’t believe I bought it .. lol , this book is a joke Ps !! The papers just tear up by itself! Low quality book

The cover of The War of Art has a quote by Esquire Magazine. It reads, “A vital gem… a kick in the ass.” Flip the book open and the reader will see the book is published by a firm called Black Irish Entertainment. It’s logo is a single boxing glove. While reading this book, I couldn’t help but constantly think back to this quote and image. Each chapter felt like a punch to the gut, a wake up call, a kick in the ass. Steven Pressfield titled his book The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles and he presents his readers with just that. A manual on fighting and defeating the opponent of life and resistance. I strongly recommend this book to anyone looking for the tools necessary to overcome life’s greatest obstacles, develop yourself into an accomplished professional, and become the ultimate versions of yourself. Here's why: The book was first published in 2002 and written by Steven Pressfield. Pressfield is most known for his historical fiction but has also produced many award winning non-fiction works and screenplays. His first book, The Legend of Bagger Vance, was made into a reputable film in 1995. His writing often draws parallels between historical classics, religious archetypes, and motivational revelations about his struggles and others’. His tales have motivated multitudes of individuals to conquer their fears, reach their potential, and accomplish their dreams. The War of Art is split into three books. The first book is called Resistance: Defining the Enemy. He uses this chapter to call out what he believes as the root to most of our problems. He defines Resistance as “The enemy within” and a “Force of nature”. It’s a “repelling force. It’s negative”, “Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work”, and “Resistance aims to kill.” He says everyone has had a battle with Resistance and it’s the root to many of the issues we face and develop in our lives. Substance dependence, unhappiness, and anger are just some of the effects caused from our internal battle with this self-sabotage energy. Each chapter is poetically written to describe the way resistance can infiltrate our lives and destroy us from within. The goal of this chapter is to identify to readers Resistance’s characteristics so they can recognize and fight it when face to face with this malevolence. The second book is called Combating Resistance: Turning Pro. Pressfield uses the terms professional and amateur to describe the battle with Resistance. He explains that those defeated by Resistance think like amateurs, and professionals are equipped with the tools to overpower their Resistance and reach their potential. Some of these chapters describe a professional's attributes. They’re titled: A Professional is Patient, A Professional Acts in the Face of Fear, A Professional Reinvents Himself, etc. He uses stories and accounts of his own life and others, such as golfer Tiger Woods, to paint the picture of perseverance, focus, and strength. My favorite quote from this book comes from his chapter How to be Miserable. A marine himself, he briefly talks about how Marines are trained to love being miserable, to embrace the struggle, and fight to the death. The last line reads: “Because this is war, baby. And War is hell.” Book Three is called Beyond Resistance: The Higher Realm. This chapter aims to harness the psychic powers needed to fight the Resistance he described earlier. He uses terms such as angels, demons, and muses, but offers his more secular audience the option to think of these forces as abstract and impersonal, such as gravity, instincts, or universal forces. He claims we need these allies if we are ever to defeat the enemy of Resistance. He mentions the Athenian Xenophon who would make sacrifices to the gods and call for their aid before any expedition. His own version of this he calls invoking the Muse, a Greek mythology term used to describe the nine Goddesses, or even a person or personified force used as a source of inspiration to artists. Additionally, Pressfield goes on to describe the difference between the Ego and Self. With quotes from famous psychologists such as Freud and Jung, he believes the Ego is where Resistance lies, while the Self is where the angles, or good forces, live. He describes the characteristics of the ego and how it is the “part of the psyche that believes in material existence” and nothing more. While the Self is our deepest being, united to God, and is ever-growing and ever-evolving. The Ego hates the Self, Pressfield writes, and is the perpetrator for growth, progression, and success. He goes on to describe what the Authentic self looks like, how to defeat the hierarchical orientation, and how to unleash the artist within us. As a young aspiring professional on the cusp of a career and “the rest of my life”, this book struck the deepest cord in me and immediately earned its place in my list of books to re-read every year. It’s an easy read and I read it cover to cover in about three hours. It’s organized like a manual, with short chapters, and important titles and messages that will resonate with you at different points in your life. While reading its entirety is do-able, one can just as easily flip through the chapters and meditate on the headline and chapter that speaks to you most. It makes for the ultimate bed-side book for any artists looking for daily motivation to break through their creative struggles. Pressfield also seemed to speak to me specifically. I have long been a lover of Greek mythology and culture, Xenophon, and the Bhagavad-Gita, all which he mentions and parallels in his chapters. I was also a fan of the spiritual take-aways in his third book. The War of Art is a self-help book, but differs to many I have read. It is straight to the point, raw, and hard-hitting. While many self-help books rely on abstract and vague themes, Pressfield tells his readers his truth with his own words, as blunt as possible. It’s entertaining, easy to read, and powerful to anyone seeking help. Typically, I try to stay away from definitive statements, such as “Everyone would enjoy or resonate with this book.” We are all individuals that react differently to everything. But I do firmly believe this book would provide everyone of it’s readers a piece of something they have been looking for. We are all artists, and without unlocking the creative power within us, we find ourselves riddled with dilemmas and obstacles that are far from conquerable. For all willing, this book will help you identify the enemy, equip you with the tools to fight, and unlock the mystical powers that will help you live a fulfilling life.

First, my criticism: the author claims indeed that some mental disorders are a product of marketeers; and that looking for support is an excuse to procrastinate. This is complete nonsense. That opinion may reflect a view which used to be more common when the book was written. But here he abuses his poetic license, in my opinion, especially considering that this book will be read by people who are struggling with DDA, depression and other conditions. If that’s your case, I really recommend that you seek treatment first and, when your symptoms are under control, then you take the advice in this book. Otherwise, I believe its suggestions won't feel very doable to you. That being said, I think there are some very good points in this book. I’ve been reading self-help books on procrastination for some time. Most of them written by PhDs, containing science-based information (which I find good), but also with that irritating inclination to repeat themselves to exhaustion and to fill several pages with vaguely related trivia, apparently as a mere attempt to make the book longer. Then I heard about The War of Art and it immediately caught my attention. The book is short and I read it in three or four hours. And it exerted a very positive impact on me. Time will tell whether such impact will last long enough or if I’m just benefiting from the effects of novelty and recency. But I think there’s something powerful about mentalizing your own procrastination as an external entity (the Resistance) and personalizing it. By thinking of it as a bully who annoys you and celebrates your failures, it gets more approachable. It gets easier to get away from it the same simple way you do about annoying people. It turns into an external thing you will wrestle with, instead of a part of you which you will resent. The commenters claiming that he’s trying to push a religious view about the world are mistaken: right at the very beginning of the third part (the most criticized for its religious tone), the author states very clearly that, if you don’t feel comfortable thinking of Muses and Angels, think of them in more abstract terms instead, or as products of the unconsciousness, or whatever that works for you. I invite the commenters who said otherwise to actually read and reassess it. Granted, the author is a religious person – and he points that explicitly. But it doesn’t take more than a very little effort to realize that there are some basic underlying aspects in his rituals: it’s all about habits to put oneself in a favorable disposition for the work. The book Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, by Mason Currey, is full of other famous examples along those same lines. I suspect that some of the commenters who didn’t like his allegories would have embraced them enthusiastically if it were a monk using concepts from an eastern religion. The use of a christian religion might have led readers educated under a christian system to take it overly literally.

Was uns C.G. Jung über den Schattenarchetypen erzählen konnte, kann uns Pressfield über die Tiefen des kreativen Daseins berichten. Dieses Buch ist nicht nur spezifisch auf den blockierten Künstler ausgerichtet. Es werden auch Menschen, die ihre Lebensträume vor sich herschieben, was daraus gewinnen können. Kenne deinen inneren Feind, denn gegen das eigene Ego kann man sehr gut vorgehen. Das macht ungefähr 2 / 3 des Buches aus. Dann gibt es aber noch den 3. Abschnitt; da kommen dann das höhere Selbst und Lösungsstrategien ins Spiel und überhaupt hilft einem ja (wie immer) das gesamte Universum, wenn man es nur lässt - das hat die vorangehende Rezensentin, die diesem Buch nichts abgewinnen konnte, wohl nicht mehr an sich ran gelassen. Wer "Der Weg des Künstlers" von Julia Cameron mochte, aber keine Lust auf die darin enthaltenen Aufgaben hat und sich lieber in englischsprachigen, verbalen Ergüssen ob Tragik und Komödie des (Künstler-)daseins suhlt, als tiefgehend an sich zu arbeiten, der ist mit diesem Buch bestens bedient. Ich war es - und werde bei Bedarf mal wieder drin blättern, denn Selbsterkenntnis hilft. (Ich glaube, "Der Weg des Künstlers" hat mir noch mehr geholfen; das nur so am Rande und für die, die an sich arbeiten wollen.) Dieses Büchlein tuts auch. Kleine Happen (oder Bisse) - große Wirkung. Die Botschaft "lass das Große Ganze durch dich hindurch arbeiten" à la Cameron steckt hier auch drin, allerdings in einer ruppigeren, abgespeckteren, "in your face" Version, da einem an den meisten Stellen des Buches der Spiegel vorgehalten wird. - Und diese Art der Selbsterkenntnis kann sehr effizient sein! Fazit: Man blockiert sich stets selbst, ist immer selbst schuld, und man könnte diese ganze negative Energie genauso gut konstruktiv nutzen. Alles bestens.

It's a powerful and punchy guide for anyone striving to create whether that’s writing a book, building a business, or pursuing a personal dream. The author introduces the concept of Resistance, the inner force that keeps us from doing the work that truly matters. It shows up as procrastination, fear, doubt, perfectionism anything that stops us from taking action. Pressfield writes in short, impactful chapters that feel like motivational punches. He encourages us to shift from being amateurs to professionals; people who show up every day, regardless of excuses or fears. The tone is direct, honest, and often confrontational in the best way. It reminds us that creativity isn’t just inspiration rather it’s discipline, courage, and persistence. Whether you are an artist, entrepreneur, or someone who knows they are capable of more, this book acts as a wake-up call. This book is not just about creativity, it’s a manifesto for overcoming the battles within and finally unleashing your true potential.

The package arrived with no problem, the book is full with reflections on how to turn pro as an artist or creative and get working on your craft.