Steven Pressfield's Blog, page 138

The Ego and the Self

Where does Resistance come from?  Seth Godin says it arises from the "lizard brain," i.e. the primitive reptilian stem that knows only fight-or-flight and thus resists all attempts by the organism—you and me—to ascend to higher realms. There's something to this, I think, but not, in my opinion, the way Seth sees it.
The source of
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Geoffrey C. Ward

Geoffrey C. Ward is an historian, screenwriter, author and former editor of American Heritage magazine. He has collaborated with Ken Burns and other film-makers, on numerous documentaries, including The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz, and The War, and is the winner of six Emmy Awards, seven Christopher Awards, and two Writers Guild of America awards for his
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Humility

We were talking last week about ambition. Judging from the response, the subject struck a chord. Apparently no few of us, if we're honest, have to admit that, however egotistical or un-PC it may sound, we really do want to excel, to succeed, to make a mark. We want to do something great, and we're
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Sebastian Junger

Sebastian Junger is the author of The Perfect Storm, which spent over three years on the New York Times bestsellers list—and was the basis for the motion picture starring George Clooney. He also is the author of New York Times bestsellers Fire, and A Death in Belmont, is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, and has
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Ambition

Thirty-something years ago, I read a book that changed my life. The book was by Norman Podhoretz and it was called Making It. I can't really recommend it as a read for today (I tried a month ago and couldn't get through it) and I certainly find little to admire about Mr. Podhoretz's current politics.
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Icons and Iconization, Part Two

Last week's post was great fun for me because of the generous, insightful and tremendously articulate Comments that came in. Thanks to everybody who took the time to write; I appreciate it and I'm sure everyone else does too.

When I first started Writing Wednesdays about a year ago, friends told me I would be surprised
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General Hal Moore

I met General Hal Moore a few years ago, at a dinner in his honor in Los Angeles, around the time the movie We Were Soldiers was released. Both Joe Galloway and General Moore signed a copy of their book We Were Soldiers Once . . . And Young for me. General Moore added a
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Icons and Iconization

This is a subject I've been thinking about a lot lately. Iconization as an issue in real life–and as a form of Resistance. Here's what I've come up with so far.
First, what is an icon? The dictionary says it's "an object of worship." An icon originally was an actual physical artifact—a splinter of the original
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General Sam V. Wilson

I'm in awe of everything General Sam Wilson has done. His is a name that everyone should know. He's accomplished more in his lifetime than many of us dare to dream about. He served as a reconnaissance officer with Merrill's Marauders in Burma, during WWII; as a CIA spy-ring operator in Berlin, uncovering Soviet secrets;
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Start Before You're Ready

In the past few weeks we've put up a couple of posts—"Cover the Canvas" and "Start at the End"—that seem like advice on the subject of writing. They aren't. They're about beating Resistance.
A number of the principles that work against Resistance are counter-intuitive. They seem to make no sense, but in fact their logic is
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