Steven Pressfield's Blog, page 140

Mark McGuinness

"The Story of a Reluctant Entrepreneur" was my introduction to Mark McGuinness. Read it. Mark wears a number of hats—and wears them all well. He is a poet, an entrepreneur, a creative coach and trainer, and the author of Wishful Thinking and Lateral Action. You can also find his work at http://www.markmcguinness.com/ and Magma Poetry.
SP: Mark,
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Write What You Don't Know

[Writing Wednesdays is taking a break this week. Here's a favorite from last year. :]
Probably the most classic kernel of writing advice is "Write What You Know." On the surface, that seems to make a lot of sense, and I'm sure it has worked for thousands and thousands of writers. It didn't work for me.
When
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Glenn Reynolds

I was first introduced to Glenn Reynolds through his blog Instapundit. If you've ever seen the Instapundit stream, then you know Glenn's posts are like the tide coming in—full and constant, waves, arriving all-day long.
S.P.: O Blogfather! You were among the very first to really make blogging work. What was your original impetus for jumping
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Noah Coburn's "Connecting with Kabul"

Read Noah Coburn's Connecting with Kabul.  The information contained in this report is invaluable for the practitioner of population-centric COIN looking for insights into the importance of local patronage networks in Afghanistan. While Coburn's work focuses strictly on Afghanistan, similarities in patterns of social networking behavior can be found in other traditional societies.
I personally witnessed
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Interview With A Tribal Chief Update

"Interview with a Tribal Chief" is one series  that ran on the "It's the Tribes, Stupid" blog. It featured interviews with Chief Ajmal Khan Zazai.
Freerange International has a report up about Chief Zazai being ambushed by Pakistani Taliban this past week.
Last night as Ajmal was moving through the town of Ali Khel near the Pakistan
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Do It Anyway

This is an important post. I say that because this piece addresses (after procrastination, which is the #1 champ), the single greatest excuse/reason/cop-out that prevents aspiring writers, artists and entrepreneurs from taking action to pursue their dreams.
That excuse is, "First I have to _____________."
"___________" can be anything from "finish my research" to "pay the rent"
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Training

A few years ago, I got it into my head that I wanted to run a marathon.  The experience turned out to be a life-changer, not so much for the race itself (though that was pretty great too) as for the training that built up to it.
I live in Los Angeles. There was a hospital
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Habit

Konrad Lorenz, the Nobel Prize-winning zoologist, had a pet goose that he allowed the run of the house. The first day when the goose waddled in the door, there happened to be a mirror near floor height; the goose mistook his own reflection for some rival bird and flew into attack mode.

He pecked the hell
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Having A Practice, Part Two

Over the past couple of weeks we've talked about Shame and Habit as allies in the struggle against Resistance. Shame motivates us to face our fears, and habit helps keep us in the groove once we've gotten started. Momentum is another powerful ally, along with ritual, love, enthusiasm, aspiration, patience, selflessness and greed (the good
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My Kind of Barbarian

Where do ideas come from? (I don't mean the shower–or while we're driving on the Taconic Parkway.) What is the source of creativity? Where did the iPad come from, or the Eiffel Tower, or Nude Descending A Staircase?
Here's Robert E. Howard, who created the Conan the Barbarian series:
While I don't go as far as to
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