Headwinds

A few years ago, after a surgery, I came home with two infections—staph and yeast. Without going into the gory details, the cure was fresh air on the site. Was this gonna knock me out of my working rhythm?

I wound up writing standing up, naked from the waist down, with an electric fan blowing on me.

The amazing part? I did some of the best work I’ve done in years.

Me and my great friend Joe Tye outside the Reel Inn in 2022. Alas, the place is long gone in ’25.

You and I as writers and artists are always facing headwinds in our “real” life—caring for aging parents, a divorce, a lost job, illness, troubles with the kids. Not to mention the unrelenting and diabolical opposing gales of RESISTANCE.

But that underground river of creativity keeps flowing. It doesn’t know about our real-life problems. It has a life of its own. It wants to be brought forth into material existence. It’s as if we were pregnant with it, this new life inside us.

We have to serve it. One hour a day if that’s all we can squeeze in.

The payoff is that river saves us. It’s saving me right now in the aftermath of the California wildfires. I would be coming totally unpeeled if I didn’t carve out that one hour or two to DO THE WORK.

P.S. The electric fan did save the day.

The post Headwinds first appeared on Steven Pressfield.