Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be

by Steven Pressfield

What is Resistance? It’s our own tendency—yours and mine and everyone’s—to yield to procrastination, self-doubt, fear, impatience, self-inflation, self-denigration, distraction, laziness, arrogance, complacency, and perfectionism. It’s our inability to focus, our incapacity to press on through adversity. It’s our terror of finishing and exposing our work to the judgment of the marketplace. It’s fear of failure. It’s fear of success.

When I sit down to write in the morning, I literally have no expectations for myself or for the day’s work. My only goal is to put in three or four hours with my fingers punching the keys. I don’t judge myself on quality. I don’t hold myself accountable for quantity. The only questions I ask are, Did I show up? Did I try my best?

Tremendous power lies in the simple, physical act of stationing our body at the epicenter of our dream.

sidekicks and BFFs than you know what to do with. And these will not be friends like your buds back home, whose only contribution to your calling was to distract you and waste your time. These new friends share your dream.

Magic happens when we put our ass in the same space with other dreamers who have already put their asses there. These are our peers, our lovers, our fellow aspirants.

It’s not enough for your heart to be in the right place. Your ass has to be there too.

Questions for ourselves: “How much do we want it?” “What sacrifices are we willing to make to see this project succeed?”

Why is commitment so scary? Because when we commit, we’re moving from the Known to the Unknown. The definition of dream is that which exists only in our imagination. In other words, in the Unknown.

Don’t try to overcome your fear. Fear cannot be overcome. Instead simply move your body into the physical space you fear . . . and see what happens.

It is not an idle or airy-fairy proposition to declare that the universe responds to the hero or heroine who takes action and commits. It responds positively. It comes to the hero’s aid.

I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets: Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.”