Cover via Amazon Recently on the recommendation of a creativity coach, whom I follow and will hopefully soon by hiring (these folks can work wonders for you!!) I read a book called ' the WAR of ART ' by Steven Pressfield. While I love reading books like these, 'motivational' books (to me these books not only motivate but also pass along some serious information) I suppose they are called, most kind of go the round about way getting to the point, but not this one. Mr. Pressfield goes straight to the point right from the word go!
As artists there is always a certain amount of anxiety related to actually doing the work, sitting down to write, paint, sculpt or create in any manner cause a whole list of obstacles to suddenly land on our paths. More often than not we treat distractions or interruptions rationally, like falling sick ! I know falling sick is out of our hands, but believe me read the book and you will know what I am talking about. The book lists all those small and big interruptions, distractions even some things on your to-do list that will surprise you. The best part is there are also points on how to tackle all these problems.
Two things I got out of this book is A) what keeps me from working and B) What helps me to stay working.
Frankly the book is not meant just for artists but for any body who ever wanted to achieve something but got derailed will finally have a name for the precise thing that cause the derailment. Mr. Pressfield calls it 'Reistance' !If any of you have read the book or any book like this that tells it straight, I would love to hear from you, what do you think, did the book help? are you spending more time doing the work you should be? could be anything, writing, sticking to that gym time, dieting, reading, painting, or like me marketing my art (that's the thing that brings out my green eyed 'Resistance' monster)!!
Okay I know book reviews are supposed to enlist the negative points as well, my only grouse, I wish the book were bigger ( more pages) I need some more in your face war tactics against 'Resistance" :)
P.S. : The above link is not an affiliate link, just something for those interested to check out, again I do not make money of off any links that I may put up here .
Looks like a book written keeping me in mind :) This is going in my list of books to be read for sure. Thanks for the great review.
ReplyDeleteWell it certainly helps out all us creative types and yes definitely worth a read, i am on my second round now !
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