The amateur believes he must first overcome his fear; then he can do his work. The professional knows that fear can never be overcome. He knows there is no such thing as a fearless warrior or a dread-free artist.
Interpretation
Embracing fear is essential for growth and achievement.
This quote emphasizes that fear is an inherent part of any challenging endeavor, whether in art or other professions. Instead of waiting to eliminate fear, successful individuals learn to acknowledge and work alongside it, recognizing that courage isn’t the absence of fear but the determination to act despite it.
In practice
In a motivational speech, one might say, 'Remember, as Steven Pressfield reminds us, embracing your fear is key to unlocking your true potential.'
Late at night have you experienced a vision of the person you might become, the work you could accomplish, the realized being you were meant to be? Are you a writer who doesn't write, a painter who doesn't paint, an entrepreneur who never starts a venture? Then you know what Resistance is.
It is one thing to study war and another to live the warrior's life.
When we sit down day after day and keep grinding, something mysterious starts to happen... Unseen forces enlist in our cause; serendipity reinforces our purpose.
You know, Hitler wanted to be an artist. At eighteen he took his inheritance, seven hundred kronen, and moved to Vienna to live and study... Ever see one of his paintings? Neither have I. Resistance beat him. Call it overstatement but I'll say it anyway: it was easier for Hitler to start World War II than it was for him to face a blank square of canvas.
It’s better to be in the arena, getting stomped by the bull, than to be up in the stands or out in the parking lot.
Rule of thumb: The more important a call or action is to our soul's evolution, the Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.
Impossible is just an opinion.
You are important enough to ask and you are blessed enough to receive back.
Brethren, do something; do something, do something! While societies and unions make constitutions, let us win souls. I pray you, be men of action all of you. Get to work and quit yourselves like men. Old Suvarov's idea of war is mine: `Forward and strike! No theory! Attack! Form a column! Charge bayonets! Plunge into the center of the enemy! Our one aim is to win souls; and this we are not to talk about, but do in the power of God!'
Faith is the "eternal elixir" which gives life, power and action to the impulse of thought! Faith is the starting point of all accumulation of riches! Faith is the basis of all "miracles" and all mysteries which cannot be analyzed by the rules of science! Faith is the only known antidote for failure!
If you don't set goals, you can't regret not reaching them.
To have any doubt in your body is the biggest weakness an athlete can have. There are times when I physically can't get myself to go for a skill because I'm thinking, 'My knee hurts really bad.'
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