Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be – Steven Pressfield

Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be – by Steven Pressfield
Date read: 2/7/23. Recommendation: 8/10.

Similar to The War of Art, Pressfield continues his tried and true method of packing concise inspiration into a quick read. The main message of the book is about shifting your creative center of gravity from the superficial and fearful ego to the deep and fearless self. This requires committing for the long haul. Must read for any entrepreneur or artist trying to create something from nothing.

See my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Show up:
“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?” SP

“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.” Goethe

“Here’s my frame of mind as I sit down to work: This is the day. There is no other day. This is the day. In other words, I release every thought that smacks of, ‘Maybe we can do this some other time.’ There is no other time.” SP

“Putting our ass where our heart wants to be is the equivalent of Alexander charging into the breach at the Granicus River or at the Issus or Gaugamela. We too are risking it all. We too hold nothing back. We too have hurled ourselves headlong into the unknown.” SP

Location matters:
You must leave the place where you live and move to the hub of the creative world where your dreams are most likely to come true. There’s no substitute for being in the heart of the action. Ernest Hemingway moved to Paris. Bob Dylan moved to Greenwich Village. 

Commitment:
“The positive face of commitment is self-empowerment. The very act of putting our ass where our heart wants to be makes a profound impression, not just on those we wish to work with or be mentored by, but on ourselves.” SP

“In myth and legend, when the hero commits to an intention by taking bold action, he enacts a Cosmic Overthrow. He ‘crosses the threshold.’ Like Luke Skywalker heading with Obi Wan Kenobi for Mos Eisley spaceport or Dorothy being swept away from Kansas by a cyclone, the hero moves from the Ordinary World to the Extraordinary World. She has gone from the Known to the Unknown.” SP

“The universe responds to the hero or heroine who takes action and commits. It responds positively. It comes to the hero’s aid.” SP

Perseverance:
“For writers and artists, the ability to self-reinforce is more important than talent.” SP

“Resistance is always strongest at the finish.” SP

“Killer instinct is not negative when we use it to finish off a book, a screenplay, or any creative project that is fighting us and resisting us to the bitter end. Steel yourself and put that sucker out of its misery.” SP

Visualization:
“What fascinates me about the character of Alexander the Great is that he seemed to see the future with such clarity and such intensity as to make it virtually impossible that it would not come true—and that he would be the one to make it so. That’s you and me at the inception of any creative project. The book / screenplay / nonprofit / start-up already exists in the Other World. Your job and mine is to bring it forth in this one.” SP

Keep Going – Austin Kleon

Keep Going – by Austin Kleon
Date read: 12/3/19. Recommendation: 9/10.

If you haven’t read any of his work before, Kleon’s stuff is great. It’s bite-sized inspiration for creativity and perseverance. You can get through the book in less than an hour. I dig into his books after a lull when I need to reengage myself with a creative jolt. The ideas that resonated strongest with me in this book were the importance of disconnecting, lowering the stakes, and creative reflection. To observe, you have to immerse yourself in the world. But being creative is also about retreating and tuning out the noise so you’re able to figure out what you’re trying to say. Kleon also suggests we think about our art as making gifts for people (à la John Greene), in the sense that the goal is to reach and connect with a single person. That’s what will keep you going.

See my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Disconnect for Creativity:
“You must retreat from the world long enough to think, practice your art, and bring forth something worth sharing with others.” AK

“It’s hard to find anything to say about life without immersing yourself in the world, but it’s also just about impossible to figure out what it might be, or how to best say it, without getting the hell out of it again.” Tim Kreider

“The greatest need of our time is to clean out the enormous mass of mental and emotional rubbish that clutters our minds and makes of all political and social life a mass illness. Without this housecleaning, we cannot begin to see. Unless we see, we cannot think.” Thomas Merton

“Keep your eye on your inner world and keep away from ads and idiots and movie stars.” Dorothea Tanning

“The phone gives us a lot but it takes away three key elements of discovery: loneliness, uncertainty, and boredom. Those have always been where creative ideas come from.” Lynda Barry

Lower the Stakes:
“The great artists are able to retain this sense of playfulness throughout their careers. Art and the artists both suffer most when the artist gets too heavy, too focused on results.” AK

This is similar to Derek Sivers idea of making your art your main relaxing activity. 

Make gifts for people: “Don’t make stuff because you want to make money—it will never make you enough money. And don’t make stuff because you want to get famous—because you will never feel famous enough. Make gifts for people—and work hard on making those gifts in the hope that people will notice and like the gifts.” John Greene

Focus your attention on reaching and connecting with one person. This is the ultimate goal.

Do things that make you and the people around you come alive. If your art is making you and those around you miserable, stop. “The world doesn’t necessarily need more great artists. It needs more decent human beings.” AK

Reflection:
If you’re trying to determine what you’ve been trying to say, read through your old journals or work. Distill the themes. This will give you insight into what you’re trying to say and what you should do next. 

Creativity has seasons. You’re not a robot. Allow yourself to live and embrace the influences of each season.

Live Your Truth – Kamal Ravikant

Live Your Truth – by Kamal Ravikant
Date read: 6/19/17. Recommendation: 6/10.

Not a book I would typically read, but there are a few hidden gems in its passages. If you're looking for inspiration, it's an easy read that you can get through in a day. Ravikant's handful of original, eye-opening insights make it worth it. Most of the book is focused on tapping into yourself and living an authentic life.

See my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

What are the key components of one's life? Buckets, that if you fill daily, even if just a drop, move you forward and create progress.

Example of four buckets? Health, wealth, relationships, and self-expression

We don't stumble accidentally into an amazing life. It takes decision, a commitment to consistently work on ourselves.

Our ability to love and create – that alone makes this entire experiment worthwhile.

If there's a definition of freedom, I think it's this: living life on your terms.

The truth: I live my days as if I will live forever. Putting off so much, expecting there to be more time, another chance. If I accepted my mortality to my core, never knowing when the chain snaps, then how would I live? More on my terms. A free man. I'd write more, I'd love more, I'd laugh more.

Ask yourself: what is it, that if I believed it down to my core, would change everything?

Whatever you experience in your life, choose for it to make you grow in amazing and unbelievable ways.

Now I know what success is: living your truth, sharing it. Whether through a book, raising a child, building a company, creating art, or a conversation. Whatever human endeavor we choose, as long as we live our truth, it is a success.

Hemingway, whenever he was stuck in his writing, would tell himself to write one true thing. A true sentence. Then, he would write another. And another.

Peace is letting it be. Letting life flow, letting emotions flow through you. If you don't fight them, they pass through quickly and you feel better.

There is something magical about creating.

But that's the gift of any art. When we go all in, we find the answers. They're in us.

Suffering is when we resist the moment.

I once asked one of the best entrepreneurs in the Valley how he did it. He's created game-changing companies multiple times. He sort of laughed, then said, "if I only stuck with what I was qualified for, I'd be pushing a broom somewhere."

The best people, they're afraid, they question themselves. Many, if you corner them, will admit that they wonder if they're good enough. But what separates them from the rest is that they jump off the cliff anyway. Sprout wings on the way down.

It's the knowledge – or confidence or hope or sheer stupidity; the word doesn't matter – that they will figure it out. That's it. The only qualification you need to create anything.

I am not the outcome. I am never the result. I am only the effort.

One thing about discovering a truth: first you live it, and after you experience the transformative results, it is real for you unlike anything else. Then you almost become obsessive about sharing it.

Instead, I wrote the type of book that I would want to read. Importantly, a book I wish someone had given me when I was down.

Confidence comes from crossing thresholds.

You dive deeper, you strip away the cleverness and the words becomes more important than your ego and that's when you know it's real, when it's good.

The feeling of when you step away, finished, and you look at the page and you know you tapped into something bigger than yourself, that feeling is, dare I say, spiritual.