My guest is Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art and expert in how to overcome the inner force of "resistance"—the self-sabotaging tendency to procrastinate on your life's most important work that keeps you from realizing your professional and creative potential. Steven shares actionable tools for defeating inner resistance that work. His approach is concrete, not based on slogans or inspirational messages. As the author of numerous best-selling books and screenplays, Steven's routines for cultivating discipline and focus, including his physical training regimen (he is incredibly mentally and physically vigorous at 82), are applicable by anyone. He gives you effective practical strategies for how to structure your day, overcome procrastination and self-doubt and do your best, most meaningful work. Read the episode show notes at hubermanlab.com. Thank you to our sponsors AGZ by AG1: https://drinkagz.com/huberman Helix Sleep: https://helixsleep.com/huberman BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/huberman Rorra: https://rorra.com/huberman Function: https://functionhealth.com/huberman David: https://davidprotein.com/huberman Timestamps (00:00:00) Steven Pressfield (00:04:55) Ideas & Resistance, Tree & Shadow Analogy (00:08:45) Military, Pushing Through Resistance, War of Art (00:10:14) Physical Training, Tools: Capturing Ideas, Little Successes (00:16:11) Sponsors: Helix Sleep & BetterHelp (00:18:36) Ideas, Invocation of the Muse, Goddess (00:23:19) Writing, Focus, Inner Critic, Perfectionism, Tool: Think in Multiple Drafts (00:28:21) Writing Session; Workout Analogy & Concentration (00:32:28) Aspiring Writers & Focused Hours; Work Session Timing; Phones (00:35:31) Inner Voice; Storytelling, Advertising (00:39:45) Soul & Growth, Creativity, Your Calling & Voices of Resistance, Suppression (00:48:10) Loved Ones: Projection, Resistance & Sabotage (00:51:04) Sponsors: AGZ by AG1 & Rorra (00:53:52) Angry & Numbing Out, Resistance, Internet; Following Your Calling (00:59:00) Mentors: Lessons on Focus & Quitting (01:06:46) Perfectionism (01:10:42) Contemplating Your Mortality, Family Honor (01:16:49) Proving Yourself & Competition (01:22:01) First Movie, Failure, Analyze Feedback?, Tool: Self-Evaluation (01:28:28) Book Success, One-Hit Wonders; Book Titles (01:34:22) Sponsor: Function (01:36:09) Personal Sacrifice; High Achievers & Unbalanced Life; Social Media (01:44:44) Tool: Turning Pro, Amateur vs Professional Habits, Failure, Feelings (01:49:32) Cost of Turning Pro, Tool: Taking Oneself Seriously & Others’ Reactions (01:56:42) Creativity: Practical Advice & Muse; Acts of Faith; Surrender (02:04:00) Sponsor: David (02:05:17) Workspace, Uncomfortable Chair, Physical Labor, Complaining (02:08:13) Forthcoming Book, Book Recommendations (02:13:46) Zero-Cost Support, YouTube, Spotify & Apple Follow, Reviews & Feedback, Sponsors, Protocols Book, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter Disclaimer & Disclosures Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
For years when I was struggling and could never get it together, I realized that at one point that I was just thinking like an amateur. And that if I could flip a switch in my mind and think like a professional, that I could overcome some of the things. A professional shows up every day. A professional stays on the job. All day or the equivalent of all day.
A professional, as I said this before, does not take success or failure personally. An amateur will, right? An amateur gets a bad review, bad response of this, and they just crap out. I don't want to do this anymore. A professional plays hurt. Like if Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, if they've tweaked the hamstring, they're out there. They'll die before they'll be taken off the court.
Whereas an amateur, when he or she confronts adversity, will fold. Oh, it's too cold out. I've got the flu, that kind of thing. An amateur worries about how they feel. Like, oh, I don't feel like getting out of bed this morning. I don't feel like really doing my work today. A professional doesn't care how they feel. They do it.
So an amateur has amateur habits, and a professional has professional habits.
Welcome to the Huberman Lab Podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life. I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. My guest today is Steven Pressfield.
Steven Pressfield is an author of numerous historical fiction and nonfiction books, including the now iconic War of Art and also the book Do the Work, which both focus on understanding the forces in our minds that barrier us from being our most focused, creative, and productive selves, and more importantly, how to overcome those barriers.
Perhaps it's because Stephen worked hard physical labor jobs and was in the military prior to becoming a book author and screenwriter. Or perhaps it's because he published his first book at age 52 that Stephen really understands how to persevere and overcome inner doubt and procrastination and turn creative blocks into important creative works.
As you'll hear during today's episode, Stephen doesn't talk in inspirational slogans or metaphors. So none of this get after it or, you know, you just have to do the work. Instead, he gets very concrete about how to structure your day, how to frame your goals and your setbacks, and even how to make your creative environment more conducive to focus and effort.
We also talk about how to capture your best ideas, which, by the way, often occur away from the work that you're actually trying to do and how to implement them. So if you have an idea or you're searching for an idea for a creative project to share with the world, this conversation will be immensely useful to you.
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