The War of Art by Steven Pressfield is by far one of the most impactful reads I've ever had.
You may have been able to tell that by the state of the book.
The rips and wilted edges, the grime on the formerly white cover, the ghetto bookmarks.
I've carried the book with me for weeks or months at a time because I thought I may want to read just a single part of it again. This book is full of quotable, applicable thoughts and advice about how an artist has to approach their craft and the greatest obstacles to your ultimate artistic fulfillment. I think Spirit told me to pick this up and read it again a few months back and the timing of that instruction couldn't have been more impeccable considering I was compelled to quit my job and be a full time artist just a short time after...Yep, right on time!
So I started to read again and looking at all of the notes I made previously and I felt impacted all over again, maybe even stronger this time around. The book's central theme is Resistance, in its many forms, as the big thing in an artist's way. Identifying it, combating it and getting beyond it.
Dope, right?
The thing that struck me the truest and inspired me to write this post was on Pgs. 19 and 20 as the author is detailing ways to identify Resistance. This part is titled "Resistance Recruits Allies".
It was this quote:
"The awakening artist must be ruthless, not only with herself (himself) but with others."
Now I know how wrong these two words, artist and ruthless, can look sitting next to each other. At first glance you may even feel like its a mistake. Nope. They go together like ice and cold, like black and beautiful.
Here's why.
The artist is naturally ruthless. Ruthless to ourselves and usually not in a constructive way. Think of all the shit we go through to open ourselves up enough to share, to feel like what we have is worthy of sharing. The sides most people never see. The pain, the doubt. It comes through in the harsh ways we criticize ourselves, in the feelings we can't shut down no matter how hard we try (the trying/denial part is what's really ruthless). Its the internal onslaught of "Am I good enough?" and "Do I deserve?".
What we project out to the world, most often, is our greatest hope for acceptance...which usually leads to a nice heap of disappointment. Also as a result, the world tends to equate artistry with ideas like passiveness, compromise, endless kindness (often taken for weakness), etc. Now, artistry definitely is comprised of compassion, thoughtfulness, empathy and understanding. These ideas, ironically, are typically misunderstood or altogether dismissed by the world at large.
Where the ruthlessness is required is in the approach.
In the section of the book I mentioned earlier, Pressfield uses the analogy of making a break for it and how you can't go back for your buddy (this clashes a bit with that conditioning to be "loyal"). A bit of what ruthlessness may look like. He says, "The best and only thing that one artist can do for another is to serve as an example and an inspiration."
Essentially I got (and I'm learning, reluctantly, at times) that what is behind you has to stay behind you...there is NO TURNING BACK. Also, it means deciding that whatever chooses to stand in the way of your fullest expression (which you humbly know is dope and people need) has to get fucking steamrolled. This does not mean being hateful, it means no nonsense because what you have to offer is that important. It means shedding ideas, habits, places and, yep, people that no longer serve your highest purpose. Of course, I think this comes naturally as we commit more and more to sharpening our skills and surrendering to the craft.
There is no pretty, convenient or painless way to get to this point in the journey...it all comes the hard way and by sacrifice because its earned.
We WILL get to, what I like to call a, purposeful ruthlessness and we and all who interact with our expression will be better for it.