The War of Art

Pressfield frequently points to discipline and self-mastery as the key to overcoming Resistance and living a meaningful life. He laments that many people try to mask symptoms of Resistance, such as restlessness or anxiety, with shopping, eating, alcohol, or drugs. Pressfield proposes “self-knowledge, self-discipline, delayed gratification and hard work” as the antidote to these Resistance-related behaviors (26). He emphasizes that being disciplined is an enormous challenge for most; culture has primed us to seek escape from suffering instead of changing our perspective or behavior.

Rather than endure physical or mental discomfort, people try to fix or ignore it by “being good Americans and exemplary consumers” and “doing exactly what TV commercials and pop materialist culture have been brainwashing us to do from birth” by seeking distraction and comfort (26). For Pressfield, the only solution to overcoming this “brainwashing” is the development of self-discipline. Pressfield recalls his own painful journey of developing self-mastery in his late twenties. He reveals that he had little self-discipline in his youth until his friend Paul Rink “lectured” him on the subject while Pressfield was trying to finish his first novel (111). Only when he became “determined to keep working” was Pressfield able to complete his novel, gain a sense of accomplishment, and feel like a real writer (111).