How to Turn Pro, From the Warrior Artist, Steven PressfieldForbes.comI don’t remember when I first read The War of Art, but I know it changed my life. Of all of the books I have read since then, there are few I have returned to more often. Why? Because Steven Pressfield teaches you how to be an artist—a professional one.
There is a reason that every writer, producer, blogger, and designer I know has a copy of his book in their studio (besides me putting it there). It worked for them too. He taught them how to fight the resistance, how to believe in themselves, find their muse, and dedicate themselves to their craft. He sold them on the dream of turning pro.
And now Pressfield is back to pick up where he left of with Turning Pro. The first words grabbing you by the collar and pulling you down the path: “I wrote in the War of Art that I could divide my life neatly into two parts: before turning pro and after. After is better.”
See, we all have a job to do, be it art or business or acting or philanthropy, and we spend far too much time running from this job, doing everything but what we were born to do. This is because we are not professionals. We have not learned how to turn pro. I would never make it seem that Turning Pro is something that can be reduced or simplified. The journey is too complex, too personal for that. It is a journey of many, many steps. So with that in mind I will give you just ten of them.
Admit You’re an Addict “We burn to accomplish something great, but don’t know where to begin…Enter: a drink, a lover, a habit. Addiction replaces aspiration. The quick fix wins out over the long slow haul.”
Hit Bottom “I applaud your story of how you hit bottom, because at the bottom there is no one there but yourself.”
Ignore the Opinions of Others “The amateur craves third-party validation. The amateur is tyrannized by his imagined conception of what is excepted of him. He is impressed by what he believes he ought to think, how he ought to look, what he ought to do, and who he ought to be.”
Have Empathy (For Yourself) “In his heart, the amateur knows he’s hiding. He knows he was meant for better things…If the amateur had empathy for himself, he could look in the mirror and not hate what he sees. Achieving this compassion is the first powerful step toward moving from being an amateur to being a pro.”
Work the Program “Turning pro is like kicking a drug habit or stopping drinking. It’s a decision to which we must re-commit every day. Twelve-step programs say “One Day at a Time.” The professional says the same thing.”
Have Your Epiphany “The essence of epiphanies is the stripped away of self-delusion. We thought we were X. Now suddenly we see we’re minus-X. We’re X divided by infinity. There is great power in this moment.”
Embrace Ambition “Ambition, I have come to believe, is the most primal and sacred and fundament of our being. To feel ambition and to act upon it is to embrace the unique calling of our souls. Not to act upon that ambition is to turn our backs on ourselves and on the reason for our existence.”
Cut Out Distraction “The amateur tweets. The pro works.”
Become a Creature of Habit “The difference between an amateur and a professional is in their habits. An amateur has amateur habits. A professional has professional habits. We can never free ourselves from habit. But we can replace bad habits with good ones. We can trade in the habits of the amateur and the addict for the practice of the professional and the committed artist or entrepreneur.”
Play for Tomorrow “Our role on tough-nut days is to maintain our composure and keep chipping away. We’re pros. We’re not amateurs. We have patience. We can handle adversity. Tomorrow the defense will give us more, and tomorrow we’ll take it.”
By the time you have taken these steps, you will be well down the road of an artistic calling. You will have wrestled for control of your fate, as Machiavelli wrote, and spoken to it in the only language it understands: sheer force of will. And you will have turned pro. I’ll close with one more quote from Pressfield:
“Never forget: This very moment, we can change our lives. There never was a moment, and never will be, when we are without the power to alter our destiny. This second, we can turn the tables on Resistance. This second, we can sit down and do our work.”
Topic: How To Turn Pro