Book review: Do the Work, by Steven Pressfield


Thank you, thank you, thank you Justin Smith for your recommendation.
It took a few days before I made the time to pick up the book from my local Chapters. However, after reading only a few pages, I purchased two more books for my staff and a Kindle version to keep on my iPhone. I enjoyed the book enough to read it twice in a few days.

My thoughts

Take Napoleon Hill’s Think & Grow Rich, and add jack it up  with steroids and cocaine. That’s what this book is. It’s hard to read Do the Work at any speed other than lighting-fast. The sentences are short, paragraphs are rhythmic, and the message is clear:

Shit is going to happen, and it’s going to happen to you. Most of the time, the shit happening is only in your head and in your heart. Deal with it. Get over it. Do the work.

Steven starts the book off by quickly running your through the characteristics of your most evil arch nemesis: Resistance.

Here’s a quick blurb

Resistance Is Insidious
Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work. It will perjure, fabricate, falsify; seduce, bully, cajole. Resistance is protean. It will assume any form, if that’s what it takes to deceive you.

Resistance will reason with you like a lawyer or jam a nine-millimeter in your face like a stickup man.

Resistance has no conscience. It will pledge anything to get a deal, then double-cross you as soon as your back is turned. If you take Resistance at its word, you deserve everything you get.

Resistance is always lying and always full of shit.


Resistance Plays for Keeps
Resistance’s goal is not to wound or disable.

Resistance aims to kill.

Its target is the epicenter of our being: Our genius, our soul, the unique and priceless gift we we’re put on this earth to give and that no one else has but us. Resistance means business.
When we fight it, we are in a war to the death.

Conclusion

If you are attempting to do anything worthwhile in your life, wether it is a creative pursuit, entrepreneurial pursuit, losing weight, quitting smoking, or anything worthy of effort, this book is for you. It’s super short (about 80 pages), to the point, and intense.

Fasten your seatbelt.


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