Essay On The War Of Art By Steven Pressfield

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In my book, “The War of Art” author Steven Pressfield examines and talks at length with overcoming procrastination. A chronic problem for me. Throughout the book, he refers to Resistance as being the sole reason we do not get things done before the deadline. While Resistance is also the reason many of us slip helplessly into its tempting lures to pull us away from reaching our potential being happy. Mr. Pressfield also uses many personal example to help illustrate what he is saying. By using these examples he overcomes his Resistance and encourages us to persevere and fight the Resistance. What is procrastination? To me it’s the phenomenon of foregoing your daily responsibilities and “doing it tomorrow.” The problem with procrastination …show more content…

Pressfields main goal in the book is to help us overcome our own procrastination to get to the person we want to be and not let Resistance hold us back from our potential. The book discusses the many ways Resistance gets to us and prevents us to fulfill our dreams. The two biggest methods Resistance holds us back is through fear and rationalization. Rationalization is when we try to justify our actions to forgo our tasks and duties that would lead us to success. As a self-defense mechanism rationalization is a common way to temporarily assure ourselves that putting it off was the right move. Fear is everywhere in the realm of Resistance and its methods to hold you back. The fear of failure, the fear of being different, the fear of not being accepted and the list continues to grow. Mr. Pressfield urges perseverance and to never let the fear Resistance uses to overwhelm us. We must always be vigilante when it comes to fighting back the urges to not continue. Resistance is a powerful foe that will ruthlessly attack us until we break therefore we must all be ready to resist Resistance. In a study conducted by Turkish psychologist Murat Bulkis and Erdinic Duru they studied the effects of self-esteem and procrastination and how it relates to self-worth and fear of failure. In their study they found that “higher levels of fear of failure increases procrastination” (Bulkis and Duru, 2012). They also found that “increasing self-esteems decrease levels of …show more content…

(2013). A COMPARISON OF ACTIVE AND PASSIVE PROCRASTINATION IN RELATION TO ACADEMIC MOTIVATION. Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal, 41(5), 777-786.

2.) Chu, A. H. C., & Choi, J. N. (2005). Rethinking procrastination: Positive effects of “active” procrastination behavior on attitudes and performance. The Journal of Social Psychology, 145, 245-264. http://doi.org/dxcw6t

3.) Edward L. Deci, Richard M. Ryan; http://www.selfdeterminationtheory.org/theory 2005

4.) Balkıs, M., & Duru, E. (2012). The direct and indirect role of self-esteem and procrastination in the relation to fear of failure and self-worth. (English). International Journal of Human Sciences, 9(2),

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