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Huberman Lab

How to Overcome Inner Resistance | Steven Pressfield

with Stephen Pressfield

Published October 20, 2025
View Show Notes

About This Episode

Andrew Huberman interviews author Stephen Pressfield about his concept of resistance, the difference between amateurs and professionals, and the daily habits and mindsets that support sustained creative work. They discuss Pressfield's military and physical training background, his writing process and use of the "muse," his experiences with failure and delayed success, and broader topics such as calling, addiction, social media, mortality, competition, and life trade-offs in pursuing one's craft.

Topics Covered

Creativity Habits Work ethic Personal development Mental health Dopamine Sleep Mentorship Social media addiction Longevity

Disclaimer: We provide independent summaries of podcasts and are not affiliated with or endorsed in any way by any podcast or creator. All podcast names and content are the property of their respective owners. The views and opinions expressed within the podcasts belong solely to the original hosts and guests and do not reflect the views or positions of Summapod.

Quick Takeaways

  • Pressfield argues that the more important a project is to your soul's evolution, the more resistance you will feel toward doing it, and that fear is a reliable compass for what you most need to pursue.
  • He distinguishes amateurs from professionals by habits: professionals show up every day, work whether or not they feel like it, play hurt, and do not take success or failure personally.
  • Pressfield uses early-morning physical training as a daily rehearsal for facing creative resistance, viewing the gym as a place to do something he dislikes so that writing later feels more accessible.
  • He credits military service and various blue-collar jobs with teaching virtues like stubbornness, patience, and embracing adversity, which he later applied to the "inner war" of creative work.
  • Pressfield never rereads the day's writing and thinks in multiple drafts, believing quality emerges over successive passes rather than through perfectionism in a single sitting.
  • He views ideas as coming from a higher plane or "muse" rather than from the subconscious, and he begins each writing day with a spoken invocation of the muse adapted from Homer.
  • Perfectionism, procrastination, addiction, and even misplaced anger are described as manifestations of resistance that divert creative energy away from one's true calling.
  • Turning pro, in his view, is a psychological switch anyone can flip-treating their calling with the same seriousness and structure they would bring to a job-though it often carries social costs.

Podcast Notes

Amateur vs professional mindset and the concept of resistance

Defining amateur and professional behavior

Pressfield describes realizing he was thinking like an amateur and needed to think like a professional[0:05]
• He says this shift in thinking could help him overcome struggles and finally "get it together" in his work and life.
Key traits of a professional contrasted with an amateur[1:06]
• A professional shows up every day and stays on the job all day or the equivalent; an amateur does not.
• A professional does not take success or failure personally, whereas an amateur will take a bad review or bad response personally and quit.
• A professional "plays hurt" and keeps going through adversity, like Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan playing with injuries; an amateur folds when facing discomfort or adversity.
• Amateurs worry about how they feel (e.g., not feeling like getting out of bed or doing work), but professionals do the work regardless of feelings.
Habits as the key distinction[1:12]
• Pressfield states that amateurs have amateur habits and professionals have professional habits, implying behavior patterns are the core difference.

Introduction of the guest and framing of the episode

Andrew Huberman introduces the podcast and Pressfield

Huberman states the podcast's focus[1:12]
• He says the Huberman Lab Podcast discusses science and science-based tools for everyday life.
Huberman introduces himself[1:24]
• He is a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine.
Overview of Stephen Pressfield's work[1:29]
• Pressfield is described as an author of numerous historical fiction and nonfiction books.
• Huberman highlights "The War of Art" and "Do the Work" as focusing on understanding mental forces that block focus, creativity, and productivity, and how to overcome them.
Pressfield's background and perseverance[1:29]
• Huberman notes that Pressfield worked hard physical labor jobs and was in the military before becoming a book author and screenwriter.
• He points out that Pressfield published his first book at age 52, emphasizing long-term perseverance through doubt and procrastination.
What the episode will cover[2:09]
• Huberman says Pressfield will talk concretely about structuring one's day, framing goals and setbacks, and shaping the creative environment to support focus and effort.
• They will also discuss how to capture and implement good ideas that often arise away from the desk, and issues of procrastination and self-doubt.
• Huberman remarks that "The War of Art" changed how he approached his scientific work, podcasting, and other aspects of life.
• He notes that Pressfield, at 82 years old, is very sharp and fit, and they will cover his physical regimen and its role in his creative life.

The principle that important work evokes the most resistance

The quote about soul's growth and resistance

Huberman presents a quote attributed to Pressfield[4:25]
• The quote: "The more important to your soul's growth, the stronger the resistance will be."
Pressfield's explanation of the quote[4:32]
• He says when someone conceives an idea for a serious project (movie, book, etc.), instead of feeling constant enthusiasm, they experience waves of "Resistance" (with a capital R).
• Resistance manifests as procrastination, distractions, and urges to avoid the work.
• He advises that if someone has multiple possible projects, they should choose the one they are most afraid of, because that fear is a form of resistance indicating importance.
• He clarifies that the importance he is referring to is for one's soul's evolution as an artist, not commercial success.
• He asserts that the project you most need to do will hit you the hardest with resistance and will be the hardest to pursue.

Tree and shadow analogy for dream and resistance

Proportional relationship between dream and resistance[6:55]
• Pressfield asks listeners to imagine a tree appearing in a sunny meadow and notes that as soon as the tree appears, a shadow appears.
• He says the tree is your dream (book, movie, etc.) and the shadow is the resistance you feel; they are directly proportional: the bigger the tree, the bigger the shadow.
• Feeling massive resistance (wanting to quit, feeling not good enough) is actually a good sign, indicating that the dream is big and important.
• He says you should choose the "big tree"-the project that generates the biggest shadow of resistance.

Military background and the inner war of art

Influence of Marine training on his creative philosophy

Pressfield's Marine experience[7:30]
• He served as a reservist Marine infantryman.
Military virtues applied to creative work[8:11]
• He says that during boot camp and infantry training he hated it and couldn't wait to return to civilian life.
• Later, living the artist's life-"being in a room with your own demons" for years writing-he realized the same virtues from the military were needed.
• He lists virtues he drew from the military: stubbornness, willingness to embrace adversity, patience, selflessness, and courage in the face of fear.
• He was drawn in fiction writing to themes of war, not literal combat (he notes he has never been in a war) but the metaphor of an inner war.

Physical training as rehearsal for facing creative resistance

Pressfield's early-morning gym routine

Basic routine and timing[9:02]
• Pressfield is 82 years old and goes to the gym every morning at about 4:45 a.m.
Gym as mental rehearsal[9:58]
• He views going to the gym first thing as a rehearsal for later facing the resistance of writing at the keyboard.
• The gym activity is something he does not want to do, requires getting up early, will hurt physically, and carries risk of injury or embarrassment.
• By completing the gym session, he feels nothing else in the day will be as hard, so "the waves are greased" for writing.
His feelings about working out[10:06]
• When asked if he looks forward to working out, he replies emphatically that he does not and would prefer to stay in bed.
• On Sundays, when he stays in bed, he says he does not feel good about himself and wishes he had gone to the gym.

Huberman's view on workouts and idea generation

Huberman's love of training[11:54]
• Huberman says he has always loved working out and often has to push himself to rest rather than to train.
Exercise as a source of ideas[12:17]
• He notes that if he avoids social media and texting during workouts, ideas "always" come to him during rest periods between sets.
• He thinks exercise puts brain and body into unfamiliar states that allow the unconscious mind to "geyser" up useful thoughts.
• He cites Joe Strummer's advice to write down important-feeling thoughts immediately because they may not be there later in the same form.
Methods of capturing ideas[13:19]
• Huberman typically captures ideas in the notes app.
• Pressfield says he does not tend to get ideas during workouts but agrees that ideas often emerge when the mind is occupied with something else, like driving or showering.
• He dictates ideas into his phone when they arise and notes his phone is full of material to be transcribed.

The muse, invocation, and creative inspiration

Belief in an external source of ideas

Pressfield's view of the source of ideas[17:17]
• He says he does not believe ideas come from the subconscious but from "the goddess," "the gods," or the muse-someplace outside us.
• He references ancient Greek practice where epic poems like the Iliad and Odyssey begin with an invocation of the muse, with the artist stepping aside and asking the goddess to tell the story through him.
Mentor Paul Rink and the invocation ritual[18:08]
• In his late twenties, living in Carmel Valley, Pressfield had breakfast each morning with older writer Paul Rink, who knew John Steinbeck and Henry Miller.
• Rink told him about the muses-the nine Greek goddesses whose job was to inspire artists-and typed out for him the invocation of the muse from Homer's Odyssey (T. E. Lawrence translation).
• Pressfield kept that typed page for about 50 years until it was lost in a fire, but he memorized it and still recites it every morning before work as a sincere prayer for help.
Excerpt of the invocation and its meaning[20:08]
• He recites the beginning: "O divine poesy, goddess, daughter of Zeus, sustain for me this song of the various-minded man," referring to Odysseus.
• He highlights the closing line: "Make this tale live for us in all its many bearings, O muse," which he sees as a powerful plea to make the story come alive from every angle.

Daily writing process, focus, and drafts

Managing distraction and inner criticism

Current ability to focus at the start of a session[22:52]
• When asked how often his mind flits to distractions (like the news) in the first ten minutes of writing, Pressfield says "never" now.
• He attributes this to years of practice and his habit of "diving straight into the pool" without pausing to wonder what to do; he plunges in and focuses fully.
Evolution of his inner critic[24:43]
• He says his inner critic almost never appears now, though it used to be a terrible struggle early on.
• In earlier years, he would compare his sentences to Hemingway and worry about reviewers, which drove him insane.
• He learned over a long time that he simply cannot deal with that kind of self-judgment during drafting.

Multiple drafts and not rereading same-day work

Thinking in multiple drafts[25:02]
• Screenwriter Jack Epps taught him to "always think in multiple drafts" and that you can only really fix one thing in one draft.
• When he starts a book he typically anticipates 13-15 drafts; the last 7 or 8 are small, fine-tuning passes.
Policy of not rereading at the end of the day[25:50]
• At the end of a writing day he never reads what he wrote and does not look back at it the next morning either.
• He believes judging work when it is too fresh leads to perfectionism, another form of resistance, and can drive you crazy.
• He trusts that on the next draft he will see the material more clearly and can then assess whether it is any good.

Session length and criteria for stopping

Typical writing session duration[27:04]
• He used to write for four hours a day, but now he writes for about two hours total.
• He believes he can now accomplish in two hours what used to take him four.
Laundry as a ritual break[23:26]
• A typical pattern is about an hour of writing, then a short break during which he likes to do laundry (switching loads), then another hour of writing.
Knowing when to stop[27:59]
• He stops when he starts making typos and mistakes, comparing it to ending a workout at the point of diminishing returns to avoid hurting himself.
• He refuses to guilt-trip himself about squeezing out an extra 10 minutes when tired, citing Steinbeck's view that pushing at the end of a day is "the falsest kind of economy" because you pay for it the next day.
• He also cites Hemingway's practice of stopping when he knew what came next in the story, to ease the next day's start.

Advice for people with full-time jobs

Equating two hours for amateurs with full-time professionals[32:00]
• Pressfield notes he is a full-time writer but still only gets about two productive hours a day.
• He tells listeners with full-time jobs and families that if they can carve out a couple of hours a day for their art, they are "on the same level" as him in terms of time investment.

Environment, tools, and relationship with the reader

Consistency of schedule and environment

Importance of writing at the same time[33:00]
• He thinks it is really important to write at a consistent time each day, though recent life events like a fire have forced him to sometimes shift his schedule.
• He can move his writing from, for example, 11-1 to 1-3, but does not vary much beyond that.
Writing in different locations vs fixed workspace[33:14]
• He contrasts himself with his friend Jack Carr, who writes productively on airplanes and in coffee shops while traveling; Pressfield doubts he could do that.

Minimizing digital distractions

Phone and internet rules[33:47]
• He keeps his phone nearby only to dictate a note if needed but otherwise does not use it when writing.
• He says he never has the internet engaged on his computer while working.
No background music[34:04]
• He does not listen to music while writing; the only sound is essentially his own breathing and internal voice.

Awareness of the reader while drafting

Balancing story needs and reader experience[35:25]
• While writing a scene, he knows certain things must happen for the narrative, but he is also actively thinking about whether the reader understands and is engaged.
• He checks whether he is boring the reader, repeating himself, or putting events in the wrong order.
• His goal is to make the experience as easy, interesting, and fun as possible, always trying to lead and seduce the reader so they can't wait to turn the page.

Early career, advertising, and learning to hook an audience

Not a natural-born storyteller

Childhood and early ambitions[36:59]
• Pressfield says he was not a storyteller as a kid and never thought about being a writer when he was young.

Advertising job and first glimpse of storytelling

Madison Avenue beginnings[37:11]
• His first job out of college was in advertising in New York City, in a "Mad Men"-like environment.
• He thought he would like to write commercials that people would find funny and memorable, which nudged him toward the idea of storytelling.
Boss Ed Hannibal as an example[37:41]
• His boss, Ed Hannibal, wrote a book at home titled "Chocolate Days, Popsicle Weeks" which became a hit, and then quit to be a novelist.
• Seeing his boss do this made Pressfield think, "Why don't I do that?" even though he was naive and had no idea what he was doing.

Lessons from advertising about audience apathy

"Nobody Wants to Read Your Shit"[37:55]
• He wrote a follow-up book to "The War of Art" titled "Nobody Wants to Read Your Shit" that draws heavily on his advertising experience.
• He explains that in advertising you learn people do not want to read your ads or listen to your commercials, so you must make them so good or intriguing that they overcome their hatred of being sold to.

Calling, resistance, sabotage, and diverted creative energy

The pressure to "find your passion" and the notion of a calling

Pressfield's view on passion and calling[39:55]
• He notes there is tremendous pressure on young people to "find their passion," which he believes can be confusing because many don't know what they want to do.
• He believes everyone is born with some sort of calling, which may not be in the arts; it could be helping others through a nonprofit or doing what Huberman does with neuroscience and personal development.
• He suggests that if pressed to answer in three seconds what they "should be doing," most people would have something pop into their head.
Resistance as the voice against your calling[41:14]
• As soon as a calling is recognized, resistance appears, saying things like "Who are you to do this?" or noting others have already done it better.
• He describes resistance as "the devil" trying to stop people from becoming their true, self-actualized selves.
• He lists mechanisms of resistance: distraction, procrastination, perfectionism, and fear.

Sabotage from people closest to you

How others' resistance gets projected onto you[45:29]
• Pressfield says many people are not living their own calling and often are unconscious of it, so when they see someone else pursue theirs, it becomes a reproach.
• They may unconsciously try to undermine and ridicule the person pursuing a calling, under the guise of concern (e.g., worrying about starving children).
• He references filmmaker David O. Russell's movies (e.g., "The Fighter") as examples where families sabotage protagonists who are trying to break out and fulfill their potential.

Consequences of not following one's calling

Creative energy turning malignant[43:00]
• Pressfield argues that if one does not pursue their true calling, the underlying creative energy does not go away but becomes "malignant."
• He says that energy can manifest as addiction, alcoholism, cruelty, abuse of others, abuse of self, pornography, and other vices.
• He contrasts this with what happens if one does follow their calling: they become more who they really are and open themselves up to personal evolution.
• He warns that pursuing calling is not a promise of nirvana but of a never-ending war with resistance.

Modern environment, distraction, anger, and social media

External resistance from modern media and substances

Huberman on anger and numbing as diversions[54:00]
• Huberman describes many modern offerings as selling us the opportunity to be angry or to numb out (alcohol, certain forms of social media, certain media and news, and highly processed palatable foods).
• He emphasizes that although we think they are free, the real cost is our time, soul, essence, and life.
Pressfield on the internet and polarization[56:23]
• Pressfield says if you want to make a billion dollars, you invent a product that feeds into people's natural resistance, and he names the internet and social media as such products.
• He suggests many people use political anger and polarization as ways to avoid facing the difficult work of their calling.

Mortality, life length, and sources of drive

Awareness of mortality

Friend's extreme focus on death[1:10:56]
• Pressfield recounts asking a same-age friend how often he thinks about his mortality; the friend replied, "every fucking minute of every fucking day."
• Pressfield thinks that level of constant focus on death may be paralyzing, but he is definitely aware of his own mortality.
Life is long as well as short[1:13:22]
• He notes Robert Redford dying in his sleep as an example of an "immortal" figure passing away.
• He quotes another friend, Phil Slott, who said people tell you life is short, but really life is long.
• He tells Huberman, who is approaching 50, that 50 years remain, and warns against using age as an excuse to slack off, because that can be another form of resistance.
• He links his gym habit partly to not wanting to think of himself as "on the way down."

Chip on the shoulder as fuel

Family as "black sheep" and proving them wrong[1:14:32]
• In his youth, his family were the "black sheep" compared to successful uncles, and his father struggled.
• He internally resolved to "show these motherfuckers" that his family was not what others thought, which became a major (though unconscious) driver for him.
• He frames this as wanting to honor his father by hanging in and accomplishing something.

Mentorship, blue-collar lessons, and finishing work

Mentors across different jobs

Structure of his memoir "Government Cheese"[1:00:54]
• Pressfield wrote a memoir called "Government Cheese" whose chapters are named after his various mentors.
• Many of his mentors were not in the writing world: a trucking company boss, a fruit-picking coworker, etc.
Trucking boss Hugh Reeves and professionalism[1:03:38]
• After Pressfield dropped a trailer containing about $300,000 of industrial equipment, his boss Hugh Reeves took him to a hot-dog place (Amos and Andy's in Durham, North Carolina).
• Reeves told him, "while you're working for me, you're a professional and your job is to deliver a load; I don't care what happens between A and B, you gotta do that."
• This conversation drilled into him the need to "get his shit together" and has stuck with him ever since.
Fruit-picking coworker John and "pulling the pin"[1:09:02]
• While picking fruit in Washington State as a migrant worker, he learned the phrase "pulling the pin"-railroad slang for uncoupling cars, used to mean quitting prematurely.
• He realized he had "pulled the pin" on many things in his life: his marriage and other endeavors.
• His coworker John, a former Marine who had been at the Chosin Reservoir in Korea, would not let him quit the season early.
• Because of John's influence, he finished the fruit-picking season and also finished a book he was working on to earn money, teaching him not to quit on projects.
Impact of finishing a first book[1:09:42]
• He says that once he finished that book, he never again had trouble finishing anything.

Perfectionism as resistance and the need to ship

Perfectionism wasting time[1:34:58]
• He notes it is easy as a writer to noodle all day on one paragraph, which is a victory for resistance.
• While wanting the work to be good is important, he echoes Seth Godin's maxim "ship it" when it's ready.
Friend who never mailed his manuscript[1:36:54]
• He tells of a friend who wrote a deeply personal novel about salvaging a ship, based on his merchant marine experience.
• The manuscript sat in a mailing box addressed to his agent, but the friend could not bring himself to send it.
• The friend died without ever mailing the book, illustrating how perfectionism or fear of judgment can prevent work from reaching the world.

Handling feedback, failure, success, and dopamine dynamics

The "King Kong Lives" failure and learning from it

Believing a bad movie was good[1:21:04]
• Pressfield co-wrote "King Kong Lives" with Ronald Shusett and they thought it was great, inviting friends to a screening.
• The audience response was dead silence, and a Daily Variety review said, "Ronald Shusett and Steven Pressfield, we hope these are not their real names for their parents' sake."
Reframing the failure[1:23:46]
• A friend, Tony Keppelman, told him, "You're in the arena, man. You're taking the blows, but you're out there doing it," which helped him see the value in having a film made at all.
• He remains grateful for that experience despite the embarrassment.

Ignoring external validation and focusing on the next work

Minimizing the impact of reviews[1:25:16]
• He believes the ideal is to not listen to anything about what others say about your work and to judge it only yourself.
• He acknowledges practical interest in knowing if something sells but does not analyze deeply why a book did well or poorly because factors like timing and promotion are unpredictable.
Commitment to lifelong practice[1:25:04]
• He sees his writing as a lifelong practice, intending to keep going "till they take me out," focusing on the next project regardless of previous success or failure.
War of Art and Gates of Fire as slow-building successes[1:29:56]
• He says both "The War of Art" and "Gates of Fire" took years to gain traction; neither was an overnight success.
• Only 8-10 years later did he realize these books were percolating along well.
• He notes there "wasn't that much dopamine" from sudden acclaim, which may have been beneficial.

Lack of training in creative life skills

Topics schools don't cover[1:53:21]
• Pressfield points out that schools do not teach how to handle a one-hit success, how to cope with negative criticism, or how to adopt a professional mindset.
• He considers these un-taught skills "absolutely vital" and hopes people encounter mentors who can teach them.

Turning pro: traits, mindset, and practical framing

Turning pro as the response to resistance

Realizing the problem was thinking like an amateur[2:51:40]
• Pressfield says the way to overcome resistance is to "turn pro," as he details in his book of that name.
• He recognized, after years of struggle, that he had been thinking like an amateur and that flipping a mental switch to think like a professional changed things.

Characteristics of a professional vs an amateur (revisited and expanded)

Daily showing up and persistence[2:52:20]
• He reiterates that professionals show up every day and stay on the job all day or the equivalent, whereas amateurs do not.
Not taking success or failure personally[2:52:20]
• Professionals do not take success or failure personally; amateurs get a bad review and decide to quit.
Playing hurt and ignoring feelings[2:53:40]
• He again cites Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan as examples of professionals who play through injury and would "die before they'll be taken off the court."
• By contrast, amateurs fold when facing adversity, citing excuses like cold weather or minor illness.
• Amateurs worry about how they feel and whether they "feel like" working; professionals do the work regardless of feelings.

Two-self corporate framing of professionalism

FSO (For Services Of) model[2:57:51]
• From screenwriting, he learned that writers often have one-person corporations and sign contracts not as themselves, but as the corporation "for services of" the individual.
• He likes viewing himself as two parts: the CEO of his company and the worker who does the writing.
• As the CEO, he can confidently pitch and "pimp" his ideas, which is harder if he identifies only as the sensitive artist doing the work.
Letting go of guilt over past amateurism[2:59:40]
• He says thinking of oneself as a professional allows you to drop self-blame for old patterns like procrastination or perfectionism, reclassifying them as "what I did when I was an amateur."

Spiritual framing of creativity and higher dimensions

Two-sided nature of the creative life

Blue-collar side vs higher-plane side[3:16:40]
• Pressfield describes the creative life as having two sides: the blue-collar, practical professional side, and another side involving where ideas come from.
• He insists ideas do not originate solely from us but from somewhere else, and our job is to be ready on the material plane to channel and execute them.

Prayer, muse, and higher dimensions

Analogy to monastic prayer[3:17:50]
• He says in a monastery, the move from our plane to a higher one is prayer; for artists, it is the invocation of the muse.
• Artists ask the higher plane, "Give me an idea. Help me," and place themselves in service of that level.
Role of skill as a channel[3:19:00]
• On the material side, the artist must have enough skill to express what comes through, as Beethoven could play on the piano what he heard internally.
Belief in multiple higher dimensions[3:20:10]
• He states he believes we live on a material plane and there are higher dimensions, perhaps many, interacting with ours.
• He thinks the Greeks were onto something with their personified muses and gods as ways of describing these interactions.

Trade-offs, balance, social pressure, and taking oneself seriously

Social cost of turning pro

Leaving people behind and group mediocrity pacts[1:34:29]
• Pressfield agrees that turning pro carries costs: people around you may not like it because it confronts them with their own resistance.
• He says groups of friends often have an unspoken pact to "all stay mediocre," and will cut down anyone who rises above, like the "tall poppy" phenomenon.
• He references "Good Will Hunting" as a story about friends with such a pact and a character (Ben Affleck's) who tells Will that if he is still there in 20 years, he'll kill him, because Will "won the lottery" and must use his gift.

Imbalance and sacrifice in pursuing a calling

Pressfield's stance on work-life balance[1:56:15]
• He says that, in his experience, personal sacrifice at the level of relationships is necessary to be a successful artist.
• A bodybuilder friend told him he does not believe in balance, and Pressfield feels similarly: to pursue a calling, you often must go "with both feet" and accept an unbalanced life.
• He notes he missed having children but does not regret it, viewing it as part of "the life we've chosen" (citing a line from "The Godfather Part II").

His own way of evaluating a day

End-of-day self-check[25:49]
• At the end of a session, he asks only whether he put in the time and worked as hard as he could, leaving quality assessments for later drafts.

Upcoming work and age-related reflections

New book "The Arcadian" and recurring character Telemann

Connection to "A Man at Arms"[2:07:06]
• Pressfield previously wrote "A Man at Arms" about Telemann of Arcadia, a recurring character he calls the "one man killing machine of the ancient world" or the Clint Eastwood of that era.
• In that earlier book, the story took place around the time of the crucifixion.
Premise of "The Arcadian"[2:07:49]
• He explains that Telemann keeps living life after life as a soldier because of crimes he committed in the past and is doomed to fight, kill, and be killed over and over.
• "The Arcadian" is about Telemann's final life, taking place in the past but involving multiple levels of reality and the field of justice and payback.

Perspective on age 50 and beyond

Reassurance to Huberman about turning 50[2:10:27]
• Pressfield tells Huberman that 50 is "nothing at all" and that at 50 he is "just a kid."
• He says he would give his left arm to be 50 again and emphasizes that Huberman has another 50-plus years ahead of him.
• He reinforces his earlier message that life is long and people can do a great deal with the time remaining.

Lessons Learned

Actionable insights and wisdom you can apply to your business, career, and personal life.

1

Adopting a professional mindset toward your creative or important work-showing up consistently, working regardless of feelings, and not taking success or failure personally-transforms resistance from a reason to quit into something you expect and work through.

Reflection Questions:

  • • Where in your life are you currently approaching something important with an amateur mindset, waiting to "feel like" doing it instead of showing up on a schedule?
  • • How would your daily routine change if you treated your key project the way a top athlete treats practice and game day, regardless of mood or obstacles?
  • • What is one concrete habit you can implement this week (for example, a fixed daily work block) to start behaving like a professional in your chosen domain?
2

The projects that evoke the most fear and resistance are often the ones most critical to your growth, so your fear can be used as a compass to identify where you most need to act.

Reflection Questions:

  • • Which idea or project in your life currently scares you the most, even though a part of you feels drawn to it?
  • • How might your choices change if you interpreted fear and self-doubt around a project as a sign that it is precisely where you need to lean in?
  • • What is one small, low-risk step you could take this week toward the project you are most afraid of, simply to move it out of your head and into action?
3

Physical discipline and discomfort practiced deliberately-such as early-morning training or other demanding routines-can serve as daily rehearsal for facing psychological resistance in creative and intellectual work.

Reflection Questions:

  • • What physically uncomfortable but healthy practice could you adopt that would strengthen your tolerance for discomfort in other areas of your life?
  • • How might doing something hard early in the day (even for 20-30 minutes) change the way you approach mentally demanding tasks later on?
  • • When you next feel like avoiding a difficult mental task, how could you recall a recent instance where you pushed through physical discomfort as proof that you can do it?
4

Perfectionism and endless tweaking are often disguised forms of resistance; real progress comes from finishing work, shipping it, and using multiple drafts or iterations rather than trying to make a single pass perfect.

Reflection Questions:

  • • On which project are you currently stuck trying to perfect a small detail instead of moving the whole thing forward?
  • • How would your process change if you committed to a set number of drafts or iterations and judged today's work only by whether you put in focused time?
  • • What is one piece of work you can commit to finishing and sharing by a specific date, even if it still feels imperfect to you?
5

Your environment and relationships strongly influence whether you rise to your calling or stay comfortable; sometimes turning pro requires leaving behind people or situations that are invested in you remaining mediocre.

Reflection Questions:

  • • Who in your life subtly or overtly reinforces your current comfort zone, and who challenges you to grow?
  • • How could you spend more time around people, in person or virtually, whose standards and habits pull you upward rather than keep you level?
  • • What conversation, boundary, or change in routine could you introduce this month to protect time and energy for the work that matters most to you?
6

Viewing yourself as a channel for ideas-as if they come from a higher source or "muse" rather than solely from your ego-reduces self-consciousness and helps you focus on doing the work instead of obsessing over your identity or worth.

Reflection Questions:

  • • How might your anxiety about a project change if you saw your role as serving the work or the idea, rather than proving something about yourself?
  • • When you feel blocked, what practices (for example, a short ritual, a written invocation, or quiet time) could you use to mentally "open the channel" and step out of your own way?
  • • What is one current project where you could experiment with this perspective for a week, deliberately treating yourself as the craftsman executing something that wants to be expressed?

Episode Summary - Notes by Alex

How to Overcome Inner Resistance | Steven Pressfield
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