Turning Pro Tap Your Inner Power and Create Your Life's Work

my book, Turning Pro, is about that.

I'd read Steven Pressfield's The War of Art and then Turning Pro and I thought, wow, imagine what would happen if you treated the pursuit of my chosen career, which is podcasting, like an athlete.

I want to turn pro I read Stephen Pressfield War of Art and then I read Turning Pro I want to turn pro with the show what's that mean what would it mean if I treated this pursuit like an athlete does so an athlete they review game tape and they do mindset work and they've got a sports psychologist and they look at what they eat and they look at what they drink and they go to bed on time and they're hanging around with people that are growth minded and they're getting the right coaches and then all the rest everything is done in order to facilitate performance in the thing that they say they care about but everybody has the opportunity to do that you just need to define what the thing is I'm never going to be Patrick Mahomes right yeah I know but I managed to find my thing and then nearly kill myself in dedication toward it

I read it three years ago at the start of the pandemic and I actually read sorry I read the war of art which is Steven Pressfield book and turning pro is a chapter in the war of art which he then turned into a sequel and they're both great and you can get both of them by going to chriswillx.com books

There was a quote I found from Steven Pressfield in Turning Pro. The amateur is a narcissist... He views the world hierarchically.

I don't know if you've read anything by Steven Pressfield. He has a book called turning pro and he says you can divide your life into two parts when you're an amateur when you're pro and the moment you turn pro you'll remember when that happens and he talks about these writers and musicians sharing their experience and it's all something like that.

And he does a really good job on the ladder of just explaining how different life is when you become a pro.

if you haven't read The War of Art, Do The Work, Turning Pro, Gates of Fire, government cheese, Tides of War, A Man at Arms, what are you even doing with your life?

It's sort of like it's the stories in between the lessons that make turning pro and the war of art and all those other books so fantastic.

the hero wonders the hero suffers the hero returns you are that hero.

When I sat down to start discipline is destiny I followed a routine I did do with all of my books which is I read something from Stephen Pressfield.

Actually I think for discipline I read Turning Pro, for Justice I read put your ass where your heart wants to be whenever I am starting a project I read something from Stephen Pressfield because he's maybe the greatest writer on how to be a professional how to be great at winning these inner creative battles.

So when I saw him last I asked if we could excerpt a couple pieces from his wonderful audiobooks and he's been kind enough to let us do that and so today's episode is part two in some excerpts from the wonderful Turning Pro and this one he talks about some things very very much connected to the idea of discipline he talks about habits and addictions, failure, success, distraction, money and trouble and how these habits and addictions for amateurs hold us back that they're self-inflicted wounds he talks about the fears of the amateur talks about the path of Turning Pro and the simplicity of life that happens when you turn pro

you can grab that in the painted porch I think we actually have some signed copies so I'll link to that and you get the audiobook which was produced by recorded books on brilliance audio I will link to that in today's show notes but you can get it anywhere audiobooks are sold thank you Stephen for this wonderful excerpt.

I've made no secret about my deep admiration for Stephen Pressfield in fact I'm not sure you would be listening to this podcast if Stephen's writings hadn't so influenced me over the years.

He's today's excerpt comes from turning pro one of my absolute favorite books from Stephen we have signed copies of it in the painted porch which I will link to in today's episode.

if you haven't listened to the audiobook of turning pro it's a great motivational book and I pick up either the War of Art or Turning Pro pretty much anytime I start a creative project so hopefully this can be something that gets you going as well.

but he also has a series of books on creativity and the first one is the war of art and\I got so much from all of his books in particular that one and then turning pro they all say essentially you're gonna have to sit down be professional and do the work essentially that's what he's saying don't get distracted really