Book Review: The War of Art (by Steven Pressfield)

I was expecting more from this book.  I liked the section titled 'Book One'.  It articulated quite well what resistance is and how it shows up.  That included a couple of ways that surprised me. 

In 'Book Two' I was disappointed with how the author defined the differences between an amateur and professional.  For me, the professional can be more constrained than the amateur,...constrained in the sense of less freedom to fully express himself or herself in service to delivering a product.  The author's suggestion in this book quote, "To the amateur, the game is his avocation.  To the pro it's his vocation." is that the pro has quit (or has no) full-time employment and works seven days a week on his/her creative venture.  He doesn't speak to what happens if the pro isn't successful (meaning selling his/her work and earning enough to support himself/herself) unless the pro is loving what he/she is doing and accepts that living as a pauper is a possibility.  

Beyond that, I didn't like the author's idea that being creative is a 'game'.  I don't think any artist, amateur or professional, stands before a canvas with paints in hand, sets up a pottery wheel, sits down to compose music or write a book, or starts practicing at the ballet barre--to play a game.  I also didn't appreciate the military references in some of the chapters.  That seemed like such a foreign element to introduce and distracted from the author's points.

In 'Book Three', Pressfield introduces angels and allies as an invisible forces that are activated when the pro sits down and starts working.  It is similar to Elizabeth Gilbert's thoughts about what ideas are.  In this portion of the book, I felt the author was scattered.  He spoke more about ego and self, God, hierarchy, and territory without circling back to address how these relate to his amateur/ Professional definitions.  

Overall, I wasn't impressed even though I know 'resistance' is an issue that I deal with regularly.  Aside from sitting down and getting to work regardless--that I've heard from other sources--there was nothing vitally new in it.