Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember our rule of thumb: The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it. The more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that…
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Steven Pressfield
Steven Pressfield (born September 1943) is an American author, of historical fiction and non-fiction, and screenplays. 2Biography He was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in 1943, while his father was stationed there, in the Navy. He graduated from Duke University in 1965 and in 1966 joined the Marine Corps. In the years following, he worked as an advertising copywriter, schoolteacher, tractor-trailer driver, bartender, oilfield roustabout, attendant in a mental hospital, fruit-picker in Washington state, and screenwriter. His struggles to make a living as an author, including the period when he was homeless and living out of the back of his car, are detailed in his book The War of Art. His first book, The Legend of Bagger Vance, was published in 1995, and made into a film of the same name, starring Will Smith, Charlize Theron, and Matt Damon, and directed by Robert Redford. His second novel, Gates of Fire, is about the Spartans and the battle at Thermopylae. It is taught at the U.S. Military Academy, the United States Naval Academy, and the Marine Corps Basic School at Quantico. In 2012, he launched the publishing house Black Irish Books with his agent Shawn Coyne. 2Fiction The Legend of Bagger Vance (see The Legend of Bagger Vance for the film), about a young man trying to come to terms with his spiritual demons through the medium of golf (1995) Gates of Fire, about the Battle of Thermopylae (1998), ISBN 0385492510 Tides of War, A Novel of Alcibiades and the Peloponnesian War (2000), ISBN 0385492529 Last of the Amazons, in which Theseus, the legendary King of Athens, sets sail to the north coast of the Black Sea inhabited by a race of female warriors (2002), ISBN 038550098X The Virtues of War, about Alexander the Great (2004), ISBN 0385500998 The Afghan Campaign, about Alexander the Great's conquests in Afghanistan (2006), ISBN 038551641X Killing Rommel (2008), a fictionalized account of a patrol of the British Long Range Desert Group during the North African Campaign of World War II, ISBN 0385519702 The Profession (2011), ISBN 978038552873
The professional cannot allow the actions of others to define his reality.
The paradox seems to be, as Socrates demonstrated long ago, that the truly free individual is free only to the extent of his own self-mastery. While those who will not govern themselves are condemned.
The danger is greatest when the finish line is in sight. At this point, Resistance knows we're about to beat it. It hits the panic button. It marshals one last assault and slams us with everything it's got.
Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.
Are you paralyzed with fear? That’s a good sign. Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember one rule of thumb: the more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.
Here's another test. Of any activity you do, ask yourself: If I were the last person on earth, would I still do it?
The supreme mystery of existence is this: that, perceiving it for what it is, we yet cling to it. And existence, despite all, discovers measures to reanimate our desolated hearts.
The patriot and the fool serve without pay.
Heroism makes good song but poor soup.
'You came this close, Alcibiades.' 'Close captures no crowns.' 'God grant that be your epitaph.'