Initially, I picked up this book just for the sheer brilliance of its title. As it turned out it was the right book at the right time as well. The War of Art is about realizing your ideas, and with that you creative potential. Steven Pressfield, bestselling author of fiction novels ‘The Legend of Bagger Vance’ and ‘Gates of Fire’ reveals his secrets ‘to getting things done’ by dissecting the element of ‘resistance’, the thing standing between you and putting your creativity into practice.

“There never was a moment, and never will be, when we are without the power to alter our destiny. This second, we can turn the tables on Resistance. This second, we can sit down and do our work.”

The reason this book worked for me was because it didn’t focus on the solution, but on the problem. It effectively speaks to the inner nay-sayer in all of us that sabotages your ideas the moment they threaten to become to real.

Loved it because:

• The War of Art provides great context for a recognizable problem, drawing a beautiful metaphor with ‘The Art of War’ – overcoming your fears and knowing your ‘enemy’.
• The author speaks from experience and has a very credible record writing multiple best-sellers
• It manages to inspire effectively with the use of good examples and quotes, making it a real page-turner

You might not like it because:

• The Art of War is an almost philosophical approach to creativity and ‘getting things done’. If you are looking for real ‘GTD methods’ this book offers not many ‘tangible’ pointers to put ideas into practice (and see them get done to the end).