Three Books You Should Read To Boost Your Creative Life
Add Them To Your TBR If You Haven't Already
The War Of Art by Steven Pressfield
The War of Art is a pocket guide for all creative people.
This book focus on Resistance - the invisible, undetected force that makes us not do our work. It can be called by many names - writer's block, self-doubt, fear of failure, procrastination - to name some. The point of this book is that we are at war with this Resistance every day and every time we sit down to work.
This book is divided into three parts.
Book One is about defining the enemy, explaining what Resistance is and the forms it can take to wreak havoc in our lives.
Book Two is about combating Resistance explaining the difference between a professional and an amateur and what the professional does to fight Resistance.
Book Three is about the spiritual side of creativity - believing in the presence and play of a higher power.
Now, if you're of the kind who doesn't like the idea of a higher power, it's okay, but you must read this book for the first two parts. This book is small, therefore making it a quick read. Once you start reading this book, you won't be able to stop yourself - this book makes that much sense - and I'm saying that from experience.
If you're a creative person, especially of the spiritual and philosophical kind, The War Of Art by Steven Pressfield is a must-read for you.
Quotes from the book that caught my attention -
“If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), "Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?" chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.”
“Our job in this life is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.”
"How many pages have I produced? I don't care. Are they any good? I don't even think about it. All that matters is I've put in my time and hit it with all I've got."
Daily Rituals by Mason Currey
I didn't expect to love this book so much. I've got so much to learn from this gem.
What this book made me realise was, as a creative, I am not alone when I say, "I don't get the time to write".
Nobody's got the time, but they still managed to do some fantastic works. I should stop cribbing and crying about it and get to work.
Daily Rituals by Mason Currey is a great book if you want to know what the daily rituals of the well-known writers, philosophers, architects, doctors, etc., looked like. They weren't that different from us. They had the distractions of their times as we have ours.
Quotes from the book that caught my attention -
"External conditions—having the right pen, a good chair—were important, too."
"It’s no easy business to be simple."
"One can be very fertile without having to work too much. Three hours in the morning. Three hours in the evening. This is my only rule." - Jean-Paul Sartre
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Why aren't we taught this in school!? Seriously! Life would have been so much better if we had learned all this as children. We would be on the right track from day one!
Atomic Habits is the Bible of Habits.
It's a mini-course on crushing it in your habits.
This book is a practical guide to habits.
It is about learning the science behind habits and making them work in our favour. It teaches you how to adopt habits and find out which habits you are capable of adopting. It's not about goals you want to crush. It's about who you want to become through your habits.
And the Four Laws of Behaviour Change and their Inversions are so simple and yet so unused and not thought of.
If there is one book you want to read on habits, make it Atomic Habits by James Clear.
My suggestion would be to take one habit, say writing, and try to build it into your day using the tips and tricks given in this book.
Quotes from the book that caught my attention -
“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.”
"The only way to actually win is to get better each day."
"It's better to do less than you hoped than to do nothing at all. The problem is not slipping up; the problem is thinking that if you can't do something perfectly, then you shouldn't do it at all."
