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Do the Work Hardcover – April 20, 2011
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The answer is Do the Work, a manifesto by bestselling author Steven Pressfield, that will show you that it’s not about better ideas, it’s about actually doing the work. Do the Work is a weapon against Resistance – a tool that will help you take action and successfully ship projects out the door.
“There is an enemy. There is an intelligent, active, malign force working against us. Step one is to recognize this. This recognition alone is enormously powerful. It saved my life, and it will save yours.”
Available in both a 5-pack and 48-pack for you to share, as well as a special collectible edition, Do the Work may be just what you need to get out of your own way.
Amazon.com Review
The answer is Do the Work, a manifesto by bestselling author Steven Pressfield, that will show you that it’s not about better ideas, it’s about actually doing the work.
Do the Work is a weapon against Resistance – a tool that will help you take action and successfully ship projects out the door.
“There is an enemy. There is an intelligent, active, malign force working against us. Step one is to recognize this. This recognition alone is enormously powerful. It saved my life, and it will save yours.”
Available in both a 5-pack and 48-pack for you to share, as well as a special collectible edition, Do the Work may be just what you need to get out of your own way.
For other titles like Do the Work, visit thedominoproject.com for more information.
Robert T. Kiyosaki Reviews Do the WorkRobert T. Kiyosaki is an investor, entrepreneur, and educator whose perspectives on money and investing fly in the face of conventional wisdom. His book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, ranks as the longest-running bestseller on all four of the lists that report to Publisher's Weekly--the New York Times, Business Week, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today--and was named "USA Today's #1 Money Book" two years in a row. Read his review of Steven Pressfield's Do the Work:
Once again another brilliant book from Steven. Do the Work gives you step-by-step instructions on how to overcome and conquer Resistance--the biggest enemy of them all. The gloves come off! Do the Work explains who and what your allies are and how to embrace and utilize them in your creative life or in your day-to-day situations. The points and steps in this book makes it possible for anyone to go and achieve what they truly are striving for--may it be writing a book, a play, or starting a new business. A must read for anyone who wants to get ahead and out of their own way. Steven has done it again. --Robert T. Kiyosaki
A Q&A with Steven PressfieldQuestion: What is the distinction between Do the Work and War of Art, the book where you first introduced Resistance? Does Do the Work take it a step further?
Steven Pressfield: Do the Work is structured to take the reader from A to Z. If the reader has a project they want to start or complete, such as a new business they want to open or a book they want to write, Do the Work is designed to take them from starting to shipping to hitting all the predictable resistance points along the way. I know you’re familiar with these moments; The beginning, the middle, and all the moments in between just before you ship and then just after you ship. Do the Work guides you from the start of the project and takes you all the way through.
It’s about getting off your behind and starting something. And Seth Godin writes about this, that once you start, you have to finish; you don’t get off the hook half way through. I recently got an email from a guy who said, "Help. I’m stuck." He was in a class and he had to write a screenplay and he was a quarter of the way through. Normally I would cheer him on, but just for fun, I gave him a little program to do; I put on my instructor voice and said, “Do this, do that, do this, do that.” It worked because right away he got over a couple speed bumps and took it all the way to the finish line. He loved it! I’d always been too shy to do that before, but I tried the assertive tone of voice and it really worked--he responded really well to it. So I thought, let me try that tone of voice in Do the Work.
Question: What did you tell him to do?
Steven Pressfield: One of the first things I told him to do was to banish the self-censor. I could tell he was frozen, worrying, "Is this going to be good? Is this going to be perfect? So I told him, "Take the next five days and write for two hours everyday. I don’t care what else is in your life--banish it. When you write for those two hours, start on minute one and don’t think for one second all the way through until minute 120. Just write, don’t self censor. Don’t do anything." That really seemed to get him moving and gave him permission to not be paralyzed with seeking perfection.
Continue reading our interview with Steven PressfieldAbout the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Once we commit to action, the worst thing we can do is to stop.
What will keep us from stopping? Plain old stubbornness. I like the idea of stubbornness because it’s less lofty than “tenacity” or “perseverance.” We don’t have to be heroes to be stubborn. We can just be pains in the butt.
When we’re stubborn, there’s no quit in us. We’re mean. We’re mulish. We’re ornery.
We’re in till the finish. We will sink our junkyard-dog teeth into Resistance’s ass and not let go, no matter how hard he kicks.
Start at the EndHere’s a trick that screenwriters use: work backwards. Begin at the finish.
If you’re writing a movie, solve the climax first. If you’re opening a restaurant, begin with the experience you want the diner to have when she walks in and enjoys a meal. If you’re preparing a seduction, determine the state of mind you want the process of romancing to bring your lover to.
Figure our where you want to go; then work backwards from there.
Yes, you say. “But how do I know where I want to go?”
- Print length109 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherThe Domino Project
- Publication dateApril 20, 2011
- Dimensions5.25 x 0.5 x 7.5 inches
- ISBN-101936719010
- ISBN-13978-1936719013
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- Publisher : The Domino Project; First Edition (April 20, 2011)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 109 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1936719010
- ISBN-13 : 978-1936719013
- Item Weight : 1.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.25 x 0.5 x 7.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #480,435 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #388 in Popular Psychology Creativity & Genius
- #1,584 in Creativity (Books)
- #10,369 in Personal Transformation Self-Help
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About the author

Steven Pressfield is the author of The War of Art which has sold over a millions copies globally and been translated into multiple languages. He is a master of historical fiction with Gates of Fire being on the required reading list at West Point and the the recommended reading list of the Joint Chiefs. His other books include A Man at Arms, Turning Pro, Do the Work, The Artist's Journey, Tides of War, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Last of the Amazons, Virtues of War, The Afghan Campaign, Killing Rommel, The Profession, The Lion's Gate, The Warrior Ethos, The Authentic Swing, An American Jew, Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t, and The Knowledge.
His debut novel, The Legend of Bagger Vance was over 30 years in the making. He hasn't stopped writing since.
Steve lives and writes in California. You can following him on IG @steven_pressfield. Sign up for his weekly writing newsletter at stevenpressfield.com
"It is one thing to study war, and another to live the warrior's life."
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But "Do the Work" is much more than just another self-help book. Seth Godin and his Domino Project have set out to revolutionize what a book, publishing, and influence mean. "Do the Work" is the latest addition to this daring and innovative project. Though it may not seem like it to some of you, "Do the Work" by Stephen Pressfield, is actually a radical work - or, more properly, the result of a radical work: the re-definition of the book.
How does "Do the Work" manifest this revolution in publishing? For starters, this "book" was free! By now, many of us are used to books coming in the form of e-books. But the potential for e-books to transform the publishing world is already present: a book like "Do the Work," and especially the Domino Project push this revolution further and faster. While a book like "Do the Work" is relatively short, that (along with its free cost) is actually a strength, once you've learned to think of how books, publishing, and influence all work differently in the digitally connected world. I'm reading "Do the Work" largely because it's free, but I'm also reading it because it's relatively short and to the point. I'm benefiting from it because it has a lot of sound practical advice about how to start and complete the important projects in my life.
But I'm also aware that by reading "Do the Work" for free I'm volunteering to be a part of Seth Godin's "tribe." "Do the Work," therefore is about much more than just helping me learn how to start and complete projects: it's indirectly teaching me about the way that things work in the new digital world. As a teacher, priest, and writer who hopes to influence people, this aspect of the book and Project should not be ignored.
"Do the Work," in fact begins with an Forward by Seth Godin that we are all now connected to a publishing platform that can connect us to anyone, anytime and that levels the playing field. And now it's time to do the work.
Pressfield names the "enemies" of the work we wish to do, and there is power in naming:
1. Resistance (which may take the form of fear, self-doubt, procrastination, addiction, distraction, timidity, ego, self-loathing, and perfectionism).
2. Rational thought
3. Friends and family
The activities or projects that will most elicit Resistance are those that reject immediate gratification in favor of long-term growth. Pressfield has hit upon an important universal truth here. For example, Henry Hazlitt "Economics on One Easy Lesson" basically makes the same point: we hurt ourselves and other economically by acting for short-term instead of long-term gain.
Pressfield guides his reader through some of the characteristics of Resistance, because, again, there is power in naming our enemies. The paradoxical thing is that we can use Resistance because it always keeps pointing to the very thing we want to and should be doing!
Just as we have enemies, we also have Allies: stupidity, stubbornness, blind faith, passion, assistance, and friends and family. Some of these seem counterintuitive, but this is precisely why "Do the Work" is such a valuable book: it helps us to see truths that are right under our noses but which we can't accept because they are either invisible or they don't fit into or worldview.
All of the above comes from the first section of the book: ORIENTATION: ENEMIES AND ALLIES
In the remainder of the book, Pressfield attacks the specific parts of starting and completing any project: BEGINNING, MIDDLE, and END. Rather than giving away the details as I have for the section on "Orientation," I'll let you discover for yourself how powerful Press field's ideas are.
I came to "Do the Work" expecting to find a fluff piece, worth the price I paid for it: free. Instead, I found something that's not only taught me about working on projects but has taught me about influence and the way things work in the new digital world. As Godin and Pressfield hoped, I find that this is a book I want to share others. And that's how things work in the new digital world.
Only if you want to take action. If you want to dilly dally, don’t buy.
--Marcus Aurelius
I am not a rereader of books. I prefer to try the new as opposed to revisiting the old. But there are two books I reread every year, that are constantly with me, both in physical form and on my mind. The first is Marcus Aurelius's stoic masterpiece on how to live a life, "The Meditations." The best thing ever written in my opinion. The second is Steven Pressfield's "The War of Art," a brief manifesto on how to "break through the blocks and win your inner creative battles." This book has helped me immensely in my own writing output.
This week sees the release of the companion manifesto to "The War of Art," the second Domino Project release "Do the Work."
In "War of Art," Pressfield introduced the idea of The Resistance, that unexplainable inner force that prevents us from accomplishing things. Something we all suffer from, yes, but something some of us are better at managing.
I met so many people on my 30 Bars in 30 Days book tour who had their own apparent dreams of writing a novel. They'd see my book and go, "A self-hurt guide? Ha. I don't need to buy that. I could have written that!"
And, I'd always snap back, "Well you didn't. I did."
They couldn't have written it. Because they'd also wonder: "So, how long'd it take to write HOW TO FAIL?" When they found the answer was several years of intense effort, you could see the look of fear and self-doubt and mercy in their eyes. They would never do that work. Too much Resistance to overcome. Too much lack of immediate gratification. Too unreasonable to write that long with no road map laid out, with no potential reward.
I know other writers, good writers, that just can't quite finish things. They have 90% of a manuscript, 95% of a screenplay, but they're frozen with an inability to complete the work. It's not perfect. It's not good enough. It could suck. It could flop. It's not "ready." What does that even mean? It's means The Resistance is defeating them. It means they are being too rational. "Bad things happen when we employ rational thought, because rational thought comes from the ego," says Pressfield.
It's too easy to think how utterly ridiculous it is to write a novel or make a movie or start a company or even get six-pack abs. No one you know does these things so you become an outlier amongst your friends and family for even attempting them. You become a source of mockery even for having such outlandish dreams.
Thus, we are forced to become unconscious in our own work if we have these unreasonable dreams. "Let the unconscious do its work," say Pressfield. I do this through irrational confidence in the future success of my work. And by drinking. No better way to release the unconscious, to be irrational, to silence The Resistance in me than by popping a few beers or nursing a few glasses of bourbon.
(Yeah, I know this is unorthodox thinking, I doubt the fine Mr. Pressfield endorses it, but it works for me, and I've written two more books than 99% of you.)
Pressfield wants to encourage us to release this "second self, an unlived you" from inside of us. The second self that wants to write books, make movies, etc. but keeps convincing himself otherwise for the most silly and rational reasons.
"Ignorance and arrogance are the artist and entrepreneur's indispensable allies." Again, drinking helps get that ignorance and arrogance released, just like the sauced lout hitting on every pretty thing at the bar, thinking he's as suave as George Clooney.
"Don't think. Act." Drink some more. "Get your idea down on paper. You can always tweak it later." Drink. Then start writing.
Be impetuous. Drink. Quit having an inner critic that judges you, that prevents you from doing things. Drink. And become impervious to it all.
Work isn't pretty. Writing and creating art is just as primitive as hoeing fields. Pressfield says it's "better to be primitive than sophisticated, and better to be stupid than smart." Drink, drink, drink and you'll be pretty damn primitive and stupid eventually. Pressfield uses the indelible image of a women giving birth:
"The hospital room may be spotless and sterile, but birth itself will always take place amid chaos, pain, and blood."
To produce work we have to get dirty, we have to have this killer instinct, focusing only on the work at hand and the joy in creating it, and ignoring every inner and outer voice of resistance around us. "The War of Art" laid the ground work for tackling Resistance, "Do the Work" gives you the road-map. And, I'd add, a few drinks will give you the courage to slay the dragon of Resistance.
"Do the Work" is free on Kindle until May 20 so I'd pick that up now, but I'd also grab "The War of Art." I think that's a better overall book and a better place to start conquering The Resistance. Both these books could be knocked off over this weekend (perhaps while having a few drinks). No better time to start than the present. Then, on Monday, you can begin doing your own work.
Top reviews from other countries
All'inizio può essere un po' "spiazzante" il modo con cui è stato scritto, con caratteri di diverse dimensioni, testo non allineato.
Concetti brevi, a volte ripetuti ma pieni di significato.
Probabilmente va letto più volte per riuscire a comprenderlo a pieno e le poche pagine in questo possono aiutare.
Come in altri libri si parla molto di "resistance" e di come la si debba affrontare per riuscire a fare al meglio il nostro lavoro, qualunque esso sia. Che si tratti di un lavoro creativo, come scrivere un libro, o ripetitivo come moltissimi dei lavori "comuni" questo libro da spunti utili per dare il meglio ogni giorno.
Right! Enough of the accent nonsense, I think think book is going to help and push me forward, which is the soul intention of the writer, author, whatever of any book, whilst giving some entertaining reading.
Sooooooo! Now am off doon the road wae a skip in ma step an a song in ma heart. 😁😜😋











