Steven Pressfield Quotes

When we sit down to work, we become like a magnetized rod that attracts iron filings. Ideas come. Insights accrete.

Most people have their best ideas when they take their minds away from problems they're trying to solve.

Many of the cognitive enhancement drugs serve to increase focus and concentration. But 'letting your mind wander' is very often an important part of the creative process.

The harder you chase something, the faster you go and the less you're able to let life meet life. If you're having difficulty coming up with new ideas, then slow down.

An addiction to distraction is the end of your creative production.

I try to manage my day by my circadian rhythms because the creativity is such an elusive thing, and I could easily just stomp over it doing my administrative stuff.

Night time really is the best time to work. All the ideas are there to be yours because everyone is asleep.

I don't listen to music when I write - I find it distracting.

Ideas aren't magical; the only tricky part is holding on to one long enough to get it written down.

I think you can spread yourself way too thin way too easily, so when I'm trying to create, I'm trying to create ideas for projects and have a vision for other people.

When I feel like I'm doing my best work, there is a bit of a freedom, a bit of flight that you're not so much losing yourself but you're sort of in the zone.

I won't deny that I have a far more productive writing life without the Internet, mostly because I rekindle my ability to concentrate on one thing for a period of longer than three minutes. My curiosity is channeled inward rather than Internet-ward.

My mind starts to work creatively past 10 P.M. or 11 P.M. - all of a sudden there's silence and my head starts going.

I never listen to music when I write. It's too much of a distraction.

Music is a job, but I figured out ways to get my mind into a place where I could be creative. I actually discovered meditation. It enabled me to clear my mind of all the drama and focus on the music.

As soon as I finish meditating, I get a beautiful feeling of expanded consciousness. When I'm in this headspace I can make so much progress in my writing.

Never listen to music when you're trying go come up with a Big Idea.

Limits are possibilities. ... Formal restrictions, contrary to what you might think, free you up by allowing you to concentrate on purer ideas. ... You can be crippled by too many choices, especially if you don't know what your goals are.

Think, the successful idea is always in your mind. Think it out.

Sometimes I go outside after a long stretch of writing and I'm surprised it's not raining. Or that it's daylight. Or that it's not the middle of winter. I don't know if that level of immersion is normal, but it's now I do things. I like it. It works well for me.

Every man whose business it is to think knows that he must for part of the day create about himself a pool of silence.

If you want to concentrate deeply on some problem, and especially some piece of writing or paper-work, you should acquire a cat . . .

When I'm creatively solving problems, I'm in my sweet spot, and nothing can take me out of that joyful present.

Insight comes at a moment of transition between work and relaxation.

Okay, everyone please be completely quiet, because I can literally hear a whisper, and it’ll throw off my stream of consciousness, and when I get my stream of consciousness going that’s when I give the best, illest quotes. Literally, a whisper can throw it off.