By: Kally Elliott on January 8, 2024
Grief is complicated. There is an illustration of grief that looks like a giant ball of tangled string: one way in, a thousand tangles and loops, and finally, a way out. Years ago, someone I loved hurt me deeply. I was in great emotional pain but instead of feeling sad, I felt MAD. I was…
By: Dinka Utomo on December 7, 2023
Grandiose fantasies are a symptom of Resistance. They’re the sign of an amateur. The professional has learned that success, like happiness, comes as a by-product of work. -Steven Pressfield- A piece of advice was given to me by one of the lecturers where I studied theology. The advice reads, “the best written work…
By: Jana Dluehosh on December 7, 2023
Resistance, professionalism, and the Muse are main themes in Steven Pressfields the War of Art: Break through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles. Pressfield takes a very easy way of writing to walk us through his own experience of resistance and how to press through this through professionalism and embracing the mystical idea…
By: Adam Harris on December 7, 2023
Recently, I watched a clip of Rick Rubin, named “One of the Top 100 Most Influential People in the World” by Time magazine, discussing his philosophy and approach to art as well as his creative process. If you’re not familiar with Rick Rubin (not Santa Claus) you have probably heard some of the artists he…
By: Mathieu Yuill on December 7, 2023
When I was younger, I thought of myself as an artist. I loved drawing and writing, spending my summers at art camps and evenings in art classes. My high school was even focused on the arts. But around the age of 16, I started to see things differently. I got into photography and wrote for…
By: Todd E Henley on December 7, 2023
In her book, Jump, Kim Perell talks about what to do with our fears and challenges in life. She says, “Instead of letting it paralyze you, let it catalyze you.”1 In other words whatever has the power to cause resistance in your life, use it to give you insight, wisdom, direction, passion, fire in your…
By: Russell Chun on December 7, 2023
Опір даремний, Opir daremnyy, Resistance is Futile (Ukrainian) Part 1 – What my Peers are saying. Part 2 – What Others are Saying Part 3 – What I learned from Word of Art Part 4 – Epilogue Steven Pressfield’s War of Art [1]provided a welcomed message for the cohort struggling to finish papers and live…
By: Pam Lau on December 7, 2023
At this strange time in the world in which we are marching towards a New Year, it is a comfort to look back at this semester at the words we have read, the questions we have asked and the prayers we have prayed. After writing three papers and 11 blogs this year (not counting outside…
By: Cathy Glei on December 6, 2023
“Any act that rejects immediate gratification in favor of long-term growth, health, or integrity. Or, expressed another way, any act that derives from our higher nature instead of our lover. Any of these will elicit Resistance.” [1] I couldn’t have ended my semester in a better way than to read a book about the enemy of creativity.…
By: Jonita Fair-Payton on December 6, 2023
Most of us live two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands resistance. ~Steve Pressfield The back cover of this book asks a question that I yelled “YES” as an answer! YES, I dream about writing the Great American Novel! Now that I’ve cleared that up…how do…
By: Kally Elliott on December 5, 2023
“It’s about ten-thirty now. I sit down and plunge in. When I start making typos, I know I’m getting tired. That’s four hours or so. I’ve hit the point of diminishing returns. I wrap up for the day.”[1] I read this book, The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, on the heels of completing the…
By: Kim Sanford on December 5, 2023
The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle sounds like an intense and intimidating read. The author, Steven Pressfield, is clearly passionate and experienced as a creative professional. While parts of the book felt reminiscent of Austin Kleon’s Steal Like an Artist, this book’s main idea was more clearly defined. Basically, successful artists discipline…
By: Jenny Dooley on December 4, 2023
The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles, by Steven Pressfield came at just the right time. Well, maybe not. It is a curious time to unpack my own resistance when I have so little time to do so. However, I am receiving this opportunity as a timely invitation…
By: John Fehlen on December 4, 2023
This is my third time reading The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. It’s a go-to book for me, and so are his other works on writing and creativity, such as Turning Pro, Do The Work, and Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants To Be. Like the writings of Austin Kleon (Steal Like An…
By: Tim Clark on December 4, 2023
Finishing a semester feels like finishing a Sunday. Every week on Sunday I get up much earlier than usual and prayerfully enter the space where for the next few hours I’m going to be in the ring and fighting for lives, sometimes my own. The battle isn’t against flesh and blood and I’m building people…
By: Jana Dluehosh on November 30, 2023
Leadership by Peter Northouse is the text book I was waiting for in this Doctorate of Leadership. Not because it has the cutting edge of leadership theory, but because it gives a practical chapter on 15 styles of leadership. I have been playing around with becoming a leadership coach once this doctorate is over and…
By: Dinka Utomo on November 30, 2023
Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal -Peter G. Northouse- Every five years, our denomination holds leadership elections at the synodal level called the Synodal Assembly, which has 11 positions for Pastors, Elders, and Deacons. The 11 selected individuals will lead our denomination for five…
By: Todd E Henley on November 30, 2023
Terrorism, political upheaval, mass murders, world-wide pandemic, mass migration, racial strife, discord in global politics, depression era economy, mass poverty, the #Me too movement, financial oligarchies, and mass hunger. The years 2020-2022 have felt like our entire societal structures were crumbling beneath our very feet. We have entered an age of disruption. Yet the possibility…
By: Adam Harris on November 30, 2023
I feel like I dropped the ball with our new teenage volunteers recently, especially after reading Peter Northouse’s, Leadership Theory and Practice. To give some context, several months ago we made a big shift at our church to truly embody the value of service for our youth department. We still have youth classes on Wednesday…
By: Mathieu Yuill on November 30, 2023
Merriam-Wesbter’s 2023 word of the year is authentic[1]. There are many definitions for authentic but the specific use of it that resulted in the dictionary publisher giving it top honours is “Not false or imitation. Real.” One of the methods Merriam-Webster uses to determine its word of the year is by studying search trends and…
