[ghostbrainalpha]

Have you guys ever read the "War of Art"? It comes from a place that understands Procrastination as an emotional problem, and has a fully developed solution for dealing with it in that way.

At the end it gets REALLY artsy and religious in a way that made me very uncomfortable. But its still the most helpful book I've ever read on productivity.

[frlnc_throwaway]

Jean Moroney would say that War of Art is based on the "duty mentality" - a mentality where there are certain things that you simply need to do, that are considered intrinsically important, and that your own personal desires are irrelevant and should be squashed. This mentality leads to problems. It's not surprising that the author is religious.

https://www.thinkingdirections.com/join-the-thinking-lab/ - ctrl-F "ineffective thinking habits"

"5. Duty Mentality: you treat your desires as irrelevant to your conclusions about what you should do.

Symptoms: You describe the obstacles to your goals in terms of temptation and resistance. You often feel you have to force yourself to do what is right. If you don’t, you feel guilty.

Practical Obstacles Created: You over-commit. You feel unmotivated. You work well only under pressure."

[hammock]

I can see how the symptoms listed could lead to the obstacles listed. However, as a religious person, I do regularly treat my desires as irrelevant to what I should do - and I do not exhibit the symptoms listed. So not sure what to make of that. Seems there is another way to have duty.

[tonyedgecombe]

I really disliked that book, I found nothing actionable in it. I only read it to the end because it is recommended so often and I hoped to find something useful in it. Sadly I didn't.

[ghostbrainalpha]

The book is REALLY for a certain kind of person who has a deep seated fear of success that they don't really understand.

If you have ever written 3/4's of a novel that you all of a sudden couldn't finish, or always abandon projects just as you are about to be able to reap the rewards, the book is for you.

I'm hoping the book wasn't for you, because fear of success isn't really a problem for in your life.

[merlinsbrain]

I’ll concur with this thought.

It’s inspiring but there’s nothing really to take forward from there.

It’s like a talk from a motivational speaker - it’ll get you into that desirable state of mind for a little bit, but won’t help you change anything fundamentally.

[andreilys]

Also read the book and found it deeply inspiring, I’d recommend war of art to anyone that is pursuing creative endeavors.

I’m curious though why did it make you uncomfortable?

[ghostbrainalpha]

I'm an overly skeptical and rigid atheist. I have problems getting value from religious stories even in the metaphorical sense because I know how many people interpret them as facts.

I'm working on it.

I have a close family member who was a TV Televangelist (retired now) but who still claims to have the ability to heal people with the laying on of hands. Seeing the after effects of this "healing" when I was very young sent me down a path extreme anti religiousness.