Steven Pressfield Quotes

True courage is being afraid, and going ahead and doing your job anyhow, that's what courage is.

I have self-doubt. I have insecurity. I have fear of failure. I have nights when I show up at the arena and I'm like, 'My back hurts, my feet hurt, my knees hurt. I don't have it. I just want to chill.' We all have self-doubt. You don't deny it, but you also don't capitulate to it. You embrace it.

Fear has been a big battle, it runs rampant in my sport so I love to overcome that, to challenge it head on, because there is nothing that feels as accomplished as overcoming a fear, and something that has blocked you in such a big way.

The moment you feel yourself hesitate on something you know you should do, count 5-4-3-2-1 to activate your prefrontal cortex and interrupt the habit of overthinking, self-doubt, and fear.

Having been a fighter for 25 years, I know how to handle the fear. The fear is there, but I use it to motivate me.

You can overcome anything if you don't bellyache.

I didn't fear failure. I expected failure.

I was terrified the first time that I had a big problem in my business. I was obviously terrified when they diagnosed me with cancer in 1994. I was terrified when my son used to drive too fast. But I do believe in the fact that fear is not an option, so I always try to face it and not be afraid.

Madison Square Garden, November 1984. I don't recall taking too much fear into the ring. I knew I could fight. But I got a big shock. They put me in with this rough, tough veteran called Lionel Byarm. He tested me to the limit. But I fought my heart out and, in the end, I prevailed. The story of my life, in my very first fight.

Without the lessons I learned in gymnastics, I would be crushed.

I need to be able to face things.

The truth is that throughout my careers in both chess and the martial arts, I often knew that my rivals were more naturally gifted than me - either with their mental machines or their bodies. But I have believed in my training, my approach to learning, and my ability to rise to the challenge under pressure.

… the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

You have to let fear go. Another lesson is you just have to believe in yourself; you just have to. There's no way around it. No matter how things are stacked against you, you just have to every time.

I gravitate towards roles where women find strength in very difficult, uncompromising situations but maintain clarity in mind, discipline at heart, and a certain strength in spirit.

The minute I think 'Oh God, I don't want to do this because I'm scared,' is the moment I have to do something, whatever it is.

I believe the tough fights bring out the better fighter in myself.

To know you're truly alive in wrestling, you have to constantly challenge yourself. You constantly have to do things that you're unsure you can do.

My biggest fear as a fighter is to be knocked out in front of millions of people. But after it actually happened, there's this calmness about you that says everything is OK.

Sometimes, I have to beat myself first in order to beat the other guy. And that sucks. I'm not gonna lie. But that's me.

First principle: never to let one's self be beaten down by persons or by events.

I don't have the luxury of not going to work when I don't feel up to it. Most people don't. On those days, I acknowledge I am feeling f-cking crappy, and I'm not at my best, and I still want to or need to keep walking forward. I have to do some of my best work on my worst days. I have to look pretty even when I don't feel pretty. There's a way to hold both things.

I say, 'Be brave. Do it even if your ankles shake, because they will.'

I have learned not to allow rejection to move me.

I grew up a skinny kid with a funny last name and coke bottle glasses, so I experienced my fair share of bullies. But I learned, with the help of humor and resilience, to never give up.