In the book, Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be, Steven Pressfield shares his inspiration and techniques to help us make the life-altering transformation.

These are some of my favorite takeaways from reading the book.

Up to this point, Steve has been talking about making the commitment. But “put your ass” is not a short, one-time endeavor. This concept applies lifelong.

When we commit to “put our ass,” the duration of the journey can be long, repetitive, and never-ending. Consider the passage in the book from James Rhodes, the concert pianist.

Steve lists some of the accomplished artists in the book and compares them to the statement of “going the distance.” We will find… “When you and I put our ass where our heart wants to be, we do it for keeps. We’re in it to the end of the line.”

Just like those accomplished artists, we have a body of work, too. For most of us, that body of work exists inside us, just waiting for us to bring it out to the world. These bodies of work exist as alternative futures. If we choose not to commit over a long haul, that body of work may exist only in our imagination.

So, can we put our ass where our hearts want to be if we have a family, a job, and a mortgage? “Yes,” says Steve.

The Muse does not count hours. She counts commitment. We can commit to a smaller time slice, but our commitment needs to be consistent. We can add up our work and commitment drip by drip.

At some point, the practice of our vocation moves from being a challenge that we must step up and accept to becoming simply… our life.

Like a mother raising her children or a farmer tending his crops, the commitment becomes who we are and what we do.

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