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.

Steve believes that the Muse will take notice of us when we put our ass where our hearts want to be. By giving our best effort day in and day out, the Goddess comes to our aid.

When we commit to our journey, we risk everything and hold nothing back. We have hurled ourselves headlong into the unknown. When we carry out the act with the mindset of valor and fearlessness, heaven might notice and intervene, in some way, in our favor.

The journey can be difficult sometimes, and we must keep ourselves in the game and not give in to the Resistance. One technique to consider is self-reinforcement.

Can we remind ourselves periodically why we are doing this and that ultimate success will be ours if we stay and keep doing what we are doing? Can we be our coach and mentor?

That is self-reinforcement, and self-reinforcement keeps us committed over the long haul.

Self-reinforcement can also serve as a form of a reality check.

Sometimes when circumstances seem overwhelming, we need to take a breath and perhaps take a walk around the block. We might often find things are not as bad as we imagine. That, too, is self-reinforcement.

Self-reinforcement can help to keep some moments of reality in check. Often, “reality” means nothing more than conventional reality. And the conventional reality is usually made up and almost always wrong.

Sometimes self-reinforcement means kicking the conventional “reality” out the door and replacing it with what is in front of us right now. It helps us to keep things in perspective and objective by leveraging our self-validation to keep us on course.

For writers and artists, the ability to self-reinforce is more important than talent.

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