Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art, in fear.less magazine:
It’s like that famous cartoon from the new Yorker where a perplexed-looking person is standing in front of two closed doors. One door says “heaven” and the other says “Books about heaven.” It’s so much easier to read the books about heaven because you know, if I open that door and go to heaven, holy cow. I think we’re all terrified of that, to be what we’re meant to be. Because then all the responsibility lays on us and we can’t hide behind anything.I love that metaphor, "Books about Heaven". But it's true. It takes real courage to go through the door named Heaven. It's much less scary to just do what you're trained to do, to do what someone else has done before you, to do what you already know how to do, than it is to go out and do your own thing, to create your art, to live your personal legend, to follow your personal calling. What if you fail? What if you're rejected? If you haven't done it yet, there's probably a reason why, and that reason is fear.
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