Quotes About Effort

When I sit down to write in the morning, I literally have no expectations for myself or for the day's work. My only goal is to put in three or four hours with my fingers punching the keys. I don't judge myself on quality. I don't hold myself accountable for quantity. The only questions I ask are, Did I show up? Did I try my best?

Because the most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.

Why have I stressed professionalism so heavily? Because the most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.

Nor am I "leading" in any way that the military manuals would recognise or commend. I'm just slogging miserably beside the others. But we are one, each giving his all. I catch a second wind, and I feel my brothers-in-arms catch theirs too. By

Bhagavad-Gita tells us we have a right only to our labor, not to the fruits of our labor.

But a ship of war runs on heart as much as sweat. There must be love among the men or you're finished.

Who walks his path beside me Feels my hand upon him always. No effort he makes is wasted, Nor unseen, unguided by me.

But this is different for me. These are my demons. This is me. This is the shit I do, no matter how hard I try to stop myself.

When you and I set out to create anything—art, commerce, science, love—or to advance in the direction of a higher, nobler version of ourselves, we uncork from the universe, ineluctably, an equal and opposite reaction.

Resistance never sleeps. It never slackens and it never goes away. The dragon must be slain anew every morning. However, as with anything in life, if you've succeeded in the past, at least you know that you can succeed.

Only one thing matters in this initial draft: get SOMETHING done, however flawed or imperfect.

the Muse favors working stiffs. She hates prima donnas.

From what I've seen, the operations of war are constituted less of glorious attacks and valiant defences and more of an ongoing succession of mundane and often excruciating balls-ups.

A professional schools herself to stand apart from her performance, even as she gives herself to it heart and soul. The Bhagavad-Gita tells us we have a right only to our labor, not to the fruits of our labor. All the warrior can give is his life; all the athlete can do is leave everything on the field.

All I know how to do is work.

If we can't finish, all our work is for nothing.

We have the right to our labor but not to the fruit of our labor.

The soap and sponge were doing their thing.

Work—day-in, day-out exertion and concentration—produces progress and order. That's a law of the universe.

Steven Pressfield

The Muse honors the working stiff.

Remember, the Muse favors working stiffs.

The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce, and gives it some of the grace of tragedy.

the idea of luck and happiness. How much of life was accidental and how much was work, and practically