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94 Steven Pressfield

When we ship, we open ourselves to judgment in the real world.
Nothing is more empowering, because it plants us solidly on
Planet Earth and gets us out of our self-devouring, navel-cen-
tered fantasies and self-delusions.

Ship it.

One Thing I Can Promise You

My personal bête noire of Resistance was shipping. When I was
twenty-five, I had finished a novel 99.9 percent of the way. But I
couldn’t pull the trigger. I lost my nerve.

At that time, I had no idea there was such a thing as Resistance.
I believed the voices in my head. I acted out. I blew up my mar-
riage and blew up my life, rather than plunge a sword into the
heart of that book and ship it.

It took me seven more years before I found the courage to face
that dragon again—and another ten years after that before I had
finally learned how to lay him out.

Here’s one thing I can tell you—and you can take this to the
bank:

Slay that dragon once, and he will
never have power over you again.