Turning Pro: Tap Your Inner Power and Create Your Life's Work
by Steven Pressfield
Quick Summary
Pressfield expands on concepts from "The War of Art," proposing that the fundamental division in human life is between the amateur and the professional. The amateur is ruled by Resistance -- fear, addiction, distraction, and shadow careers that keep one from doing the work they were born to do. Turning pro means making the internal commitment to approach one's calling with dedication, discipline, and self-respect, accepting the pain of transformation as the price of finding one's power and voice.
Detailed Summary
Steven Pressfield's "Turning Pro" is the third in his trilogy of books on creative and professional self-mastery, following "The War of Art" and "Do the Work." Where "The War of Art" identified and named the enemy (Resistance), "Turning Pro" provides a deeper exploration of the transformation required to defeat it.
Book One, "The Amateur Life," diagnoses the human condition through Pressfield's model. Rather than the therapeutic model (we are sick and need treatment) or the moralistic model (we have sinned and need punishment), Pressfield proposes the amateur/professional model: what ails us is that we are living as amateurs. The amateur is characterized by addiction, distraction, and a series of shadow careers -- occupations that bear a superficial resemblance to one's true calling but serve as substitutes that avoid the terror of actually pursuing it. The amateur is terrified of the consequences of being truly seen, of committing fully to something, and of the loneliness and responsibility that come with professional-level dedication.
Pressfield identifies the hallmarks of the amateur life: operating within a comfort zone, living for others' approval, lacking a practice or daily discipline, and being unable to delay gratification. He draws on his own decades of amateur existence -- years of addiction, failed endeavors, and self-sabotage -- as case studies.
Book Two, "The Professional Mindset," describes what changes when you turn pro. The professional shows up every day, works through Resistance regardless of inspiration, accepts no excuses, and maintains a practice. Pressfield distinguishes between the professional's qualities: patience, order, demystification of the process, acting in the face of fear, accepting no excuses, playing it as it lays, being prepared, not showing off, dedicating to mastery over the long haul, and not hesitating to ask for help.
Book Three, "The Higher Realm," connects the amateur/professional distinction to a spiritual framework. Pressfield argues that turning pro connects one to a transpersonal source of inspiration and guidance. The professional, by committing fully to the work, becomes a channel for something larger than the individual ego.
The book's relevance to trading lies in its treatment of the amateur mindset: the fear of commitment, the addiction to excitement over discipline, the tendency to quit when things get difficult, and the avoidance of the deep, unglamorous work required for mastery. Many traders recognize themselves in Pressfield's description of the amateur and find his framework useful for understanding their own self-sabotage.
