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The modern mind blames its misery on broken brain chemistry — but this lecture from Academy of Ideas offers a sharper diagnosis: we are living as amateurs. Drawing on Steven Pressfield’s Turning Pro, it shows how the amateur numbs pain with pleasure and addiction, while the professional rises through discipline and love of the work. The paradox inside it all is surprising: the self-chosen chains of purpose are what actually set us free. And Lao Tzu closes the loop — do your work, then step back, for that is the only path to serenity.
Full Video Transcript
Unlimited possibilities are not suited to man. If they existed, his life would only dissolve in the boundless.
To become strong, a man’s life needs the limitations ordained by duty and voluntarily accepted.
The individual attains significance as a free spirit only by surrounding himself with these limitations and by determining for himself what his duty is.
In discussions of freedom, there is a tendency to focus on political freedom.
But there is another form of freedom which today is just as rare, that being the psychological
freedom we experience when we recognize our weaknesses and bad habits and instead of wallowing
in self-pity, we exercise our autonomy in pursuit of a better life. This form of freedom is all too
absent today. Addictions, compulsions, neuroses, and other self-sabotaging behaviors keep many of
us locked in mental prisons and hinder our ability to flourish. Often these issues are attributed to
flaws in our genetic or biological makeup, hence, the solution is to alter our brain chemistry with
regular doses of pharmaceutical drugs. But not all agree that a change in our biological makeup
is the only, or even the best way, to escape from our faulty ways of being. Steven Pressfield,
in his book turning pro put forth an alternative theory he argues that many of us will only find
a cure to what ails us if we can regain control of our life and begin moving in a direction which
permits us to enjoy the life-affirming experience associated with personal growth and the best way
to do this he argues is to commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in a self-chosen field
a process he calls turning pro what ails you and me wrote pressfield has nothing to do with being
sick what ails us is that we are living our lives as amateurs the solution is that we turn pro
the decision of the amateur to remain locked in a mediocre life and that of the pro who decides
to discipline himself to excellence are both responses to the recognition that life consists
of suffering. Yet while the amateur seeks relief from the pain of life, primarily through
the numbing effects of addictions and the pursuit of pleasures, the pro strives to rise
above his suffering through what Pressfield calls, labor and love. Some people are lucky
in that they find a calling early in life and commit to turning pro with little thought
as to what they are doing. For others, however, the choice to turn pro requires many wasted
years drifting in despair, before the realization strikes that a more purpose-driven existence
is needed.
No one is born a pro, wrote Pressfield, you’ve got to fall before you hit bottom.
And sometimes that fall can be a hell of a ride.
If we decide to turn pro, we need to recognize that it is not a part-time endeavor.
It requires daily sessions of what psychologists call deliberate practice, in which we own
our craft through persistence and focus.
or vocation, or calling, must become a top priority. In place of the hours we previously
devoted to pleasurable distractions, we must devote this time to cultivating the habits
and skills needed to excel in our work. Turning pro, in whatever field we choose, involves
placing ourselves in self-imposed chains of discipline, for paradoxically, this is the
path to psychological freedom. Freedom, in its essence, is the acceptance of the chains
which suit you, and for which you are suited, and of the harness in which you pull towards
an end chosen and valued by yourself and not imposed.
It is not and never can be the absence of restrictions, obligations, or law and of duty.
While most people can structure their life around the pursuit of excellence, many flee
from this way of life by resorting to two main excuses.
The first excuse is based on the belief that we are insignificant creatures in a universe
death to our desires, and so the point of life should be to enjoy the ride, not to burden
ourselves with the task of achieving anything of lasting worth.
But this ignores the fact that every one of us possesses an innate urge to growth, and
that if we refuse to heed this calling, we become self-destructive and prone to sicknesses
of the mind.
Or as the psychologist James Hillman wrote,
“…present in body and absent in spirit, he lies back on the couch, shamed by his own
potentials in his soul that will not be subdued. He feels himself inwardly subversive, imagining
in his passivity extremes of aggression and desire that must be suppressed. Solution?
More work, more money, more drink, more weight, more things, more infotainment.
Some of us, on the other hand, recognize the importance of turning pro, yet we continually
delay in taking action. We tell ourselves we will turn pro when we find ourself, or
or when we have overcome our depression, anxiety, or addictions.
Yet if Pressfield’s theory has merit, this evasive tactic is again built on a psychological error.
For turning pro is not something we do once we have cured our problems or found out who
we are.
Rather, turning pro is the cure.
It is the means by which we become who we are.
What we get when we turn pro is, we find our power.
We find our will and our voice and we find our self-respect.
We become who we always were but had, until then, been afraid to embrace and to live out.
If we decide to turn pro, it is crucial we do so for the right reasons.
For while turning pro will increase our chances of attaining riches, social status, and perhaps
even fame, if we turn pro primarily in order to obtain these goods, we may sabotage our
efforts.
Our energy, if too fixated on worldly success, will cause our work to suffer.
If the rewards do not come quick enough, as they seldom do, it is unlikely we will want
to continue making the necessary sacrifices required to attain excellence.
We will not, in other words, become pro unless we can place our desire for money or status
behind our ambition to nourish our skills and potentials.
But if we can find the inner drive to commit ourselves to this uncommon way of life, we
will discover that over time the psychological rewards we obtain far outweigh any form of
worldly success. For as we strive towards the heights of personal greatness, our psychological
problems will no longer affect us as they once did. They will have been neutralized
by a sense of inner peace and accomplishment sorely lacking in the lives of most. Or as
the Taoist sage Lao Tzu advised, chase after money and security and your heart will never
unclench. Care about people’s approval and you will be their prisoner. Do your work then
step back, the only path to serenity.
Source: Academy of Ideas