An interesting thing happened this morning on Amazon as I was checking the latest novel by Steven Pressfield – The Profession. A paragraph in the opening pages struck me as inspiring so I decided to type it up from the screen and share it with my Facebook friends. Now I am a fairly good typist at 40+ words/minute. However – typing the text from the screen proved to be remarkably difficult. All of a sudden I couldn’t go faster than 15-20 words a minute. I was doing half my speed at best. But why, I thought?
Then I realized that I usually type faster because I type my own words – my own story. Somehow my fingers know what I am about to say even before I formulate a complete sentence in my head. Sometimes I even let my fingers do all the thinking – I type fast and the sentence appears on the page before it’s final in my head. Is this the same for everything I do? For everything we all do? Could this be the reason some people have a hard time in their work? Because they are not free to speak with their own voice?
It’s no science, but it seems – “Type your own story!” is a good rule to remember. Here is the section from Steven Pressfield’s book:
“I am a warrior. What I narrate in these pages is between me and other warriors. I will say things that only they will credit and only they understand.
A warrior, once he reckons his calling and endures its initiation, seeks three things.
First, a field of conflict. This sphere must be worthy. It must own honor. It must merit the blood he will donate to it.
Second, a warrior seeks comrades. Brothers-in-arms, with whom he willingly undergoes the trial of death. Such men he recognizes at once and infallibly, by signs others cannot know.
Last, a warrior seeks a leader. A leader defines the cause for which the warrior offers sacrifice. Nor is this dumb obedience, as of a beast or a slave, but the knowing heart’s pursuit of vision and significance. The greatest commanders never issue orders. Rather, they compel by their own act and virtue the emulation of those they command.
The great champions throw leadership back on you. “
