Joe Rogan and Aubrey Marcus speaking with Steven Pressfield about enthusiasm being buried under fear
Steven: Just something is occurring to me as we’re talking here. I might be, I haven’t even thought about this in a million years but, you were talking about, Aubrey, about people that don’t seem to care or don’t have the enthusiasm for something.
Aubrey: The wonder and awe in the world, yea.
Steven: I can remember that I used to be, for years I struggled like that. Where I was bored with things. I was bored with myself. I was beating my brains out saying; why don’t I love something? What is missing?
Aubrey: Right.
Steven: My, sort of my conclusion, was that I really did have tremendous ambition and tremendous aspiration but I had buried it under layers of fear. You know? As if, if I would ever admit to myself that I wanted to be excellent at something that, that would be more than I could take, failure would be more than I could take. And so when I finally sort of admitted to myself (and actuality its in The Authentic Swing I think, or maybe it’s not) but when I admitted to myself that I did have ambition, I did want to do something, suddenly everything changed. And then, enthusiasm did come. But it was fear. So I think when we’re running into people that are not, don’t have enthusiasm, don’t have that fire, I don’t believe it’s not there. I think it’s buried under fear. And I think that’s why great teachers, coaches, will put a young person in a position where they can exceed their expectations or their belief about themselves. Where they thought they couldn’t do it, and then the guy kicks them in the ass enough times [that] they actually do it and they go wow, how did that happen, you know? And then that’s the spark that can then burst into flame if it’s guided properly.