One of my favorite Steven Pressfield quotes doesn't come from some of his best-known works, "The War of Art" and "Turning Pro," which are two of my all-time favorites.
It comes from his book on Alexander the Great, "Virtues of War":
Alexander and his soldiers encounter an old man who stands in their way.
One of the soldiers demands that the old man move, saying to him:
"This man has conquered the world! What have you done?"
The philosopher replied without an instant's hesitation,
"I have conquered the need to conquer the world."
I used to want to conquer my old little world. And my conquering was through chasing externals to define who I am.
Because when identity is built on what’s outside of you, you're perpetually one outcome away from losing yourself.
It was a terrible way to live.
I look at what's going on in the world today, and I see people desperately trying to obtain as much power as they possibly can.
In my eyes, it's the greatest power grab I've seen in my 52 years.
Power is intoxicating, no doubt.
But it's also a self-fulfilling prison cell slowly built over time.
If power is your fuel, you're outsourcing your inner state to external approval and validation.
You're living on the top one inch of the ocean of life, completely missing the depth beneath you.
Because when you outsource your inner state to external validation, everything becomes a threat to what you need.
Life is lived in fear of losing what you have, even if the strategy appears to be acquiring more.
It's a strategy of defense disguised cleverly as offense.
Because what you have isn't enough, so you chase more, believing that when you reach a critical mass, you'll be untouchable, you won't lose what you have.
You'll be too big to fail.
But that's not true. Fear will still lurk around every corner, and you spend your life looking for what will take from you.
Because the life being built isn't coming from you, it's constantly being negotiated with the world around you.
Most of us aren't chasing power; we're chasing control over how we're perceived.
True power is created internally and requires no external validation.
But when you need to get drunk off of others' approval, fear, or validation, you will never understand this.
I want my life to be one of inner peace and emotional freedom, ease, and grace.
I don't chase these emotions "out there." I create them by coming back to,
"I have conquered the need to conquer the world."
This article appeared originally on LinkedIn here.