The obstacle is the way
Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition.
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Lessons from ‘The Obstacle is The Way’ by Ryan Holiday
The struggle is part of the journey. The obstacle in the path becomes the path. Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition.
We are our storytellers. There is no good or bad without us, there is only perception. There is the event and the story we tell ourselves about what it means.
Focus on the moment, not the monsters that may or may not be up ahead.
Take action. We talk a lot about courage as a society, but we forget that at its most basic level, it’s really just taking action—whether that’s approaching someone you’re intimated by or deciding to finally crack a book on a subject you need to learn.
Our feelings of anxiety are not unique. Many others have experienced it and overcome it. You can always remember that a decade earlier, a century earlier, a millennium earlier, someone just like you stood right where you are and felt very similar things, struggling with the very same thoughts. They had no idea that you would exist, but you know that they did. And a century from now, someone will be in your exact same position, once more.
Remember your death. Reminding ourselves each day that we will die helps us treat our time as a gift. Someone on a deadline doesn’t indulge himself with attempts at the impossible, he doesn’t waste time complaining about how he’d like things to be.
Align your heart and action with the Good, and you will find peace. Where the head goes, the body follows. Perception precedes action. Right action follows the right perspective.
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Till next week,
Peace!
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