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- It´s simple, it´s just not easy ✔️
As I start reading this wonderful book by Ryan Holiday called The Obstacle is the Way, I find myself being introduced to a new way of thinking, one that has been around forever, yet it’s rarely seen nowadays.
The premise of the book is pretty straightforward:
The impediment to action advances action.
What stands in the way, becomes the way
There’s no magic within these pages.
The whole book is about introducing a framework for “understanding, appreciating, and acting upon the obstacles life throws at us”.
How?
Well, for that we’ll need to go throught the entire book, but for the moment let’s just focus on the concept of: the obstacle is the way.
How easy it is for us to find innumerable excuses for us to blame our misfortune?
How skilled we truly are at cataloging what holds us back, and how creative we are at justifying our failures.
Yet, according to stoic philosophy, obstacles are not deterrents but rather catalysts for growth:
The obstacle in the path becomes the path. Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition.
So in it’s most basic sense, it’s anntproblem, not an external one.
And it makes sense right?
We live in, statistically, the healthiest, calmest, and most peaceful era of all time, yet we remain miserable and our goals seem more unatainable than ever before.
Why is that?
Why is it that we struggle more than previous generations even if we have fewer problems to face?
Well, that’s a pretty deep question which we’ll not answer right now. But more importantly, here lies the framework to change the we face the obstacles that life will innevitably throw at us.
And as Ryan mentions it:
Because obstacles are not only to be expected but embraced
So in the upcoming days we’ll be taking a deeper look at how to change the way we view at obstacles so be sure o check in tomorrow.