In this episode, we discuss how to overcome obstacles using Ryan Holiday’s book “The Obstacle Is The Way.”
Full Transcript
Hi Everyone, welcome to the You’re Daily Cup of Joe Podcast, where my goal is to give you quick lessons on how to grow yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually so you can have better careers, better relationships, and better personal finances.
I’m also the author of the book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to Get Better Every Day”. In this book, I wrote down over 30 tips to help you grow in those four cornerstones.
In today’s episode, we’re to do a book review of one of my favorite books called “The Obstacle Is The Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph” by Ryan Holiday. Now Ryan Holiday is one of my favorite authors out there because it does a really great job of breaking things down into a process for people to follow. He probably got a lot of help from his mentor, Robert Greene, who is another author that I love who is good at the same thing.
The book “The obstacle is the way” is a book about stoicism, and stoicism focuses on being a good person. don’t argue how to be good person, you focus on the things you can control, you take action, practice misfortune, you accept the fate that life has given you, you have the right perception, and you know how to accept death. These all great principles to know to help you handle the uncertainty of life and that’s what The Obstacle is the way is all about, how to overcome the uncertainty of obstacles and turn them into opportunities for yourself.
This book breaks down obstacles into three different sections. Perception, action, and the will to endure, which are based on stoic principles and relates to the one Marcus Aurelius quote “The impediment to action advance action. What stands in the way, becomes the way.” There will always be some sort of obstacle in our way, and our path to success for goals is not to go around the obstacle but to go through it. Now Ryan Holiday does a great job of mixing in stories of famous people who overcame their obstacles to become the person they desired to be. So if you want the formula for overcoming obstacles, it’s all written down in the book, it’s simple but in most cases, it won’t be easy.
The first lesson people need to do is have the right perception against an obstacle by taking emotion out of the equation. We could have an injury that prevents us from competing but this can finally give the time to review the film and study other parts of the game so we can come back both mentally and physically stronger. In the book, Ryan shares the story of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter and how he went to jail for 19 years for a crime he didn’t commit. He spent every day in the library working on his case and when he was free, he didn’t sue the government for damages because it would have been like they took something away from him instead of how that’s how it was supposed to be. That is a very strong-willed mind right there. So whatever obstacle you’re facing right now, your perception is going to be the first step into turning that trial into triumph. If you get upset and let your emotions take over saying this is unfair, you already lost the battle. In the book, they gave another story of how a kind was upset that his kingdom was getting complacent and decided to place a boulder in the middle of a path that people couldn’t get around. Many people got upset and yelled but just ended up turning around. until this one person saw the boulder, went into the woods and got a stick to use leverage to move the boulder and underneath the boulder saw gold that the king left behind for whoever could overcome the obstacle. So going back to the quote, you have to go through the obstacle.
The second lesson the book teaches us that we need to take action. If we don’t take any action against the obstacle, nothing will happen. Hurricane Carter took action by spending every day in the library studying law books and even writing his own book to him with his case. He could have easily got distracted by prison life and quit working on his case but he went to work. He even got an honorary law degree from Griffen University for the amount of work he put into his case. Ryan Holiday also stated that Hurricane Carter came out of prison a better person since he put so much energy into his personal development. So whatever goal you’re trying to accomplish, you have to take action to make it become a reality. You be sitting on the couch and wait for things to come to you, you have to go towards them by taking action.
The final lesson people to know is the will to endure. Many of the obstacles that we face will take time overcome like Hurricane Carter, who spent 19 years in jail and had to go through two appeal processes before his conviction was overturned. 19 years is a long time to wait for something to happen but if it takes that long so be it. If he didn’t do anything at all, he would have stayed in person longer and not have the skills that caused him to get out of prison. When it comes to businesses, a social change, or making a lasting relationship, the will to endure is going to be necessary to make everything come together. There are plenty of times I wanted to quit, but I keep telling myself that no matter how hard it is or how hard it will be, I will get through it. I got this positive affirmation for Les Brown and it has helped me tremendously over the past five years. So something really matters to you, the will to endure is going to make sure that dream becomes a reality. For most things in life, the reason why it didn’t work out is because we quit too soon.
To summarize today’s episode, you should definitely check out the obstacle is the way by Ryan Holiday. The New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks both read this book before they start their Super Bowl Runs and to overcome obstacles you need to have the right perception. take action, and have the will to endure. When you read the book, you learn even more about the nuances for those three core principles and read even more stories of famous people who overcame their own obstacles. Great book and I would give it five out of five stars.
Thanks for listening to today’s episode.
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