We all have problems... and this is a good thing.
Ryan Holiday's book The Obstacle is the Way serves as an excellent tool for shifting the way we think about and shape our problems. We want to work to become better, but we also want to feel comfortable. It is natural to seek comfort and rest, but comfort can also be a trap. Growth does not occur within our comfort zones. And rest is critical, but only to the extent that it recharges us for further action.
We really only exist in either a state of growth or decay. There is no frozen, static, spot where we can remain comfortable and simultaneously advance toward our goals. Just like a bodybuilder, we need resistance in order to grow and we grow only in proportion to the obstacles we face. A long-time guiding phrase here at Smith & Savage is "Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors." This is a philosophy that the ancient practitioners of stoicism embraced.
Stoicism provides wisdom from a tougher age than our own and Holiday's book is a crash course in the tenets that stoics followed. Holiday has done the distilling for you by researching the prominent stoics, their lives and writings, and bringing what is useful from them into one easy-to-absorb capsule. He explains how great men such as Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius used this blueprint to not only face the obstacles in front of them, but to grow and thrive as a direct result. The book's title comes from Marcus Aurelius's words, "The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way." This is also not just classroom philosophy. Holiday describes the exemplars he uses as not only scholars, but men who "had the philosophy but also lived a life of doing."
Stoicism isn't about being unfeeling, rather it is more akin to feeling and being uncomplaining. Neither is it to be confused with the negative connotation of cynicism. Stoicism is a philosophy of action, of focusing on what works. Author Tim Ferriss describes it as "an operating system for making better decisions in your life." Holiday encourages us not to waste time and energy on all the things we can't do or the factors out of our control. The book teaches you instead how to take the focus off of the "problem" you are facing and put the focus back on you and how you can improve. The importance is not the thing blocking your path. The importance is you arriving at the thing while on your path. This moment is not the opportunity for the obstacle, it is the opportunity for you.
Even if you may initially feel powerless, there is always some empowering action you can take, if only a chance to practice some virtue such as patience or self-discipline. As psychologist and holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl put it, "When we are no longer able to change a situation...we are challenged to change ourselves."
The subtitle is The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph and Holiday has filled this book with numerous examples to illustrate how we also can make that mental shift. One favorite example is young Demosthenes who "was born sickly and frail with a nearly debilitating speech impediment." Though "weak, beaten on, powerless, and ignored...he did something about it. To conquer his speech impediment, he devised his own strange exercises. He would fill his mouth with pebbles and practice speaking. He rehearsed full speeches into the wind or while running up steep inclines. He learned to give entire speeches with a single breath. And soon, his quiet, weak voice erupted with booming, powerful clarity." Eventually Demosthenes became, "the voice of Athens, its great speaker and conscience. He would be successful precisely because of what he'd been through and how he'd reacted to it."
"The Obstacle is the Way teaches us of the art of finding silver linings, no matter the size of the obstacle."
When you train yourself to view life through this lens, you realize that nothing truly bad can ever happen to you because everything can become an opportunity. Holiday reminds us to see events only for what they are and nothing more. Shakespeare echoed the stoics when he said, "Nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so." Problems are not problems, they are challenges. Stumbling blocks are redefined as opportunities and the only way out is through.
This is the kind of book that you can pick up anytime, open to any chapter, and find some practical wisdom for navigating through life. Holiday closes the book by encouraging us that the stoics "were nothing special, nothing that we are not just as capable of being. What they did was simple (simple, not easy). But let's say it once again to remind ourselves:
See things for what they are.
Do what we can.
Endure and bear what we must.
What blocked the path now is a path.
What once impeded action advances action.
The Obstacle is the Way."
"Take all of your so-called problems. Better put 'em in quotations." John Mayer - Say