Imagine walking along a road, and a HUGE rock blocks your way.
You can’t go around it, and it’s too big to climb over, you’re going to have to find
another way.
Ryan Holiday, in his book, The Obstacle is the Way, tells us that obstacles aren’t
actually the problem.
It’s our BELIEF, that the path WON’T have any obstacles, that’s incorrect.
The rock was always going to be there, obstacles are just part of the journey.
In life, we’re going to come across obstacles.
Here are three lessons to help us to overcome them!
Lesson 1 is: Don’t waste time on useless reactions.
Things happen to us ALL THE TIME.
We have no control over it, but what we DO have control over is how we “perceive”
and how we “REACT to” the situation.
Thomas Edison had a bunch of buildings for his labs and everything.
And One day, a huge forest-fire broke out and started to burn a ton of his buildings.
As the buildings lit up in different colours Edison’s reaction was pretty surprising.
He told everyone: “Get your kids here, we will never see another fire like this!”
Things happen to us all the time, and we can either cry about it, or accept it.
Whatever we do, it’s not going to change whatever’s already happened.
Edison knew that, and didn’t waste any time mourning his loss.
Instead, he spent the next few months working harder than he ever did rebuilding the buildings
that were burnt down.
Lesson number 2: Think progress, not perfection.
Sometimes, we get so involved in passing the obstacle, that we forget what we’re actually
aiming for.
If you’ve seen some of my older videos, you might recall that I used to work at a
restaurant.
When I first got the job, I lived pretty far away, and it wouldn’t make much sense to
take public transit because it would take too long, so I decided to buy a car to make
travelling faster.
I started looking at the different cars, and test-drove a few.
Some had really cool features like heated seats, power windows, and CD changers.
I wanted a sporty looking car, preferably red, with power windows and a moon-roof.
I completely forgot the reason why I’m buying a car.
It wasn’t supposed to be used to win street races, impress girls, or so my friends and
I could stick our arms out of the roof, it was so that I didn’t have to take public
transit to work!
A lot of times we get caught up in all this stuff, that we forget our actual goal..
Take time to re-assess what our goals are.
And remember, “It doesn’t matter if the cat is black or white, as long as it catches
mice.”
While it might be nice to smash every piece of the rock that’s in our way, we only need
to clear enough of it to pass through and head on to the next obstacle
And lastly: Life is not a race, it’s a marathon, there will always be obstacles.
I’ve had a fascination for snakes as a kid.
My mom would NEVER let me have a pet snake, and being 6 years old, I didn’t really have
much of a say into the matter.
One day, my parents bought me a fish tank and said I could have fish instead.
They were going to bring me to the pet store for me to pick out a fish but I didn’t one.
I wanted a snake, so the fish tank was basically empty for a long time.
One day, I went to a grocery store with my parents and grandparents and saw that they
were selling eels!
I instantly wanted one because they looked like a snake, and I could easily raise one
since I already had a fish tank!
I cried and cried until my grandmother bought me one.
Long story short, the eel didn’t last the week.
It was the most traumatic incident I’ve ever experienced, I was devastated!
After that, I thought, okay if i can handle this, I can handle anything in life, and that
wasn’t the case.
Over the years, I’ve gotten through more tragic events... breakups, loss of family
members, But overcoming those losses made me a stronger person.
There will always be obstacles.
Behind the mountains are more mountains.
Whenever you pass obstacles, life will throw more at you because it knows you can take
it.
It will never get any easier, but you will grow more as a person every time you pass
these obstacles.
To recap: Don’t waste time on useless reactions.
Things WILL happen to us, and we can either cry about it, or continue on with our lives.
Think progress, not perfection.
Remember your end goal, and focus on that as opposed to distractions along the way.
And lastly, remember that life will continue to throw challenges at you.
Solving an obstacle will only bring about MORE obstacles.
Keep a steady head, it’s not a bad thing, life is not a race, it’s a marathon, and
the obstacle IS the way.
I hope you gained a few insights on life, but most importantly, I hope you enjoyed this
video.
If you haven’t subscribed, you can do it by clicking here, because every week, my videos
get better, so if you enjoyed this video, you will enjoy next week’s EVEN MORE!
See you then!