The Obstacle is the Way

The Obstacle is the Way - not my words, but those of Ryan Holiday's titled stoic book, that I've read today. The premise is a simple - yet profound - one. Obstacles are placed in our daily lives, big or small, to challenge and change us.

With an obstacle, we have to find a way round it. We often can't move it and when we can't, we must change our mindsets about it. Being unhappy or shouting angrily about an obstacle won't remove or diminish it, but thinking about new paths that open when one is blocked is a positive stoic step.

I've been wholly guilty of obstacle rage in my teaching career - when it ended (twice) in 2013 and 2015, instead of viewing the obstacle as a way of finding a new door to open, I fought the system, employed barristers and anti-bullying specialists, ended up seeking solace in the bottle, made myself even more ill, and angry.

And lost.

I felt at the time that the obstacle had to be destroyed. To be battled against. I made people in the system uncomfortable at the time.

But I lost.

My time and emotional energy would have been better spent on something else. But I couldn't see beyond the obstacle, until I lost, accepted defeat and moved on.

That fake barring from teaching, my blacklisting, my unemployability, even when exonerated in writing, opened new paths for career growth - my business, Get Pro Copy, formed in November 2015, when "suspended for gross misconduct" (all bullshit) became a massive success and the teaching obstacle became my new way.

Think yourself of how many times you've faced impediments - at home, in relationships, at work and in your personal lives - and how often you've taken action, real actions, to learn and grow from these.

The obstacle is the way.

Too often in life, we simply complain about bad things that happen - Edison saw his factory burn down and instructed onlookers to fetch others as they'd never see a fire like this in their lives. His obstacle - business wiped out by fire - saw him, in his own words, wake from boredom and build a bigger, better factory that surpassed all previous revenue records.

We can all do with the spirit of Edison in our daily lives.

When you see an obstacle, tonight, tomorrow, next week, don't complain about it, think of it as an opportunity to grow; both personally and professionally.

Become a philosopher, as Ryan Holiday concludes in closing this exceptional book, and a person of action.

The obstacle is the way.