No Path In Life Is Obstacle-Free

Are they obstacles or unique opportunities?Photo by Luba Ertel on Unsplash

Some weeks, this article gets written the day before I post it. Other weeks, like this one, it doesn’t get done until the morning I create it.

It never ceases to amaze me how it just flows with ease one week, while another it’s a struggle to find what I desire to write about. This is one of the latter weeks.

It doesn’t help that it’s a rainy day. Not in the sense of a nasty, cloud-filled sky and drizzly rain, but a proper rainy day. I can hear it on the roof outside my window, on the street, and see it in the air. I love this sort of rain.

The trouble is, it’s very distracting. I don’t want to write, I want to sit down and read. Take a nap. Get in bed with a lover and enjoy each other’s bodies with the rain in the background. Sitting and doing my work, walking my path? Do I have to?

This is just another example of how no path in life is obstacle-free. And that’s because no life is obstacle-free.

What are obstacles?

This is often a matter of perspective. One person’s obstacle is another’s opportunity. What you might see as being in your way and problematic, I might see as being an interesting challenge and encouraging. Your mileage may vary.

When you choose to walk a path in your life, anything that gets in the way of doing your work is an obstacle. And by your work, I mean that which is the path you’ve chosen.

Obstacles in and of themselves are neutral. They just are. The bump in the road, the unexpected detour, an unplanned expense, and the like are just things that happen in everyone’s life. Nobody gets a free ride.

When you face an obstacle, how you react to it is wholly on you. Do you see it as a problem or potential? An ending or a beginning?  Do you choose to face it, run away from it, tackle it head-on, or detour around it? That’s entirely up to you.

I am listening to the rain come down and facing this blank screen. The obstacle is there, but I’m choosing to set it aside and focus on my work.

This is particularly challenging today.

Photo by Andrea De Santis on UnsplashNo path in life is easy

There are a couple of nonfiction audiobooks I listen to over and over again. Three of them are by Steven Pressfield. The first is his absolutely brilliant The War of Art. The second is Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be. The third is Turning Pro.

All of these titles explore the trials and tribulations that come from knowing what path in life you most desire to tread and the consequences of doing it and not doing it. Mr. Pressfield explores what not taking the path you desire will do to you, as well as what happens and how it feels to choose to walk a path in life.

He also does a deep dive into the primary obstacle everyone comes up against. He calls it Resistance. Resistance usually presents itself as an obstacle, a diversion, a distraction, or the like. It can appear reasonable and logical, but in reality, it’s your scared ego trying to circumvent change.

Every day, you choose if you let Resistance win and hold you back, or fight it and overcome it. For me, that includes doing this blog,1500 words of fiction a day, and a few other necessities I consider essential to my path.

The point is that no path in life is easy. All of them come with challenges, obstacles, and the unexpected. What you do in the face of that is entirely up to you.

You choose your path in life or not

There are going to be days when you aren’t traversing the path in life you’ve chosen. There’s an obligation you must meet to help a friend, hours at the DMV to renew a license, time spent sick and unable to get out of bed, and so on. That’s just a part of the human condition.

Sometimes the obstacles are meant to make you reconsider your path. Is this truly what you desire to do? If so, then the obstacle might teach you something new or provide a stimulus to double down. Or it might just be an elephant in the room staring as you ignore it and do your work.

No path in life is obstacle-free. More often than not, it’s less an obstacle and more an opportunity. That’s determined not by the obstacle itself, but what you choose to do when faced with it.

When you choose poorly – and you will – forgive yourself. As a human being, you’re perfectly imperfect. Ergo, sometimes you don’t overcome the obstacle, sometimes it takes you off your path, and sometimes it makes you choose to do nothing. So long as you don’t give up and give in, you can make a new choice and change.

I know the world is nuts right now. A lot of crazy shit is going down. Rather than let that be an obstacle to my path in life, I’m keeping it in mind enough to make choices and decisions while living my life as best I can. And, hopefully, helping others become empowered to do so, too.

What do you do when you encounter an obstacle on your life path?

This is the seventh-hundred-twentieth (720) exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – applying mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.

I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.

Thank you for joining me. Feel free to repost and share this.

The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out my author website for the rest of my published fiction and nonfiction works.

The post No Path In Life Is Obstacle-Free appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.