The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph

by Ryan Holiday

The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.

he truly saw each and every one of these obstacles as an opportunity to practice some virtue: patience, courage, humility, resourcefulness, reason, justice, and creativity.

Whatever we face, we have a choice: Will we be blocked by obstacles, or will we advance through and over them?

the world is still constantly testing us. It asks: Are you worthy? Can you get past the things that inevitably fall in your way? Will you stand up and show us what you’re made of?

Every obstacle is unique to each of us. But the responses they elicit are the same: Fear. Frustration. Confusion. Helplessness. Depression. Anger.

“Bad companies are destroyed by crisis. Good companies survive them. Great companies are improved by them.”

“The obstacle in the path becomes the path. Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition.”

We’re soft, entitled, and scared of conflict. Great times are great softeners. Abundance can be its own obstacle, as many people can attest.

Rockefeller’s personality: resilient, adaptable, calm, brilliant.

like Rockefeller, we can see opportunity in every disaster, and transform that negative situation into an education, a skill set, or a fortune.

He had made his choice: This can’t harm me—I might not have wanted it to happen, but I decide how it will affect me. No one else has the right.

If an unjust prison sentence can be not only salvaged but transformative and beneficial, then for our purposes, nothing we’ll experience is likely without potential benefit.

There is no good or bad without us, there is only perception. There is the event itself and the story we tell ourselves about what it means.

Where the head goes, the body follows. Perception precedes action. Right action follows the right perspective.

He knew that to aim low meant to accept mediocre accomplishment. But a high aim could, if things went right, create something extraordinary.

It’s one thing to not be overwhelmed by obstacles, or discouraged or upset by them. This is something that few are able to do. But after you have controlled your emotions, and you can see objectively and stand steadily, the next step becomes possible: a mental flip, so you’re looking not at the obstacle but at the opportunity within it.

The extent of the struggle determines the extent of the growth. The obstacle is an advantage, not adversity. The enemy is any perception that prevents us from seeing this.

We may be able to articulate a problem, even potential solutions, but then weeks, months, or sometimes years later, the problem is still there. Or it’s gotten worse. As though we expect someone else to handle it, as though we honestly believe that there is a chance of obstacles unobstacle-ing themselves.

We forget: In life, it doesn’t matter what happens to you or where you came from. It matters what you do with what happens and what you’ve been given.

They start. Anywhere. Anyhow. They don’t care if the conditions are perfect or if they’re being slighted. Because they know that once they get started, if they can just get some momentum, they can make it work.

For some reason, these days we tend to downplay the importance of aggression, of taking risks,

Stay moving, always.

We talk a lot about courage as a society, but we forget that at its most basic level it’s really just taking action—whether that’s approaching someone you’re intimidated by or deciding to finally crack a book on a subject you need to learn.

It’s supposed to be hard. Your first attempts aren’t going to work. It’s going to take a lot out of you—but energy is an asset we can always find more of. It’s a renewable resource. Stop looking for an epiphany, and start looking for weak points. Stop looking for angels, and start looking for angles.

It’s time you understand that the world is telling you something with each and every failure and action. It’s feedback—giving you precise instructions on how to improve, it’s trying to wake you up from your cluelessness. It’s trying to teach you something. Listen.

Failure shows us the way—by showing us what isn’t the way.

Follow the process and not the prize.

The process is about finishing. Finishing games. Finishing workouts. Finishing film sessions. Finishing drives. Finishing reps. Finishing plays. Finishing blocks. Finishing the smallest task you have right in front of you and finishing it well.

Sometimes, on the road to where we are going or where we want to be, we have to do things that we’d rather not do.

There’s nothing shameful about sweeping. It’s just another opportunity to excel—and to learn.

Start thinking like a radical pragmatist: still ambitious, aggressive, and rooted in ideals, but also imminently practical and guided by the possible.

Don’t think small, but make the distinction between the critical and the extra. Think progress, not perfection.

Rename it and claim it,

“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. Things that we had postponed for too long, that were long-term, are now immediate and must be dealt with. [A] crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before.”

If Perception and Action were the disciplines of the mind and the body, then Will is the discipline of the heart and the soul.

We craft our spiritual strength through physical exercise, and our physical hardiness through mental practice (mens sana in corpore sano

The path of least resistance is a terrible teacher. We can’t afford to shy away from the things that intimidate us.

The only guarantee, ever, is that things will go wrong. The only thing we can use to mitigate this is anticipation.

For we’re in our own fight with our own obstacles, and we can wear them down with our relentless smile (frustrating the people or impediments attempting to frustrate us).

Learning not to kick and scream about matters we can’t control is one thing. Indifference and acceptance are certainly better than disappointment or rage. Very few understand or practice that art. But it is only a first step. Better than all of that is love for all that happens to us, for every situation.

We don’t get to choose what happens to us, but we can always choose how we feel about it. And why on earth would you choose to feel anything but good?

It’s a little unnatural, I know, to feel gratitude for things we never wanted to happen in the first place. But we know, at this point, the opportunities and benefits that lie within adversities. We know that in overcoming them, we emerge stronger, sharper, empowered.

You love it because it’s all fuel. And you don’t just want fuel. You need it.

What would I change about my life if the doctor told me I had cancer?

thinking about and being aware of our mortality creates real perspective and urgency. It doesn’t need to be depressing. Because it’s invigorating.

Instead of denying—or worse, fearing—our mortality, we can embrace it. Reminding ourselves each day that we will die helps us treat our time as a gift.

Behind mountains are more mountains. Elysium is a myth. One does not overcome an obstacle to enter the land of no obstacles. On the contrary, the more you accomplish, the more things will stand in your way.

We can see the “bad” things that happen in our lives with gratitude and not with regret because we turn them from disaster to real benefit—from defeat to victory.

First, see clearly. Next, act correctly. Finally, endure and accept the world as it is.

See things for what they are. Do what we can. Endure and bear what we must.