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

by Ryan Holiday

He says the best way out is always through And I agree to that, or in so far As I can see no way out but through. —ROBERT FROST

“to strive, to seek, to find.”

never in a hurry never worried never desperate never stopping short

Remember and remind yourself of a phrase favored by Epictetus: “persist and resist.” Persist in your efforts. Resist giving in to distraction, discouragement, or disorder.

It’s okay to be discouraged. It’s not okay to quit. To know you want to quit but to plant your feet and keep inching closer until you take the impenetrable fortress you’ve decided to lay siege to in your own life—that’s persistence.

What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first steps to something better. —WENDELL PHILLIPS