His favorite saying seems to have been, “This too shall pass.” An example mentioned in the book is Abraham Lincoln, who for most of his life suffered from depression, and still found a bigger purpose in the civil war, fulfilling his duties. It doesn’t mean being a pessimist - it means being prepared for what might come, and even when things go wrong, still maintain a positive attitude. One of the critical pieces of advice from any stoic is that one has to prepare for adversity and practice cheerfulness in bad times. But even when facing such, we can turn them into learning experiences. Will: Sometimes, there are obstacles that we can’t overcome.

Even just writing this post (and all the others), the most challenging part was starting. And as you might well know, the first step is often the hardest one.

Action: When taking action, it should be deliberately, step by step, serving to achieve a bigger goal.

Because then we’ll be able to react in the best possible Way. But it’s worth taking a step back, filtering out our prejudice, and observing things as calmly as possible. We like to put events into good and bad categories.

Discipline of perception: It’s easy to get to judge what happens around you immediately.

It breaks down three areas and practical tips that anyone can implement to be more like Eisenhower (and others who make obstacles the Way). Where others might have been struck down by fear and tried to react to a perceived overwhelming threat, he took a step back and saw the bigger picture. The book contains stories from people such as Eisenhower, who didn’t just see the Blitzkrieg as a devastating method of war but recognized that it carried its destruction in it. Or, as the author puts it: “what matters most is not what these obstacles are but how we see them, how we react to them, and whether we keep our composure.” While some people blame their surroundings for their perceived misery, others just get on with it. In his book, Ryan Holiday takes learnings from Stoicism and ties them with powerful narratives to teach readers about the importance of mindset. This is important because we can control our judgments. One of it’s key principles is that we don’t react to events but to our judgments of them. Stoicism is the philosophy of personal ethics that tries to seek practical wisdom in life. Why is it that most of the successful people I’ve met (and success for me isn’t just being some C-Level person, no, it’s a lot broader than that) got where they are against the odds? It might well be that they read “The obstacle is the way” by Ryan Holiday or any other book rooted in Stoicism. Did you know that more than half of the companies in the S&P 500 were founded during a recession? And yet, I bet there are a handful of people telling themselves that now isn’t a good time to start a business because of the economic environment (inflation not so transitory, etc.).

The obstacle is the way by ryan holiday