Member-only story
When the Obstacle is NOT The Way
“What stands in the way becomes the way.”
Marcus Aurelius’ famous maxim still holds true almost two millennia after he first noted it in his journal.
I’ve written and spoken previously about the value of cultivating adversity in your life. Overcoming difficulty is almost a pre-requisite to achieving great things.
Whether it’s cold calling, keynote speaking, surfing, or hitting the standup comedy open mic circuit, there are myriad ways I’ve gone about incorporating more adversity into my life.
Developing a healthy relationship with adversity helps us to roll with the punches and keep moving forward, as opposed to suffering debilitating paralysis at the first sign of rejection or failure.
But as Nassim Taleb put it in The Black Swan, well-sounding maxims might make sense but they don’t always stand up to empirical tests. And while I’m a huge fan of Ryan Holiday’s work (and his taste in music — Up The Irons!), there are indeed times when the obstacle is not the way that we should be cognizant of.
