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More Notes from The Obstacle Is The Way
As you continue to give your best effort in navigating through these challenging times...
Please keep the following in mind...
Here is the second installment of my notes from The Obstacle Is The Way by Ryan Holiday.
What is WILL? Will is our internal power, which can never be affected by the outside world
True will is quiet humility, resilience, and flexibility.
The other kind of will is weakness disguised by bluster and ambition.
If Perception and Action were the disciplines of the mind and the body, then Will is the discipline of the heart and the soul. The Will is the one thing we control completely, always.
Certain things in life will cut you open like a knife. When this happens, the world gets a glimpse of what is truly inside you. So what will be revealed when you are sliced open by tension and pressure? Iron? Air? Or bullshit?
Confident, calm and ready to work regardless of the conditions. Willing and able to continue, even during the unthinkable, even when our worst nightmares have come true.
The Test – To be the same in all circumstances.
Always prepare yourself for more difficult times.
Always accept what you are unable to change.
Always manage your expectations.
Always persevere.
Always learn to love your fate and what happens to you.
Always protect your inner self.
Always submit to a greater, larger cause. What is for the greater good!!
Always remind yourself of your own mortality.
Nobody is born with a steel backbone. You must forge that yourself.
No one is born a gladiator.
If you are going to succeed you need to be strong, resilient, fearless and ready for anything.
The path of least resistance is a terrible teacher.
You can’t afford to shy away from the things that intimidate you.
Don’t take your weaknesses for granted.
Tough stuff is going to happen to you.
It is just a matter of when or how… but their appearance is certain.
And life will demand an answer.
Always plan for what can go wrong in advance.
Far too many ambitious undertakings fail for preventable reasons. Far too many people don’t have a backup plan because they refuse to consider that something might not go exactly as they wish.
“If you are not humble, life will visit humbleness upon you.” Mike Tyson
Your world is ruled by external factors. Promises aren’t kept. You don’t always get what is rightfully yours, even if you earned it. Not everything is as clean and straightforward as the games they play in Business School. Be prepared for this.
The only guarantee ever is… things will go wrong.
Be prepared for failure and ready for success.
It takes toughness, humility, and will to accept things for what they actually are. It takes a real person to face necessity.
Rarely do we consider how much worse things could be.
Things CAN always be worse.
Learn to appreciate what you have.
You have to learn to find joy in every single thing that happens.
Turn what you must do into what you are glad to do!!
Cheerfulness in all situations, especially the bad ones. Wear people down with your smile!!
Be grateful for things you never wanted to happen as there are opportunities and benefits in every adversity.
You emerge stronger, sharper, and empowered from every obstacle overcome.
Everything directed at one problem until it breaks.
If persistence is attempting to solve some difficult problem with dogged determination and hammering until the break occurs, then plenty of people can be said to be persistent. But perseverance is something larger. It’s the long game. It’s about what happens not just in round one but in round two and every round after – and then the fight after that and the fight after that, until the end.
Life is not about one obstacle, but many.
You will overcome every obstacle – and there will be many – until you get there. Persistence is an action. Perseverance is a matter of will. One is energy. The other, endurance.
The good about true perseverance is that it can’t be stopped by anything besides death.
Determination, if you think about it, is invincible.
Despair, that’s on you. No one else is to blame when you throw in the towel.
The true threat to determination, then, is not what happens to you, but you yourself.
A man’s job is to make the world a better place to live in.
You must never lower yourself to being a person you don’t like.
There is no better time than now to have a moral and civic backbone, a moral and civic true north.
What doesn’t help anyone is making life all about you, all the time.
Stop taking everything so personally.
Whatever you are going through, whatever is holding you down or standing in your way, can be turned into a source of strength – by thinking of people other than yourself.
Compassion is always an option.
Stop pretending that what you’re going through is somehow special or unfair. Whatever trouble you are having – no matter how difficult – is not some unique misfortune picked out especially for you. It just is what it is.
Death doesn’t make life pointless… but rather purposeful.
Our fear of death is a looming obstacle that shapes our decisions, our outlook, and our actions.
Stop acting as if you are invincible and you will be here forever.
Don’t forget how light our grip on life really is.
The diagnosis is terminal for all of us.
A death sentence has been decreed.
Reminding ourselves each day that we will die helps us to treat our time as a gift.
Someone on a deadline doesn’t indulge themselves with the impossible, he doesn’t waste time complaining how he would like things to be.
In the shadow of death, prioritization is easier.
Life does not stop. Life keeps coming at you with one obstacle after another.
Setbacks and problems are always to be expected.
We want to make certain that what impedes us can empower us.
Every obstacle is an opportunity to practice a virtue: patience, courage, humility, resourcefulness, reason, justice and creativity.
The world is going to constantly test you. Are you worthy? Can you get past the things arise in your way? Will you stand up and show what you are made of?
When you think you have successfully navigated one obstacle, another emerges.
Behind mountains are more mountains.
The more you accomplish… the more things will stand in your way.
There are always more obstacles and bigger challenges to face.
You are always fighting uphill.
In fact life is like pushing a big boulder uphill.
Get used to it and train accordingly.
Each obstacle makes you stronger for the next one.
Embedded inside each obstacle is your opportunity to get better and stronger and tougher so you are more prepared to face whatever is coming next.
The goal is simple… not easy, turn adversity into your advantage.
Great individuals find a way to transform weaknesses into strengths.
Life is a trial. It will not be easy. Be prepared to give it everything you have regardless, ready to endure, ready to persevere, ready to inspire others.
See things for what they are…
Do what you can…
Endure and bear what you must…
What blocked the path is now a path…
What once impeded action advances action…
The Obstacle is the Way!!
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