Facing obstacles is a part of life; it makes you strong and helps you prepare for the next hardship of life. Delaying an obstacle just makes the obstacle bigger, though it is too small and too easy to overcome. We delay our problems with the hope that they may vanish with time or that someone will solve them for us. We should remember that a problem delayed gets worse with time; we should act when we face problems. Whining and cursing others would not help us, take the problem as an opportunity for growth and learn from it. We do not become strong unless we face hardships in life; comfort just makes us weak; we lag behind when we stop focusing on what is going on around us. Life is a constant struggle; it is a struggle against our bad habits and desires; it is a struggle to face adversity; it is a struggle to live up to our potential. The more obstacles you face, the better you become.
A good person dyes events with his own color . . . and turns whatever happens to his own benefit.
—SENECA
KEY POINTS:
- Take the obstacle as an opportunity.
- Be ready when you are hit by a disaster.
- Be persistent in your efforts.
Finding the opportunity:
Perception is important, thinking negatively about things just makes things uglier and worse, but taking obstacles as opportunities gives us strength and courage. When dealing with difficult situations, you should have the mindset of a winner, not a loser. The first important thing is how you think about the problems you are facing; thinking about them as a curse will make them worse; accepting them as a challenge and taking them as an opportunity for growth will help you get stronger. You will not whine and complain, but rather enjoy overcoming the obstacle.
As Laura Ingalls Wilder put it: “There is good in everything, if only we look for it.”
“It’s our preconceptions that are the problem. They tell us that things should or need to be a certain way, so when they’re not, we naturally assume that we are at a disadvantage or that we’d be wasting our time to pursue an alternate course. When really, it’s all fair game, and every situation is an opportunity for us to act.”
“Blessings and burdens are not mutually exclusive. It’s a lot more complicated. Socrates had a mean, nagging wife; he always said that being married to her was good practice for philosophy.”
Prepare to act:
When you face an obstacle, you should prepare to act; delaying will just make the problem worse. You need to think deeply and break it into chunks. A problem when studied carefully does not appear a problem, but an interesting puzzle. The reason we get scared of problems is that we are not prepared to accept them, when you accept hardships as a part of life, you do not get scared of them and welcome them. Do act when you are hit by a tragedy, do not wait for a miracle to happen.
Then imitate the action of the tiger; stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood. —SHAKESPEARE
“A clearer head makes for steadier hands.”
“WHAT IS ACTION? Action is commonplace, right action is not. As a discipline, it’s not any kind of action that will do, but directed action. Everything must be done in the service of the whole. Step by step, action by action, we’ll dismantle the obstacles in front of us. With persistence and flexibility, we’ll act in the best interest of our goals. Action requires courage, not brashness— creative application and not brute force. Our movements and decisions define us: We must be sure to act with deliberation, boldness, and persistence. Those are the attributes of right and effective action. Nothing else—not thinking or evasion or aid from others. Action is the solution and the cure to our predicaments.”
Practice persistence:
When solving a difficult problem, you need to be persistent in your efforts. It is not easy to overcome a daunting obstacle when you try for a while and then stop working on it; it takes discipline and courage. The reason people complain and whine is that they do not try their level best; they struggle for some time and then they leave everything in the middle. The best way to solve problems is to show consistency; when you are persistent, you can overcome any obstacle in life.
“At Vicksburg, Grant learned two things. First, persistence and pertinacity were incredible assets and probably his main assets as a leader. Second, as often is the result from such dedication, in exhausting all the other traditional options, he’d been forced to try something new.”
“If we’re to overcome our obstacles, this is the message to broadcast— internally and externally. We will not be stopped by failure, we will not be rushed or distracted by external noise. We will chisel and peg away at the obstacle until it is gone. Resistance is futile.”
As Margaret Thatcher famously did: “You turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning.”
“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.”
Conclusion:
You should have the mindset of a winner to overcome an obstacle; you should be ready to act when you face a problem; you need to be persistent in your efforts.
References:
- Holiday, R. (2014). The obstacle is the way: The ancient art of turning adversity to advantage. Profile Books.