The Obstacle is the Way - Book Review

The Obstacle is the Way - Book Review https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18668059-the-obstacle-is-the-way“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way” â€" Marcus AureliusThe essence of this book is summarized with this one quote.When I picked up this book early 2015 â€" I was going through a tough phase. I had taken a beating from the stock marketAnd that’s the moment I needed to listen to the advice and ideas from a book like this. So I picked the book. I read this book at the right time. It changed my perspective on failures and obstacles.Most self-help books are filled with fluffy, kumbaya type of material. They are usually filled with positive thinking, ignore the negative things type of message. No matter how positive or optimistic you are how much you avoid negativity â€" things happen to you. It happens to all of us. Shit happens!!Sometimes, these are things that happen by your own making, and sometimes they happen outside your control.Nevertheless, The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday is a must-read. Pick up the book and read it. It will change the way you think about obstacles.In this post, I will discuss the few nuggets of gold that I have picked up from reading this book.Welcome ObstaclesevalAs mentioned above The best illustration provided is that of Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel.“Bad companies are destroyed by crisis. Good companies survive them. Great companies are improved by them.” â€" Andy GroveSimilarly great individuals find a way to transform weakness failure into strength success. For great men and women, they use obstacles to fuel their ambition.“The obstacle in the path becomes the path. Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition.”Change your PerspectiveevalEver heard of the adage ” It is not what happens to you, it is how you react to it”. Today we live in the hyper-connected age fueled with social media. And it seems as if everyone is on a short-fuse. No matter how positive o r forward thinking someone’s message /post/ video is â€" there are always people are not happy. They react with immediate backlash.And if you are the person receiving the criticism- it is hard to cool your nerves and stay calm. Being emotional is a human trait. We are emotional creatures that also have a logical faculty. And then we respond emotionally. In the end, nothing constructive really happens.However, the successful men and women are the ones who were able to see opportunity in every disaster. They see the silver lining in the cloud. When others panic, they stay calm and take advantage of the opportunity.Every situation is learning opportunity for them.If you are faced with a situation that looks bleak â€" here are some things you can do.See the good in the situationplace things in perspectivefocus on what can be controlledcontrol your nerves- keep the emotions outControl Your EmotionsAs discussed above, we are emotional creatures. It is wired into us from millions of year s of evolution. The most common reaction when faced in a crisis situation is the flight or fight response. We either run away from the situation, or we decide to fight back with aggression.This is not easy. If you are new to particular situation, the most common thing to do is panic. One of the reasons that this happens is because of unfamiliarity. The more unfamiliar we are about a current situation , the more uncertain we become.The best cure for unfamiliarity and uncertainity is adequate training. The more trained you are, the more practice you get â€" the less stressed you feel. The more exposure you have to a current situation, the less you panic and the more composed you areAstronauts practice for hours and simulate the life in space â€" with numerous hours of training. The men and women in the military spend countless hours Focus on Taking ActionOnce you get a grip on your emotions and perspectives â€" the next important thing to to do is take action. Get moving. It is paramo unt to turning any obstacles to your advantage.The more time you spend not taking action â€" the bigger your problem becomes, it swells and balloons until it reaches a point where it becomes difficult to even face it.The sooner you take action the sooner the obstacle tends to go away.Another things to consider is that inaction makes us softer, and action “While you’re sleeping,travelling,attending meetings, or messing around online, the same thing is happening to you. You’re going soft. You’re not aggressive enough. You’re not pressing ahead. You’ve got a million reasons why you can’t move at a faster pace. This all makes the obstacles in your life loom very large.”Action creates momentum Practice PersistenceEvery man or woman who has achieved great success, has definitely faced insurmountable odds obstacles. Their paths were never straight-forward or easy, it never always looked rosy for them. To reach where they reached, he/she has faced numerous hurdles. Most imp ortantly, they backed all their actions with sheer persistence.As Napoleon Hill once stated” Persistence is to the character of man, as carbon is to steel. Resistance is futile. It stops us, it makes us doubt ourselves, it breeds inaction, doubt and with it failure. However, with the right action backed by persistence- resistance eventually goes away.Accept the fact that anything worth achieving is supposed to be hard. Your first attempts may not give you the results you envisioned. Chances are you will fail numerous times. Accept this fact. Start looking for weak points. And keep taking action until you reach the coveted goal.“Action and failure are two sides of the same coin. One does not come without the other.What breaks the critical connection down is when people stop acting â€" because they’ve taken failure the wrong way.”The book will change your perspective on life.It reminds us that the path to success is not easy. It is filled with internal doubts, it is sometimes emotionally painful. And there will be numerous times when you feel like quitting.It helps you to change your perspective. It teaches you to fall in love with the process. It encourages you to embrace action. And take continuous action until successfulI strongly recommend you add this book to your 2016 Reading List.