Life is not about one obstacle, but many. What’s required of us is not some shortsighted focus on a single facet of a problem, but simply a determination that we will get to where we need to go, somehow, someway, and nothing will stop us.
We will overcome every obstacle–and there will be many in life–until we get there. Persistence is an action. Perseverance is a matter of will. One is energy. The other, endurance.
There are far more failures in the world due to a collapse of will than there will ever be from objectively conclusive external events.
Our actions can be constrained, but our will can’t be. Our plans–even our bodies–can be broken. But belief in ourselves? No matter how many times we are thrown back, we alone retain the power to decide to go once more. Or to try another route. Or, at the very least, to accept this reality and decide upon a new aim.
We don’t control the barriers or the people who put them there. But we control ourselves–and that is sufficient.
The true threat to determination, then, is not what happens to us, but us ourselves. Why would you be your own worst enemy?
Hold on and hold steady.
* Source: The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday