It doesn’t matter whether this is the worst time to be alive or the best, whether you’re in a good job market or a bad one, or that the obstacle you face is intimidating or burdensome. What matters is that right now is right now.
The implications of our obstacle are theoretical–they exist in the past and the future. We live in the moment. And the more we embrace that, the easier the obstacle will be to face and move.
Focus on what you can change. That’s where you can make a difference.
And what is up to us?
Our emotions
Our judgments
Our creativity
Our attitude
Our perspective
Our desires
Our decisions
Our determination
This is our playing field, so to speak. Everything there is fair game.
We choose how we’ll look at things. We retain the ability to inject perspective into a situation. We can’t change the obstacles themselves–that part of the equation is set–but the power of perspective can change how the obstacles appear. How we approach, view, and contextualize an obstacle, and what we tell ourselves it means, determines how daunting and trying it will be to overcome.
Perspective has two definitions.
In our own lives, how many problems seem to come from applying judgments to things we don’t control, as though there were a way they were supposed to be? How often do we see what we think is there or should be there, instead of what actually is there?
Having steadied ourselves and held back our emotions, we can see things as they really are. We can do that using our observing eye.
Objectivity means removing “you”–the subjective part–from the equation. Just think, what happens when we give others advice? Their problems are crystal clear to us, the solutions obvious. Sometimes that’s present when we deal with our own obstacles is always missing when we hear other people’s problems: the baggage. With other people we can be objective.
Obstacles make us emotional, but the only way we’ll survive or overcome them is by keeping those emotions in check–if we can keep steady no matter what happens, no matter how much external events may fluctuate.
This is the skill that must be cultivated–freedom from disturbance and perturbation–so you can focus your energy exclusively on solving problems, rather than reacting to them.
We defeat emotions with logic, or at least that’s the idea. Logic is questions and statements. With enough of them, we get to root causes (which are always easier to deal with).
Preparing for the realities of our situation, steadying our nerves so we can throw our best at it. Steeling ourselves. Shaking off the bad stuff as it happens and soldiering on–staring straight ahead as though nothing has happened.
Because, as you now realize, it’s true. If your nerve holds, then nothing really did “happen”–our perception made sure it was nothing of consequence.
* Source: The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday
There is no good or bad without us, there is only perception. There is the event itself and the story we tell ourselves about what it means.
That’s a thought that changes everything, doesn’t it?
An employee in your company makes a careless mistake that costs you business. This can be exactly what you spend so much time and effort trying to avoid. Or, with with sift in perception, it can be exactly what you were looking for–the chance to pierce through defenses and teach a lesson that can be learned only by experience. A mistake becomes training.
You will come across obstacles in life–fair and unfair. And you will discover, time and time again, that what matters most is not what these obstacles are but how we see them, how we react to them, and whether we keep our composure. You will learn that this reaction determines how successful we will be in overcoming–or possibly thriving because of–them.
Discipline in perception lets you clearly see the advantage and the proper course of action in every situation–without the pestilence of panic or fear.