What To Do With Obstacles

"The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”  - Marcus Aurelius    We’ve all stood at the bottom of what appeared to be an insurmountable mountain.  Maybe it’s a sales quota that looks astronomical, a pile of work that has been building up for weeks or a frayed relationship that needs mending.   The mountain seems so high that we’re not sure we can climb it.  We try to convince ourselves it may not even be worth it to try, but we know that’s a lie.   The instant reaction is Resistance.  It’s procrastination. I’ll tackle that tomorrow.   The truth is that the only way to conquer the task is to go through it.  We need to knock the first item off of our to-do-list. And then the next thing.  Then the next. Until the paper is filled with crossed off items.   One of my favorite books on this topic is Ryan Holiday’s “The Obstacle is the Way.”  In it, Holiday blends stoic philosophy with history to show you how to use the obstacle in your path to your advantage.   If you find yourself stuck in situations like this, I highly suggest you pick up the book.  This post is from our new series, Daily Momentum.  Each morning, we send a short, inspirational post via email, blog and podcast.  You can get it directly to your email here.  You can subscribe on iTunes here.