We can defeat emotion with logic he argues. He advocates attempting to minimize one’s emotional and personal responses to a problem and instead, to seek to be as objective as possible. He says that the right perspective has a strange way of cutting obstacles and adversity down to manageable size. PERCEPTION: This section basically advises the reader to take the long view, keep the big picture in mind, and not to get too caught up in the immediate challenges and problems that may seem insurmountable. Though there is a strong overlap between the sections and the chapters, the ideas reinforce each other from different perspectives and give Holiday a variety of venues to tell different stories with different nuances to support his thesis. The Obstacle is the Way is divided into discussions of Perception, Action, and Will and each of those sections has chapters that address different aspects of that main idea. It is a short book – 186 short pages – divided into three sections, each of which provides often well known, occasionally lesser known examples of people who have achieved great things BY overcoming, not in spite of overcoming obstacles in their way. My Impressions: The message of this book is in its title – whatever may appear to be an obstacle that may stand in the way of achieving what we want, a challenge, a problem, a seemingly insurmountable barrier, beckons us to not only overcome it, but also to make us better, challenging us to develop our creativity, resilience, insight, wisdom and strength. His message is that how we respond to challenges not only reveals our character but more importantly enriches, shapes and strengthens it. And finally we must have the wisdom to see and accept the world as it is, to persevere and endure with the course of action we have chosen, but also to know when to change course and try something new, which he describes in a section entitled Will.
Secondly we must take action appropriate to our clear vision and attitude, a process which he describes in a the second section entitled Action.
This process begins with the right attitude and seeing the challenges clearly for what they are, which he describes in the first section of the book, entitled Perspective. Summary in 5 sentences: The premise of this book is that obstacles, challenges, problems should be viewed not simply as inconveniences that stand in our way, but as MEANS to grow stronger, wiser, more resilient, more successful. Also this is a key book in the canon of Stoic literature that has helped Ryan Holiday bring Stoic values to the attention of many Americans. Why this book: Selected by my SEAL/SWCC candidates reading group to read as preparation for basic SEAL/SWCC training.
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