We’ve recently been reading The Obstacle is The Way by Ryan Halliday as part of Talent Street’s Book Club. At its core, it‘s a book about stoicism, and is broken into three pillars: perception, action and will.
Stoicism’s early teachers came from diverse backgrounds (although mostly white men) - Seneca was a slave, Marcus Aurelius was one of the finest emperors that Rome ever saw. During his time he dealt with major war and plague, all on his doorstep. However tough we think life is right now, it was much tougher 2000 years ago. Stoicism has a bad rap these days – but it’s far more nuanced than just sucking it up and taking it on the chin. It’s inherently pragmatic, and also very practical – it helps you to live a better life, but is also there to be practised.
I first read The Obstacle is The Way in 2016, and alongside Ego is The Enemy, it not only gave me a foundation to re-appraise my life, it also kicked off a new love of reading and learning. I’ve revisited it many times over the last few years, and alongside many other books (including Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations), it has helped me to develop a number of daily practices or values that have completely altered how I live.
One of the key learnings has been that through adversity, we gain the opportunity to grow, evolve and face-down challenges, and in doing so we become stronger and more rounded people. This is no means an easy journey – far from it - but that is the point. We struggle and suffer, but with the right mindset, we can fuel our growth on adversity.
I know that many people are doing it hard out there right now, and are struggling financially, socially and mentally. Stoicism doesn’t solve every challenge, but it can provide a tremendous opportunity to reframe your thinking and find opportunity, positivity and hope where before there was little.