On Obstacles being the Ways

 I am always intrigued by this title: The Obstacle is the Way.  It is a book by Ryan Holiday.  He provides a neat eighteen-minute video summary of the book.  I, being a fan of the Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review (S3QR) method, absolutely love such videos.  They are powerful surveys of books and easily provide that vital first leg in understanding and internalizing the messages of books.

In that video and also in early part of the book, Holiday provides us with a story that proves to be an apr metaphor for how we approach obstacles in our lives.

There was a king whose people had grown soft and entitled.  he wanted them to teach them a lesson.  He placed a large boulder that blocked the entry into the city. 

The king was disappointed to observe that subject to subject came across this obstacle and turned away.  Some tried to push away the boulder half-heartedly but gave up.  Many complained or outright cursed the king.  They did nothing about the boulder.

One day, a lone peasant came and saw the boulder.  Instead of cursing and complaining, he went to a nearby forest, cut and fashioned a piece of wood into a lever.  With that he pushed the boulder away (despite the mechanical advantage, the job was not easy).  To his pleasant surprise he found a purse of gold coins and a note from the king that read:

 “The obstacle in the path becomes the path. Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition.”

Holiday, Ryan. The Obstacle Is the Way (p. 7). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

I have a habit of skipping between books - I guess I can reframe that as 'research' since it sounds much better.  So, while in research mode on a different topic, I ran across James Clears third step on forming good habits - make it easy.  This is part of a habit loop consisting of: Make it obvious; Make it attractive; Make it easy; and finally, make it satisfying.  (From, Clear, James. Atomic Habits (p. 152). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.) 

While discussing on how to make habits easy, Clear writes that every habit is an obstacle to obtaining what we want.  The more difficult it is to implement the habit, according to Clear, the more friction there is between us and the outcome we want.  Dieting, in this paradigm, is an obstacle to getting fit (the outcome we want).  We are not looking for the habit but rather for the outcome the habit gets in the way of. 

Healthy eating, in this sense, is an obstacle to living a healthy lifestyle.  That reminded me of reading about Tony Caldwell in Benjamin Hardy and Dan Sullivan's work Who not How.  He wanted to find out how he can implement healthy eating to foster healthy lifestyle.  He needed to clear this obstacle; he realized that he could hire a personal chef to manage his and his family's eating.  The chef is a who that will help him circumvent working out details of healthy eating.  The who promised to be the lever to get rid of the obstacle.

However, Tony found out that finding the right chef can also be a daunting task.  He found another who to do that for him.

Problem solved: he has his gold coins (healthy lifestyle) and satisfaction of confirming that the obstacle is the way.

I am grateful for these authors for helping me adopt a mental model that helps me reframe problems and see that obstacles can be ways.