Notes on The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday
Preface
Marcus Aurelius
Actions may be impeded but no impeding our intentions
Accommodate and adapt
What stands in the way becomes the way
Turning obstacles upside down
Introduction
Too quickly blame external things and are stuck in fear
Great ones turn weakness into strength
Use problem as fuel
Simple but not easy
Ceaseless persistence and ingenuity
This is not so bad -> I can make this good
Three components
How we look at our problems, attitude
Energy and creativity to break them down and make opportunities
Inner will to handle defeat
Perception, action, will
Part 1: perception
Limit our passions and their control over our lives
The discipline of perception
Rockefeller remained calm while others panicked
Filter perceptions and choose how u prescribe meaning to events
*** notes in gdoc
Control your emotions
Apatheia
Absence of irrational or extreme emotions
No panic
What am I choosing to not see right now?
Domestication of emotions, not not feeling them
I am in control not my emotions
Defeat emotions with questions and logic
Get to root causes
I am not going to die from this
Practice objectivity
Observing and judging
Contemptuous expressions: when someone intimidates u see them in ur mind in awkward position or private moment just like rest of us
Remove ornamentation
Pretend situation happening to someone else; easier to write off
Alter your perspective
Ur angle changes everything
Break fear apart
Context
Framing
Ur someone with something special to offer; Not about being picked
Is it up to you?
What things can u change or actually affect
What does have any chance of success
What is up to us, what is not up to us
Live in the present moment
Many great businesses started during depressions
Stop digging into meaning or fairness or analyzing
Deal with things as they happen
Exercise strenuous
Unplug
Walk in park
Meditation
Dog
Think differently
Jobs reality distortion field
Push others when believe in something
Finding the opportunity
See the opportunity inside the obstacle
Good in everything as long as look for it
Prepare to act
Cleaner head makes for steadier hands
See world as it really is
Part 2 action
Directed action
Discipline of action
Demosthenes used his disadvantages to train himself
Opt towards action in case of explosion, not running away
Don't dally
Don't ignore or pretend
Get moving
Start anywhere or anyhow no matter how offensive or imperfect the conditions
Then really put full force into your efforts
Don't dally with stupid stuff when should be doing serous work
Don't go soft
Stay moving always
Practice persistence
We will not by stopped by failure. We will not be rushed or distracted by noise.
Try each and every possibility
Work twice as hard
Edison
Iterate
MVP
Failure as a feature
Must learn from it
Follow the process
The Process
Focus on what need to do for next drill and task only
Break it down into pieces
All about finishing
Just finish the next chunk well
Order in your mind
Act even if in a small way
Don't be paralyzed by big dreams and unknown full path
Do your job, do it right
No matter how humble the job
Do it well and better than others
Hard work
Honesty
Helping others
How u do anything is how u do everything
What's right is what works
Pragmatism
Forget rules
Focus on results instead of pretty methods
Make due with what u have
In praise of the flank attack
Never attack where it is obvious
Never direct head to head approach
Line of least expectation
Don't challenge enemy where strongest
Find workarounds
Sometimes the longest way around is the shortest way home
Use obstacles against themselves
Use actions of others against them
Non action can be action
Sometimes staying put is best response
Channel your energy
Rename it and claim it
Channel adversity and emotion to productive use
Physically loose and mentally tight
Seize the offensive
Press forward when others see disaster
Never let a serious crisis go to waste
Use disruptive events
Prepare for none of it to work
Nothing can ever prevent us from trying
Can't control world around u fully
Problems are a chance for us to do our best
Part 3 will
Internal power unaffected by world
Practice cheerfulness in dark times
Quiet humility
Resilience and flexibility
Discipline of the will
Lincoln
Perception discipline of mind
Action of body
Will of heart/soul
Will is completely in us
Fortitude and wisdom
Acknowledge your pain but trod onward in your task
Prepare ourselves for more difficult times
Persevere
Love what happens to us
Remind self of mortality
Build your inner citadel
Don't take weaknesses for granted
Can rebuild yourself with exercise
Prepare for hard road
Mental athlete
Build inner citadel inside that no external adversity can break down
Internalizing destruction of temple
Not path of least resistance
Strengthen arch with weight and tension
Anticipation (thinking negatively)
Pre mortem
Think of all ways launch can go wrong
Will suck but will be ok
Hope for best and prepare for worst
Art of acquiescence
Accept ur reality and adjust to it and find how to develop own strength
Constraints are good
Accept and move on
Not about liking but accepting
Consider how much worse things could be
Play it where it lies
Love everything that happens
Endure setbacks
Love what we do and all that it entails
Learn to find joy in every thing that happens
Wear down opponent and obstacles with relentless smile
Perseverance
More than persistence towards one problem
About series of problems
Staying power
Sticking your ass to the seat and not leaving until it's over
Persistence about action, energy
Perseverance about will, endurance
Ability to endure hunger
Something bigger than yourself
If I can't solve this for myself how can I at least make this better for others
Embrace sense of being part of larger hole
Meditate on your mortality
Near death makes life purposeful
Remember u r mortal
Prepare to start again
Behind mountains are more mountains
Final thoughts
Turn fear into prudence, strength into transformation, mistakes into initiation, desire into undertaking
Gather strength as we go
See things for what they are
Do what we can
Ensure and bear what we must
PS
Philosophy about practical life