How we perceive an obstacle determines to an incredible degree how successful we will be in overcoming it. If we perceive it as being insurmountable, then it WILL BE SO! Remember that THE MIND IS THE BUILDER. To attain proper perception we must see ourselves overcoming the obstacle in our mind. It is not necessary to have a precise view of the path that we will take to accomplish this but the result must be seen by the mind.
For some, this concept may need clarification so I will give an example. I was part of a team that was upgrading the network for a large city. Our team had been hired a considerable time after the program had been initiated because the project was pretty far behind schedule. The original team had encountered numerous obstacles from the onset of the project and, somewhere along the way, they started believing that the obstacles were too great to overcome within the timeframe allowed for the project. They had doomed themselves to failure and, had they not brought in a group of people who were unwilling to admit that the project timeline was unrealistic, it would not have been finished on time.
The problem with the original team was not that ( from a technical knowledge standpoint) they weren't capable of accomplishing the task. With just a couple of exceptions, They were very capable professionals. Their weakness was in their self confidence and their perception of the task at hand. By adding a few individuals who refused to see the obstacles as insurmountable, they were able to complete the project more than six months ahead of schedule. We did not have all of the answers when we joined the team but we had the one VITAL element of proper perception. We were able to see the project completed in our minds. The rest was just finding the right path to that end.
I feel there is much more I could say about perception but I will trust that if you are still unsure regarding perception that you will take the time and effort to read about it in more detail in Holiday's book. In my next post I will speak of the second step in this three step process, ACTION. Until then, be safe and treat each other with the respect that each of us desires.
Friday, June 20, 2014
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
The Obstacle IS the Way
Greetings Friends
I have been reading a book by Ryan Holiday titled :
I have been reading a book by Ryan Holiday titled :
For those of us who struggle in coping with problems,people and/or obstacles, this is a must read book. There is a plethora of concepts and steps that we can employ in our daily quest to master life and the obstacles/opportunities that are presented to us on a daily basis.
I am going to take a few excerpts from this book and share what I have learned from them.
Overcoming Obstacles is a discipline of three critical steps:
Perception
How we see and understand what occurs around us is what we mean by "perception" and this can be either a great source of strength or our achilles heel as we travel along life's road to success.
The ability to see a person, place or thing as it actually exists, may (at first blush) seem elementary and easily conceived; but putting that concept into action is very difficult for many of us. How can we be expected to overcome an obstacle if we do not see it for what it truly is?
We have within us an amazing gift from our Creator. We are endowed with a brain that, when accompanied with the force of our will, can achieve whatever we conceive! Almost all of us that read this fail to grasp the significance of that statement. We write it off to well intentioned motivational hyperbole. After all, we can't REALLY accomplish ANYTHING that we conceive...Can we? That doubt, that many would call "rational thinking", even if it is unspoken and only exists in the back of our mind, is a stumbling block that will ensure our failure.
We can accomplish anything that we can conceive, IF we are willing to pay the price. There are many things of which we can conceive (in flights of fancy) that carry a price tag much too high for us. In the dreams of most people, their desires just magically appear with little or no effort (price). That is not the way it works. Everything has a cost to us.
The first thing that we must understand, relative to perception, is that to truly see people or things as they are, we must be devoid of emotion and prejudicial thinking... even in the form of expectations. Only then can we see people and things as they really are! I could go on about perception ( and I will in my next post) but I think that about now, you are beginning to get the picture.
In my next post I will share with you more of Holiday's take on perception and what this book has taught me about the other two steps in overcoming obstacles. Until then, be safe and treat each other with the respect that each of us desires.
The ability to see a person, place or thing as it actually exists, may (at first blush) seem elementary and easily conceived; but putting that concept into action is very difficult for many of us. How can we be expected to overcome an obstacle if we do not see it for what it truly is?
The mind is the builder!
We have within us an amazing gift from our Creator. We are endowed with a brain that, when accompanied with the force of our will, can achieve whatever we conceive! Almost all of us that read this fail to grasp the significance of that statement. We write it off to well intentioned motivational hyperbole. After all, we can't REALLY accomplish ANYTHING that we conceive...Can we? That doubt, that many would call "rational thinking", even if it is unspoken and only exists in the back of our mind, is a stumbling block that will ensure our failure.
We can accomplish anything that we can conceive, IF we are willing to pay the price. There are many things of which we can conceive (in flights of fancy) that carry a price tag much too high for us. In the dreams of most people, their desires just magically appear with little or no effort (price). That is not the way it works. Everything has a cost to us.
The first thing that we must understand, relative to perception, is that to truly see people or things as they are, we must be devoid of emotion and prejudicial thinking... even in the form of expectations. Only then can we see people and things as they really are! I could go on about perception ( and I will in my next post) but I think that about now, you are beginning to get the picture.
In my next post I will share with you more of Holiday's take on perception and what this book has taught me about the other two steps in overcoming obstacles. Until then, be safe and treat each other with the respect that each of us desires.
Why I am writing this blog
Having had a few days to reflect upon the thoughts that I shared in my first post, I noticed that I failed to share with you my reason(s) for starting this blog. Perhaps I should have put this in the first post and some may even say it should have been the first thing I wrote; but since that is in the past and, as Holiday has shared with us, it is something that we cannot change, it should not be our focus.
I was hesitant to start this blog. After all, who am I to think that my thoughts on this matter are worthy of any one's attention? Isn't it a bit presumptuous of me to think that I have learned something from this book that others may find beneficial in their life journey? I put the thought of starting this blog aside for a few days and allowed it to percolate within my mind. After all..who am I, with all of my faults and weaknesses, to presume that I have thoughts on this subject that are worthy of sharing with the fellow pilgrims of time on our journey towards enlightenment or oblivion? And it was that last part, the oblivion, that gave me the impetus to begin this blog for I believe that, while I am far from perfect, I just may be able to provide some assistance to someone else that is struggling with this very issue. Someone who is teetering on the edge, needing to find a way to overcome the obstacles in their life denying them the enlightenment they seek.
If not, at least I will have refined my own outlook on obstacles and what it takes to overcome them and that in itself makes the writing worthwhile.
Time, or more succinctly, SPACE-TIME, as Einstein coined it, is how we measure movement. This movement has been broken down into seconds, minutes, hours, days ,weeks, months, years and light years. It affords us a way to mark the various events (actions) that occur within this space-time. For us, it is a constant progression of events that are unique and unalterable in the skein of time. Each event contributes towards what WILL BE in the future but I am getting a bit off track here. Time is a subject that should be reserved for another discussion and a rather lengthy discussion at that. For now, let us just say that we have control of only the NOW of time. We have no ability to alter what has been done or spoken in the past. Once an event has been relegated to the past, we have no power to alter it. We can act upon the NOW and those actions may ameliorate or alter the effects of things in the past, but we cannot change what WAS ! As for the future, it is yet to be so how can we change that which is NOT?
We can affect only that which is in the NOW, therefore that should be our focus for this discussion of obstacles. I will again discuss perception, as described by Ryan Holiday in my next post.
Until then, be safe and treat each other with the respect that each of us desires.
I was hesitant to start this blog. After all, who am I to think that my thoughts on this matter are worthy of any one's attention? Isn't it a bit presumptuous of me to think that I have learned something from this book that others may find beneficial in their life journey? I put the thought of starting this blog aside for a few days and allowed it to percolate within my mind. After all..who am I, with all of my faults and weaknesses, to presume that I have thoughts on this subject that are worthy of sharing with the fellow pilgrims of time on our journey towards enlightenment or oblivion? And it was that last part, the oblivion, that gave me the impetus to begin this blog for I believe that, while I am far from perfect, I just may be able to provide some assistance to someone else that is struggling with this very issue. Someone who is teetering on the edge, needing to find a way to overcome the obstacles in their life denying them the enlightenment they seek.
If not, at least I will have refined my own outlook on obstacles and what it takes to overcome them and that in itself makes the writing worthwhile.
Time, or more succinctly, SPACE-TIME, as Einstein coined it, is how we measure movement. This movement has been broken down into seconds, minutes, hours, days ,weeks, months, years and light years. It affords us a way to mark the various events (actions) that occur within this space-time. For us, it is a constant progression of events that are unique and unalterable in the skein of time. Each event contributes towards what WILL BE in the future but I am getting a bit off track here. Time is a subject that should be reserved for another discussion and a rather lengthy discussion at that. For now, let us just say that we have control of only the NOW of time. We have no ability to alter what has been done or spoken in the past. Once an event has been relegated to the past, we have no power to alter it. We can act upon the NOW and those actions may ameliorate or alter the effects of things in the past, but we cannot change what WAS ! As for the future, it is yet to be so how can we change that which is NOT?
We can affect only that which is in the NOW, therefore that should be our focus for this discussion of obstacles. I will again discuss perception, as described by Ryan Holiday in my next post.
Until then, be safe and treat each other with the respect that each of us desires.
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