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.
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