The Obstacle Is the Way, The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into TriumphRyan HolidayPenguin

This document is overwritten when you make changes in Play Books.You should make a copy of this document before you edit it.

4 notes/highlights

Created by Omar Fernández   – Last synced June 5, 2020

PART I: PERCEPTION

Or try Marcus’s question:Does what happened keep you from acting with justice, generosity, self-control, sanity, prudence, honesty, humility, straightforwardness? May 19, 202038

Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become the next moment. By the same token, every human being has the freedom to change at any instant.—VIKTOR FRANKL May 19, 202043

PART II: ACTION

Part of the reason why a certain skill often seems so effortless for great masters is not just because they’ve mastered the process—they really are doing less than the rest of us who don’t know any better. They choose to exert only calculated force where it will be effective, rather than straining and struggling with pointless attrition tactics. May 23, 2020112

PART III: WILL

In a world where we can beam documents around the world in nanoseconds, chat in high-definition video with anyone anywhere, predict the weather down to the minute, it’s very easy to internalize the assumption that nature has been domesticated and submits to our whim. Of course it hasn’t.People didn’t always think this way. The ancients (and the not so ancients) used the word fate far more frequently than us because they were better acquainted with and exposed to how capricious and random the world could be. Events were considered to be the “will of the Gods.” The Fates were forces that shaped our lives and destinies, often not with much consent.Letters used to be signed “Deo volente”—God willing. Because who knew what would happen? June 5, 2020154