Ryan Holiday

The Obstacle is the Way

The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph

15 minute read    Audio Available

Start free Snapreads trial


Synopsis

The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph is the third book by author Ryan Holiday and was published in 2014. It is loosely based on the Roman philosophy of stoicism. It has sold over 100,000 copies since its release and been translated into 17 languages.

Who is this book for?

  • Readers who are interested in persuasive and leadership oriented books.
  • People who need to use persuasion to generate sales or inspire change.
  • Anyone interested to learn how to use why to get desired results.

Meet the author

Ryan Holiday (born June 16, 1987) is an American author, marketer, and entrepreneur. He is a media strategist, the former director of marketing for American Apparel and a media columnist and editor-at-large for the New York Observer.


The Obstacle Is The Way Summary

Your experience of the world is different from anyone else’s and you must be disciplined enough to realize this and not let it affect you.

That in itself is not a problem, but you need to be aware that your experience of the world is unique to you and try to make sure that you can control the effect that perception has on you. To do this effectively, you need to be disciplined.If you can apply discipline to your impressions of the world, you can turn that perception of reality into one of your greatest strengths.

So how do you do this? Well, there are a few things that you need to focus on. The most important thing when thinking about how your perception affects you is to make sure that you can control your emotions and keep calm.It is necessary so that you can logically review your perception process and stay objective.

Even if you can do this, there are still some potential problems that you need to be aware of. An important point here is to make sure that you stay positive and also that you look for the positive in the situation.It is essential because once you become cynical about a case, it is nearly impossible to keep your emotions under control.

And this is an essential part of this process: Always focus on the things that you can control. If you can manage to focus on the things that you can control, it enables you to see opportunities in the problems facing you that you might not otherwise have seen.

Once you can do that, you reach a point where you not only solve your problems but use them to push yourself to further successes.

Don’t let the Possibilities of the future distract you from the Realities of the Present: Live in the Moment.

An important thing to realize about any obstacle is that it isn’t permanent. Any obstruction, regardless of how big or complicated it is, can be overcome.

What this means on a practical level is that it doesn’t help to think about the future or the past. Imagining your situation after the obstacle is overcome is not helpful.

Comparing your situation to how it was before the barrier appears doesn’t help. The only approach that allows a decent possibility of success is to “Live in the Moment.”

Living in the moment sounds obvious, doesn’t it? But what does it mean?
On a basic level, of course, we all live in the moment. But it means something very different in this context. What we are talking about here is the ability to make decisions at the moment, without worrying about how these decisions and actions will be viewed in the future.

Another crucial point here is that you have to be aware that the world won’t always be the way you want it to be. That is a temptation that many people fall into.

They decide what they want from a situation before understanding the situation thoroughly and then become disheartened when they can’t make the reality match their ideal.

This difference between what we want and what we get is one of the most significant problems you will face. If you can get to a point where you are happy to accept a good result rather than discarding it to pursue your version of a perfect resolution, then you are well on your way to long-term success.

Let the way you think determine how you perceive the world. If you let your perceptions determine how you think, then you don’t have control.

One of the most important things to realize is that you can control your perceptions. What this means is that you can effectively decide for yourself how you want to see and interact with the world.While this might seem frightening at first, it does allow you the opportunity for tremendous personal power.

The trick is to be aware of what your perceptions are and to find a way to alter them. In effect, you need to “Think Differently.”

Your perception of any given situation will determine what you think you are capable of doing or not doing. What this means, in reality, is that you are capable of deciding what you can or cannot do.Can you see how much power this could give you?

The question then becomes: How do I change my perception? How do I think differently?

The trick you need to learn here is to focus more on your goal than on the obstacle standing in your way. If you can keep your thoughts trained on what you are trying to achieve, rather than the things that are standing in your way, then you are on the right track.

If you find yourself focusing on the obstacles rather than the solutions it becomes straightforward to fall into a negative mindset, which is very difficult to get out of. Negativity is self-perpetuating, so you can very quickly fall into a cycle of repetitive negative thoughts.

Preventing yourself from falling into that negative cycle is simple if you can stay focused on what you need to achieve and how you are going to meet it.

Keep your thoughts focused on your goals and away from your problems, and you will soon start finding much more positive solutions to your problems.

Sign up or Login for the full summary


“There is no good or bad without us, there is only perception. There is the event itself and the story we tell ourselves about what it means.” 

― Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph

What Is Snapreads?

With the Snapreads app, you get the key insights from the best nonfiction books in minutes, not hours or days. Our experts transform these books into quick, memorable, easy-to-understand insights you can read when you have the time or listen to them on the go.


Book Summaries by Category


What to Read Next? Influence Summary