Today we're talking about obstacles and how they don't always mean you're on the wrong path. Sometimes they are there to give you fuel for your life and help you grow. I know it sounds unappealing but join today's team meeting.

I'm using excerpts from the book The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday. Its a great book.

I am so familiar with obstacles and I've let them bully me for years.  I was intimidated by hard things.

• Hip replacements 
• Starting a family as a single woman
• Starting podcast 
• Feeling unattractive because of the number on my jeans
• Becoming a cycle instructor
• Wearing a crop top

Here are 4 discussion points from the Ryan Holiday Book

Channel Your Energy—Arthur Ashe  was a black tennis player, one of the greats actually. To survive segregation in 50s and 60s required restraint, and he channeled this energy into fierceness on tennis court. His style is best described as something he referred to as physically loose and mentally tight. Adversity can harden you or it can loosen you up and make you better if you let it. 

The art of acquiescence (The acceptance of something without protest) I’m going to take it a little further and say without regret or without giving in to fear—Abraham Lincoln's speech impediment forced him to go with it, and by with it I mean he had to find a way to communicate strongly and he chose to write. He was a great writer as a result. Ryan has a quote “Constraints in life are a good thing. Especially if we can accept them and let them direct us. They push us to places and to develop skills that we’d otherwise never have pursued."  Example Pat Riley and hip surgery movement restrictions. 

Love Everything that happens Jack Johnson the Boxer—the act of turning what we must do into what we get to do. Johnson ( a black boxer) was hated by everyone who watched him box, but he choose to enjoy every single minute of it. The grit of loving everything that happens to you is actually beautiful. Johnson once faced a white boxer who was brought out of retirement to stop Johnson from being a champion in his weight class. The crowd booed Johnson, but he smiled and fought his fight. An announcer is quoted as saying “No one understands him, this man who smiles. Well the story of this fight is the story of a smile. If ever a man won by nothing more fatiguing than a smile, Johnson won today.”

Live in the present moment. “It doesn’t matter whether this is the worst time to be alive or the best, whether you’re in a good job market or a bad one, or that the obstacle you face is intimidating or burdensome. What matters is that right now is right now. The more you embrace the moment and not the past, the easier the obstacle will be to face and move. —not easy you need to catch your mind when it goes to the past. The other day I had to do this when I was working on a project that reminded me of a failure a few years ago. They are different but I was bringing the past in to my present moment. I could feel the dread trying to cuddle with me. 

This is a great book and I highly recommend it although it will require you to take notes and re-read passages.

Let's start the meeting.