Reading The Obstacle Is the Way when you're stuck

Holiday splits the book into three parts: perception, action and will. Perception is how you see a problem. Action is what you do about it, and will is what you can bear when nothing can be done.

Each chapter is a short story from history. Holiday tells how Rockefeller, Edison, Amelia Earhart and others handled a setback. He picked the stories to fit the idea, so take them as examples.

The lines behind The Obstacle Is the Way

1. The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.
2. Genius is the ability to put into effect what is in your mind. There is no other definition of it.It's often credited to F. Scott Fitzgerald, and we couldn't find where he said it.
3. Objective judgement, now, at this very moment. Unselfish action, now, at this very moment. Willing acceptance, now, at this very moment.Your translation of the Meditations may word this one differently.
4. There is no good or bad without us, there is only perception.

A thought to test with The Work

We pair this book with The Work, Byron Katie's four questions for a stressful thought. You write the thought down. Then you ask whether it's true, and whether you can know that for certain.

For a smaller version, write down what happened the next time something blocks you. Underneath, write what you added to it, like the story you told yourself and who you blamed. The second list is usually longer.