Message 336

More from “The Obstacle is the Way” by Ryan Holliday

In this section Ryan was pointing to the reasons some people and businesses were successful during great crises while others folded over. The primary principle is something we can all put into practice in our daily life.

Because the founders were too busy existing in the present— actually dealing with the situation at hand, They didn’t know whether it would get better or worse, they just knew what was.

In most ordinary people’s lives, we aren’t content to deal with things as they happen. We have to dive endlessly into what everything “means, whether something is “fair” or not, what’s “behind” this or that, and what everyone else is doing.

Then we wonder why we don’t have the energy to actually deal with our problems. Or we get ourselves so worked up and intimidated because of the overthinking.

What should we do?

Focus on the moment, not the monsters that may or may not be up ahead.

He says “Those people with an entrepreneurial spirit are blessed to have no time and no ability to think about the ways things should be, or how they’d prefer them to be.”

we’re always trying to figure out what things mean—why things are the way they are. As though the why matters.

Emerson put it best: “We cannot spend the day in explanation.”

What matters is that right now is right now.

The implications of our obstacle are theoretical-they exist in the past and the future. We live in the moment. And the more we embrace that, the easier the obstacle will be to face and move.

You can take the trouble you’re dealing with and use it as an opportunity to focus on the present moment. To ignore the totality of your situation and learn to be content with what happens, as it happens, or as we talked about yesterday, love it.

To let each moment be new- wipe clear what came before and what others were hoping would come next.

Find the way that works for you to bring yourself right down into the present moment. Enlist others to help prevent you and your team from straying outside that moment.

One thing is certain. It’s not simply a matter of saying: Oh, I’ll live in the present. You have to work at it. Catch your mind when it wanders-don’t let it get away from you. Discard distracting thoughts. Leave things well enough alone—no matter how much you feel like doing otherwise.

Remember that this moment is not your life, it’s just a moment in your life. Focus on what is in front of you; right now. Ignore what it “represents” or it
“means” or “why it happened to you.”