

The outcomes of your actions can be impeded, but never your good intentions.

Accepting challenging situations will make you better than if you’d never faced the adversity at all. This idea from Marcus Aurelius, that every obstacle presents an opportunity for growth, is what The Obstacle Is the Way is based on. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting.” “The impediment to action advances actions. In Marcus’ words is the secret to an art known as turning obstacles upside down: “Our actions may be impeded… but there can be no impeding our intentions or dispositions. A formula for thriving not just in spite of whatever happens but because of it. The Basic Idea of The Obstacle Is the Way What he wrote is undoubtedly one of history’s most effective formulas for overcoming every negative situation we may encounter in life.


It teaches us how to master our emotions, how to build emotional resilience, develop persistence, and how to resist what’s so hard to resist. The book is about mindsets that help us face adversity effectively. Holiday says, “Whatever we face, we have a choice: Will we be blocked by obstacles, or will we advance through and over them?” He shares countless stories of great men and women who succeeded in their lives because they lived by this formula. The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday is a book that reframes a forgotten formula for success: “What stands in the way becomes the way.”
