Life is an obstacle course. Obstacle courses create a situation whereby we are constantly overcoming challenges to achieve a goal. Will we give up? Or will we persevere and run around in circles and sweat profusely if need be just to get to where we need to go? Do we know how to hustle?
While always a seriously hard worker, I’ve historically been more about process than goals. As I have worked with and advised hundreds of people through the years I have come to understand that they need one another. Our goals enable us to engage in a process that will enable us to grow, because we will be forced to overcome obstacles. Just like an actual obstacle course — this process will make us stronger and more agile. As Ryan Holiday titled his book — “The Obstacle Is the Way”.
Obstacles can catalyze growth if we are willing to work hard and let them be our teachers. This hard work is how we access our power. It doesn’t matter who we are or what we do — from the most powerful exec in the world, convicted criminal, pro athlete, stay at home mom, creative genius — figure out a goal. Maybe its to exercise more, or engage in more self care, or write a book, or act in a play, or meditate at home, or go to church weekly, or run a marathon, or read 100 books, or bake with your kids once/week, or make tons of money. What’s the goal — what are the obstacles to achieving that goal — and how are we going dominate those obstacles. There is our process and there is our power.
And that power will make us strong and humble both. The humble part comes from the gratitude we feel for the strength to overcome, and all the people and things that support us in that strength. The hard and the soft — the guts and the heart.
Originally published at medium.com