It’s about realizing that things are what they are, you can choose how to respond to them, and thus you always have opportunities to become a better person as you learn to work with nature instead of against it–even if the path you end up taking doesn’t look like what you imagined. To me, the freedom described by Stoicism isn’t about achieving great victories after much perseverance and resourcefulness. It feels oddly like the book is about this relentless drive towards a goal, but that doesn’t quite fit with what I understand about Stoic philosophy or what makes sense to me. I didn’t find any new ideas that made me stop and think if you’re familiar with the key works in Stoic philosophy, you probably won’t get as much out of this book as someone who is completely new. I came across a number of anecdotes I hadn’t read before, and I liked reading stories of more modern figures instead of just the usual old chestnuts.
Let me think about how I feel about this book so that I can get past the initial “Yay, another book about Stoicism!” Sketched Book - The Obstacle Is The Way - The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph - Ryan Holiday Click on the image for a larger version that you can print if you want. I’ve sketched the key points of the book below to make it easier to remember and share. Almost all of the thirty-two chapters (covering aspects of perception, action, and will) are illustrated with an anecdote or two, followed by some questions and advice. The book expands on the idea that you can view obstacles as opportunities, taking advantage of them in order to grow. Naturally, Ryan Holiday’s The Obstacle Is The Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph (2014) crossed my radar. Since then, I’ve been on the lookout for more applications of Stoicism to everyday life. When I went through popular translations of the source books like the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus’ Discourses and the Enchiridion, I found them easy to read, with a wealth of ideas to apply to my life. Stoicism resonated with me: the reminder that my perception of things is separate from what those things are the acceptance that I can control only how I respond to life, not what happens the awareness of mortality that belies the insignificance of our drama and sharpens the appreciation of our short lives. The book that got me into Stoic thinking was William Irvine’s A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (2009).
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