“The impediment to action advances action, what stands in the way becomes the way” Marcus Aurelius.
Eric Thomas said that he didn’t believe in procrastination and made an analogy.
If someone’s ready to give you 1 million pounds tomorrow at 5 AM, you’ll probably be there at 4:30 AM… There’s no such thing as procrastination, whatever it might be it’s not important to you. It’s not a priority for you.
The same applied to motivation. To start a business, going to the gym, relationships, eating healthy… Motivation comes and goes, discipline and habits don’t. And for all the above things you may want to start, improve and thrive for you’ll find a large number of obstacles along the way.
We are living a strange time but history shows there has been times like this before and even worse… way worse. Here is a good story to put things in perspective.
There is an old Zen story about a King whose people had grown “soft” and entitled.
(Any resemblance to a country called France is purely coincidental…) Dissatisfied with this state of affairs, he hoped to teach them a lesson.
His plan was simple: He would place a large boulder in the middle of the main road, completely blocking entry into the city. He would then hide nearby and observe their reactions.
How would they respond?
Would they band together to remove it?
Or would they get discouraged, quit, and return home?
With growing disappointment, the King watched as subject after subject came to this impediment and turned away. Or, at best, tried halfheartedly before giving up. Many openly complained or cursed the King or fortune or bemoaned the inconvenience, but none managed to do anything about it.
After several days, a lone peasant came along on his way into town. He did not turn away. Instead he strained and strained, trying to push it out of the way. Then an idea came to him: He scrambled into the nearby woods to find something he could use for leverage. Finally, he returned with a large branch he had crafted into a lever and deployed it to dislodge the massive rock from the road.
Beneath the rock was a purse of gold coins and a note from the King, which said: “The obstacle in the path becomes the path. Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition.”
Holiday, Ryan. The Obstacle is the Way (this story comes from this book, my favourite)
So here is my conclusion on that :
Where the head goes, the body follows. Perception precedes action. Right action follows the right perspective.
All the best,
Geoffrey
