Persist and Resist

I’m reading an amazing (and quite easy to digest) book right now called “The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph” by Ryan Holiday. It’s for anyone who’s feeling stuck. It reminds us that we should focus on the things that we can control, and let everything else pass us by.

A few quick lines from the book:

“It doesn’t matter whether this is the worst time to be alive or the best, whether you’re in a good job market or a bad one, or that the obstacle you face is intimidating or burdensome. What matters is that right now is right now.

In other words: It’s supposed to be hard. Your first attempts aren’t going to work. It’s going to take a lot out of you—but energy is an asset we can always find more of. It’s a renewable resource. Stop looking for an epiphany, and start looking for weak points. Stop looking for angels, and start looking for angles. There are options. Settle in for the long haul and then try each and every possibility, and you’ll get there. When people ask where we are, what we’re doing, how that “situation” is coming along, the answer should be clear: We’re working on it.

In this time of high interest rates, high inflation, and low morale, more than ever we’ve got to keep our head up, tune out the distractions, and keep moving forward. Or as the Greek philosopher Epictetus said almost 2000 years ago: “Persist and resist.”

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