How I Turn Obstacles into Opportunities
As many people have found out (or if you haven’t, inevitably will), life is not an easy ride; it’s full of bumps and pitfalls, successes and failures. To put it simply, the way is full of obstacles. It’s how we view these obstacles, however, that determine our ability to overcome and press forward.
It’s our perception that shapes how we view the external world and how we’ll eventually respond. In this, we can see that when we encounter an obstacle, it’s our perception that can help us overcome or be stuck by it. Marcus Aurelius stresses this point, having said the following.
If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it.
We see here that any external thing is just that — external. It’s the value judgments we as individuals and society place on things that determine whether or not something is positive or negative. This is why two different people can love and hate the rain, or one society thinks that cannibalism is okay while another abhors the eating of another person.
So how does this relate to turning obstacles into opportunities? Well, let’s say that you get upset about a certain event. Say, you’re going on a date and your date isn’t arriving. What do you do? You’re obviously going to have an automatic initial impression made about the situation. You’ll likely feel annoyed, angry, or even disappointed. And that’s okay. Your body has done what it was supposed to do and quickly processed the event and made an impression. Now as a Stoic, it’s important to remember that in spite of the initial impression, you have the ability to look at the situation objectively and move from there. You don’t have to accept the initial impression.
Continuing on, you decide to look at the situation objectively. You’ve been waiting for a while and they aren’t showing up. They’re possibly stuck in traffic, got lost, or even stood you up. From here, you have the ability to use the Chief Virtues to decide what to do next. Using our virtue of wisdom, you can take the time to think about the situation and act in a way that is virtuous; you can take this upsetting situation and turn it into a chance to practice your Stoic philosophy.
In this scenario, the obstacle before you was the date not showing up. You might have worked hard to get this date set up, or maybe you were happy that someone took interest in you. In any case, your date isn’t showing up. The opportunity found in this situation is the notion that you have ability to practice mindfulness, patience, calmness, tranquility, balance, and self-awareness. However, these opportunities only lie within our perception, and are only revealed to us when we decide to take a step back and shift our perception of the event. Stoicism teaches us to regard everything as an opportunity for growth, something that enables us to learn and grow, no matter the situation that occurs.
External events are not up to us. We can’t control if it rains, if traffic is slow, or if we live to see another day. What we have control over, however, is our judgments of these events, how we perceive them. Life will often give you the short end of the stick and you will have to make do with the best you can. This is where the opportunity comes into play, being able to find the opportunities for growth in even the most uncomfortable of situations. Everything can be used as a method of growth. As Marcus Aurelius said,
The impediment to action advances action; what stands in the way must become the way.
I’ll be honest. Life sucks at times. I’m not saying that you need to bury your emotions and look happy when a loved-one dies or a fire destroys your house, far from it. What I’m saying is that we have the ability to look at life’s events in different manners, ones that can help us learn and grow or stagnate and wilt.
If we want to progress further on our path of growth, we must learn to turn our obstacles into opportunities.
