What there are no obstacles?

I have been writing about why obstacles are your friend.  That is all very well but have you ever noticed that when you do eventually reach your goal, it can all seem a little surreal?  It almost seems too good to be true and that there must be something you are missing?  Left feeling a little uneasy?

That has happened to me today, I have achieved something that I have been striving for over the past six months and now I have done it, it all seems a little too easy.  I can’t quite believe it.

Maybe I am addicted to the obstacles?  Relying on them as sign of progress is a great strategy but when you get to your goal, there are no more obstacles and that is the same feeling as you get if you are not moving forwards so how can you tell the difference?

Well if your goal was something you truly love then you should find it reasonably easy to know that you have reached it.  You should be very happy.  But what if you are not?  Does it mean you have not actually reached it?  Or maybe you have but you don’t like it?

So a few questions today to which I don’t have the answers to hand.  You might like to think about it yourself too.

I thought I would write this down and sleep on it (my standard technique when I am stuck).  I will then be able to resume this train of thought tomorrow with whole new pearls of wisdom!

Why obstacles are your friend - Part 3

Hi. Back again with reason number three for why you should be liking those obstacles in your life. 


So far we have: because they are a sign of progress and because they get you fit enough to enjoy your goal when you get there. Reason number 3 is taken from the world of philosophy and the arguments for free speech. A leading voice in that world is Berlin who put forward a number of arguments. 


Some of the key areas relate to its purpose in helping you understand your point of view. If you were to follow a particular point of view without ever having the chance to discuss it with somebody of a different view, then these factors might arise: 


1. You might actually be wrong. If you are not willing to listen to the other view, you may not discover this and you would therefore miss out on the opportunity to correct your view. 


2. Being totally closed to any view other than your own amounts to dogmatism. Even if you are right, the other point of view may be correct too. You are missing out on the chance to weave the two views together in order to create an even better one. 


3. Even if the other view is wrong, you will at least have had the chance to argue the case for your point and that will have helped you understand and appreciate your own point of view even more than you did prior to the discussion. 


I personally think these are excellent arguments for free speech but, in line with the arguments, I am happy to discuss that! 


It has occurred to me though that maybe obstacles can be thought of in the same way. Let's map them to the points above and see how they play out. 


1. An obstacle may simply be an alternative goal to the one you thought you were headed for. This is perfectly feasible. You probably set your goal based on the options you thought you had available to you at the time. If you have hit an obstacle then by definition you must have now moved to a different place. Hitting the obstacle may just be a prompt to take stock of the situation and recheck that now you are where you are, there is not something better that you want even more. 


2. The obstacle may just present the opportunity to add to or enhance your existing goal and weave a whole new better one 


3. Hitting the obstacle gives you a chance to review your goal and the obstacle together in context. There is a strong chance that the obstacle is not the thing that you want. Hitting this close up gives you the chance to remind yourself why you have the goal that you do and to reinvigorate your efforts to head that way.


It seems to me this does fit the messages of the free speech world. So now we have three reasons to be happy when we hit an obstacle: 


- We will know we are moving forwards 


- We will know that we are getting fitter ready to enjoy our goal to the max when we get there 


- We will have been reminded why we have our goal and we might even have weaved in a whole new aspect to that goal. 


Sounds pretty good to me. The question is, will I have thought of a fourth reason by the time I write my next post?!

Why obstacles are your friend - Part 2

So, a weekend off after some extensive DIY rendered me rather tired!

Reason 2 then for why Obstacles are your friend.

Think of an obstacle course, the ones that you might see if you were watching army training.  Now there is a set of obstacles!

But what are they training for?  A war does not involve climbing up nets or crawling through drain pipes. 

They are of course training to get fit.  Without the obstacles, they could still run the 800 yards or so that represents the distance of the obstacle course but if they did that, although there would be some fitness increase, it would not be as great as it is if they have the obstacles to get through.

The obstacles on the course are not just about making the person aerobically fitter either, the obstacles build up strengths and agilities that the person conducting the course would not have simply by running further and faster on the flat.  In other words, they provide added benefits.

So, even though the war itself is not about the obstacles, they do however make the soldiers fit to carry out the war.

Obstacles in life are just the same.  If you reached all of your end goals today, you probably would not know what to do with them, you would probably be overwhelmed. 

So obstacles in life build your capacity and your ability to be able to enjoy your goal once you finally reach it.  And, just like the soldiers, the obstacles do not necessary have to directly relate to the end goal itself, they are just life’s natural way of getting you fit to really enjoy those goals when you finally get there. They are literally your personal training course – and you don’t even have to pay a fee like you would have to if you went to the gym!

So there you have it, Obstacles are:

1.    Your sign that you are actually moving towards your goal

2.    Your personal trainer to get you nice and fit to really enjoy that goal once you get there.

I still have more reasons, but for those you will have to wait for tomorrow!