Obstacle or Opportunity?

“The obstacle is the way, and friction follows flow, but also precedes it.”

~ Tommy Rivers Puzey

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So much time is spent in developmental coaching working through the means by which we reconcile with reality. To be honest, many of my clients over years balk at the prospect. Maybe that is because it can be difficult, and may ask much of us. On the other hand, it may be that cultural norms about ease and comfort impede our ability to engage challenges.

Regardless of how we may decide to navigate matters in our lives and world, there is great power in the ability to accept or allow the terms that life and living offer. That does not for a moment mean we don’t act. That’s a binary conclusion that is simply not true. It means that our starting point is in facing stark reality.

I remember years ago a great cultural hullabaloo when author, M. Scott Peck, opened his impactful book as follows:

“Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult-once we truly understand and accept it-then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.”

― M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth

It was if Peck spoke heresy. No one wanted to hear it. Many really wanted to be supported in bypassing that which life and living ask of us. It seemed everyone wanted to hear that effort would not be required of them.

I can only speak of my experience ultimately. What happened for me when this idea traveled the long, long distance from head to heart? Suddenly, it was all okay. There was no need to suffer further. Puzey and Peck and Marcus Aurelius, the great stoic philosopher, are right.

The obstacle is the way.