Obstacle, Just Another Obstacle

[DISCLAIMER]

When in the Marine Corps (1996-2007), I bowled quite a bit. As a matter of full disclosure, I’m not a skilled bowler. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the challenge of an obstacle (something that impedes progress or achievement). In my case, my lack of skill at bowling was the obstacle.

Somehow, it was as though other Marines were naturally accomplished bowlers. Yet, my balls spent more time in the gutter than not. (If you read a sexual innuendo in that last sentence, then perhaps your mind is as subject to the gutter as were my bowling balls.)

In any event, I now think about my memories of bowling and lack of skill as an obstacle when reflecting upon the track “Obstacles” from the album The Dynospectrum (1998) by hip hop collective The Dynospectrum (lyricists Slug, I Self Divine, Sab the Artist, and Swift).

On the chorus, members state four times in succession, “Obstacle, just another obstacle. I’ve been through so much now [enough shit] to know that anything is possible.” When thinking of this helpful perspective, a book comes to mind.

As Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is informed by Stoic philosophy, this blog entry is part of an ongoing series regarding a book entitled The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman.

When bowling poorly, I’d self-distress or self-disturb with irrational beliefs about my performance. Thus, I didn’t use the outlook featured in the “Obstacles” chorus. Similar to the message of the latter, authors of The Daily Stoic quote Marcus Aurelius who stated (page 251):

Just as the nature of rational things has given to each person their rational powers, so it also gives us this power—just as nature turns to its own purpose any obstacle or any opposition, sets its place in the destined order, and co-opts it, so every rational person can convert any obstacle into the raw material for their own purpose.

Whether it regards the challenge of bowling or the task of retaining your sanity during an undesirable event, you can convert virtually any obstacle into the raw material for your own purpose of rational living. It’s an obstacle, just another obstacle that provides opportunity. 

If you’re looking for a provider who tries to work to help understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life—helping you to sharpen your critical thinking skills, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.

As the world’s foremost hip hop-influenced REBT psychotherapist, I’m pleased to try to help people with an assortment of issues from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.

At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply trying to help you to feel better, I want to try to help you get better!

Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW

References:

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Daily Stoic. (n.d.). Translating the Stoics: An interview with “The Daily Stoic” co-author Stephen Hanselman. Retrieved from https://dailystoic.com/stephen-hanselman-interview/

Holiday, R. and Hanselman, S. (2016). The daily stoic: 366 meditations on wisdom, perseverance, and the art of living. Penguin Random House LLC. Retrieved from https://www.pdfdrive.com/the-daily-stoic-366-meditations-on-wisdom-perseverance-and-the-art-of-living-d61378067.html

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