Good morning, everybody. I'm glad you're with me today. I recently re-read an amazing book by Ryan Holiday called The Obstacle is the Way. If you don't have a copy of that book, I want you to get one. But today, what I want to do is I want to talk to you about a concept in that book. Ryan's a multiple times best-selling author and someone that has a very unique perspective on life and business. And he really follows this concept of stoicism, which you've probably heard about if you've listened to any Tim Ferriss podcast or any recent entrepreneur. But I want to share with you a really important principle today and talk a little bit about perspective, action, and determination. So I hope you enjoy the topic. I hope this is something you can use in your life and also something you can help others with. I look forward to talking with you a little bit more tomorrow. Let's get into it. All right, welcome back to The Daily Mastermind. George Wright III here. I'm your host with your daily dose of inspiration, motivation, and education. I've been thinking a lot about what the listeners of my episodes and podcasts, what you, the listener, want in the mastermind. And I've been thinking about what your needs and what it is that you need to benefit from the most. And I realize that most people just don't have access to the same experts, resources, and support that I personally have in my life. So I'm going to make an even greater effort to bring these resources and ideas and strategies to you. and they're the same ones that I am using to level up on various business areas of my life, income, personal life and so on. So what does that mean? Keep in mind that the goal of our, you know, really the values that drive the Daily Mastermind are personal development, business and financial education. And the goal of the Mastermind Podcast is to provide motivation and inspiration and education to you in order to help you really unleash your potential and create the life and the success and the wealth and the results that you want out of your life. And so to do this, I want to really create a strategy that allows you to use the Daily Mastermind as a daily staple for you in your daily rituals. I want it to be something that not only can you check that box on your list of things that you're trying to do every day with the various levels of mindset and personal development and business, but I want you to feel like you're making progress by plugging into the show every day, that you're picking up some things and you have to spend less time going out and looking for those resources. I want to share with you a pretty important principle today, and it might take us a little over on time, but it's something that I feel that will really help set you up for success over the coming weeks. It's along these principles of perspective, action, and determination. So I've recently reread an amazing book by Ryan Holiday. I don't know how many of you know Ryan, multiple New York Times bestselling author, but he wrote a book called The Obstacle is the Way. and I think it'd be great for you to pick up a copy of that or maybe the Amazon or the the audiobook because it has some unique perspectives on life and business based on this idea of stoicism which if you've been around any kind of entrepreneurs that are crushing it right now it's a pretty big topic or it's one that Tim Ferriss hits on a lot let me let me sort of explain the principles the thoughts and some of the strategies to you that you can use to change your perspective and your life in a big way over the coming weeks. And I going to start by just reading a little piece out of the first it might be the preface or introduction of Ryan book In the year 170 at night in his tent on the front lines of the war in Germania Marcus Aurelius the emperor of the Roman Empire, sat down to write, or perhaps it was before dawn at the palace in Rome, or he stole a few seconds to himself during the games, ignoring the carnage on the floor of the Colosseum below. The exact location is not important. What matters is that this man, known today as the last of the five good emperors, sat down to write. Not to an audience or for publication, but to himself, for himself. And what he wrote is undoubtedly one of history's most effective formulas for overcoming every negative situation we may encounter in life. A formula for thriving not just in spite of whatever happens, but because of it. At that moment he wrote only a paragraph. Only a little of it was original. Almost every thought could, in some form or another, be found in the writings of his mentors or idols. But in a scant 85 words, Marcus Aurelius so clearly defined and articulated a timeless idea that he eclipses the great names of those that came before him. It is more than enough for us. Here's what he wrote. Our actions may be impeded, but there can be no impeding our intentions or dispositions, because we can accommodate and adapt. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting. And then he concluded with powerful words destined for maxim, the impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way. So in Marcus Aurelius' words, is the secret to an art known as turning obstacles upside down, to act with a reverse clause so there is always a way out or another route to get where you need to go. So the setbacks or problems are always expected and never permanent, making certain that what impedes us can truly empower us. So here's why I read that to you. We're all facing obstacles in our lives right now. It might be a business challenge. It might be a loss of a job. It might be a relationship gone wrong that's affecting everything in your life. It might be health concerns or communication problems. And it might even be a challenge that's with someone close to us or someone that we love and care about, but it's outside of us and it's affecting our lives and challenging our mindset daily. Whatever the challenge is, these are usually things that really impact our daily lives, even if it's not in our business. They're usually big obstacles that keep us stuck inside our heads, or they paralyze us from moving forward in areas that we really need to be focused on in our lives right now. Well, this book and the thoughts that Marcus Aurelius is talking about really create a blueprint, a solution, so to speak, for how we can not only overcome these obstacles, but turn the obstacles into massive fuel for growth. Let me explain. What if embedded inside the problem that we're facing or inherent in it were certain benefits? Benefits only for you. What would you actually do about that? What would you do if you knew that? Well, let's be honest, probably nothing because most of us are the same. We just get paralyzed or stuck when it comes to big obstacles in our lives. The reason for this is that stuff that blocks us is blocking us for a reason It might be fear frustration depression anger years and years of programming that have created our minds our own traps in our own heads So usually we know exactly what to do we just can't do it. Does that make sense? So why is it that some people can push through their problems and others can't? Why do most of us get stuck and can't seem to get past the same challenges that plague us over and over, month after month, year after year in our lives? but there are men and women in life that have become famous or successful or best versions of themselves because they have overcome their challenges and went on to become amazing leaders and propel themselves to amazing heights, the best versions of themselves. There are a lot of people like that. There's just hundreds of stories like Abraham Lincoln and John D. Rockefeller and Margaret Thatcher and Amelia Earhart, Oprah Winfrey, Beyonce Knowles, Michael Jordan, on and on. So why and how do these people overcome massive obstacles to become great? And trust me, they all had massive obstacles. If you look hard enough through the successes, most all of these people have had to overcome individual challenges. Well, the bottom line is all great leaders and successful people find a way to turn weakness into strength. Like oxygen to fire, their obstacles become fuel to their internal fires that burn, their purpose. All of these people learned to flip their obstacles upside down and turn them into fuel. And the crazy thing is that the process is pretty simple, but as Ryan Holiday puts it, it's obviously not easy. It's not about just changing the way you look at things. It involves thoughts, actions, and commitment to a philosophy that you have to shift to. This is the idea of stoicism. This is the idea that he talks about in the book. and you know the most important thing to remember right from the start is that most problems that are keeping us stuck in life are internal they're not external problems in our lives even if it's something that happens outside it's our internal perception of those problems so most things that happen to us are things that we that we wrestle with in our minds and because of our perceptions to the obstacles and problems they they just overwhelm us and the key to overcoming these obstacles lies in another message that Marcus Aurelius wrote. He wrote, objective judgment, now at this very moment. Unselfish action, now at this very moment. Willingness, willing acceptance, now at this very moment of all external events. That's all you need. Now, I don't have time to get into a lot of the details and research and examples and stories and things that Ryan has in his book, but trust me, there are a ton of them, and I think you're going to find a lot of value in this book. But overcoming obstacles is really a discipline of three things. Your perception, number one, action, number two, and the will, number three. All three of these steps are important, not just perception. They're all important to really and truly turning your obstacles into benefits and fuel in your life. So you need to start by analyzing how you look at a problem, that's your perception. Then you need to work on the energy and the creativity and the approach that you use to break the problem down and turn them into opportunities. And then finally, you need to cultivate and maintain an inner will that will help you to handle any defeat and expect difficulty So the book does an amazing job of doing that but I wanted to plant the seed in your mind because I believe that if you will adopt these philosophies of perception and action and will and start to work on all those three things and identify the fact that you going to take obstacles and you going to flip them upside down and you going to turn them into fuel in your life and you expect things to be difficult that you progress majorly in your life You're going to create progress. You're going to go to the next level. And I encourage you to read the book or download the audio book, which I actually enjoy listening to when I'm doing audio or getting going in the morning. Because he really breaks down these three areas and helps you to understand, break them apart, and then develop a strategy to work on all three of these areas. Because, for example, with your perception, you need to understand and recognize your power and deal with your emotions and learn to focus on the present moment. And with your actions and your responses, you need to understand and focus on always moving forward and being persistent and channeling your energy and seizing the moment to choose your direction. And with your will, which is the third part, you'll need to practice discipline. You're going to have to find inner peace, peace of mind, and find motivation outside of yourself, not just yourself. So those are just some examples of things that I've learned through the book. but I promise that as you learn about the hundreds of stories and examples of people just like you and me that have overcome their challenges and obstacles in life, it literally helps change your perspective by understanding that because when you realize that you're not the only one dealing with problems that you're currently facing and that the heroes or the people that have overcome these, they're not superhuman, they don't have some special, unique, rare gift, then you're going to start to learn that becoming great is simply a process, a path that each of us can choose to take if we'll just start applying these time-tested principles to our lives. So why do I pick that book, that idea, this whole idea of stoicism? Well, ultimately, you know, I feel like it's just time that each of us recognizes that our perspective is that thing that's changing the results in our life. We've got to get on that perspective. And second, there are specific and proven strategies that can help you to get past this. You've just got to learn those and apply them. And then finally, you're not alone. And you can change your life on a dime and start to create the life you're meant to live. It's simply a decision. So let's start to do the heavy lifting in life. Let's be willing to do what it takes to accept the road as difficult. And instead of struggling and not being happy, let's learn to struggle intentionally. We want to struggle to grow, but to do it and also create more happiness, fulfillment, and success along the way. This is the purpose behind why I do the podcast. This is why we're going to try and accomplish each morning these things, this motivation, inspiration, education during the 10 to 15 minutes that we talk. And I'm really glad you listened to the podcast today. I know it went a little long, but I hope you'll make an effort to tune in each morning. And I'm going to, despite all the business ventures and things that I'm working on, I'm going to get some consistency early in the morning for you so that you can benefit from that. And I encourage you to share the podcast. It would mean a lot to me, and you would be surprised how many people you can help that maybe you don't even realize need it. Help me make a difference for those people by sharing the podcast. So I hope you have an amazing week. Have a great day. Give me some feedback. Hit me up on The Daily Mastermind at Instagram, Facebook, or you can always email me directly at george at g3worldwide.com. But I look forward to talking with you more this week. Have an amazing day. Once again, this is George Wright III, and this has been The Daily Mastermind. Have a great day. .
