The obstacles we face in life make us emotional. Yet, being emotional is pretty much the easiest way to make a problem worse. In fact, in order to overcome obstacles is to keep a steady and clear head about us at all times.

The ancient Stoics had a word for this state: apatheia.

What follows are the 7 critical ways to think about every obstacle, every problem and every and any kind of adversity you face.

Step 1: Steady Your Nerves

 “What such a man needs is not courage but nerve control, cool headedness. This he can only get by practice.” — Theodore Roosevelt

 During the Civil war troops were unloading a steamer when it exploded. Everyone hit the dirt except Ulysses S. Grant, who instead ran towards the scene.

That is nerve.

Like Grant, we must prepare ourselves for the realities of our situation, steadying our nerves so we can throw our best at it.

Step 2: Control Your Emotions

“Would you have a great empire? Rule over yourself.” — Publius Syrus

 When America first sent astronauts into space, they trained them in one skill more than any other: the art of not panicking.

Here on Earth, when something goes wrong we trade in our plan for a good ol’ emotional freak-out.

As Nassim Taleb put it, real strength lies in the domestication of one’s emotions, not in pretending they don’t exist.

Step 3: Practice Objectivity

“Don’t let the force of an impression when it first hit you knock you off your feet; just say to it: Hold on a moment; let me see who you are and what you represent. Let me put you to the test.” — Epictetus

 In our lives, how many problems seem to come from applying judgments to things we don’t control?

Perceptions give us information at the exact moment when it would be better to focus on what is immediately in front of us.

We must question our animalistic impulse to immediately perceive what happens. But this takes strength and is a muscle that must be developed.

Step 4: Practice Contemptuous Expressions

The Stoics used contempt to lay things bare and “strip away the legend that encrusts them.”

Roasted meat is a dead animal. Vintage wine is old, fermented grapes.

We can do this for anything that stands in our way, seeing things as they truly, actually are, not as we’ve made them in our minds.

Step 5: Alter Your Perspective

“Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become the next moment. By the same token, every human being has the freedom to change at any instant.” — Viktor Frankl

 Remember: We choose how we’ll look at things.

What we must do is limit and expand our perspective to whatever will keep us calmest and most ready for the task at hand.

Think of it as selective editing—not to deceive others, but to properly orient ourselves.

Step 6: Live in the Present Moment

“The trick to forgetting the big picture is to look at everything close up.” — Chuck Palahniuk

It doesn’t matter whether this is the worst time to be alive or the best, whether you’re in a good job market or a bad one.

What matters right now is right now.

Focus on the moment, on what you can control right now. Not what may or may not be ahead.

Step 7: Look for the Opportunity

“A good person dyes events with his own color…and turns whatever happens to his own benefit.” — Seneca

 The reality is every situation, no matter how negative, provides us with a positive, exposed benefit we can act on, if only we look for it.

Maybe you were injured recently and are laid up in bed recovering. Now you have the time to start the book or the screenplay you’ve been meaning to write. That business decision that turned out to be a mistake? See it as a hypothesis that was wrong. Like scientist you can learn from it and use it in your next experiment.

Remember: This a complete flip. Seeing through the negative, past its underside, and into its corollary: the positive.

The new way to think…

Does getting emotional about this provide you with more or less options? The Stoics knew the answer to that question and it’s why they worked so hard to see their obstacles with clarity, with optimism and from new angles.

It was with this approach that they turned negatives into positives and thrived amidst unthinkable chaos and turmoil. You can do the same.

Like to Read?

I’ve created a list of 15 books you’ve never heard of that will alter your worldview and help you excel at your career.

Get the secret book list here!

I have something I’m so incredibly excited about that I barely have the words.

Joey Roth has been one of my artistic heroes since I first discovered his work. His prints hang in my office and I look at them every single day. We first met a few years ago when he randomly emailed me about books and we were going to try to get drinks but the scheduling didn’t work out. My blog was very small then and I just thought he was some nice guy that I would occasionally chat with. I remember very vividly sitting at the porch of Dov Charney’s house reading the New York Times and seeing the name Joey Roth in the design section. How cool is this, I thought? I bought his first poster about hustling when it came out.

So it feels very fated that we would one day collaborate on something. It’s even cooler to me that the collaboration involves one of his famous prints and our mutual fascination with stoicism and strategy.

This very limited edition print (only 1,000 are being made) is loosely inspired by the stories in The Obstacle Is The Way about Grant’s siege at Vicksburg and Eisenhower’s turnaround at Normandy. It’s the timeless idea of how military obstacles can be turned into advantages–and how advantages can so quickly be turned against someone. It took a lot of iterations to get it right and I think we did.

The Obstacle Is The Way print from Joey Roth

Here is Joey’s explanation of the images:

The poster shows that when the competition is established, dug in and secure, it looks like an insurmountable obstacle, but in fact gives you freedom maneuver. This mirrors the agility of a startup vs. an entrenched player, or the beginner’s unencumbered approach beating the expert’s finely tuned but rigid technique. It’s also a reminder to stay flexible as you advance in your work and develop processes and expectations.

In other words, the obstacle becomes the way. And conversely, the fortress becomes a prison. It’s something I try to think about constantly and now this print is a daily reminder in bright color.

It’s very easy to say something in words in a book (or in a blog post), but communicating it visually is another story. I think that’s what makes Joey so unique.

I hope you like this poster and I hope it helps with your obstacles.

Ryan

P.S. You might also like The Obstacle Is The Way medallion which is available at DailyStoic.com

The Growth Hacker Marketing experiment continues! After a bunch of requests from readers for an additional medium, I partnered with Fedora to create a multimedia course version of Growth Hacker. Fedora is a super cool company (its investors include Naval Ravikant, the Winklevoss twins, Aaron Batalion, and myself actually, through a fund) and basically they were able to take the book, combine it with videos, links, some exercises from me as well as all my original notecards from the research to create a new way to experience the book.

As far as I know, I’m the first traditionally published author to do a book this way. It’s only $20 and at my insistence, comes with an extra copy of the book in physical or digital form and other cool bonuses. It’s already doing super well (was the #2 product on Product Hunt last week) and has gotten a great response. If you already have the book, this is a great way to get something extra for yourself, a way to re-read it and share your extra copy with a friend or colleague (see…Step #3 Create Viral Sharing). There also some bulk options if you want to use it for your department or start up.

Follow along with the lessons and interact with me on this new version of Growth Hacker Marketing. Enjoy!